Research on the Application of 3D Digital Model in the Conservation

of Digital Cultural Relics: The Example of a Bronze Yatim Father B

Beast-Faced Wine Container

Su Zixu

, Yang Yu

†

and Cao Yang

‡

Nanjing Normal University 1st Wen Yuan Road Nanjing, 210023, China

Keywords: Computing Methodologies, Digital Assets, Digital Protection.

Abstract: With the rapid development and widespread use of information technology, people are becoming more and

more accustomed to the convenience provided by digitalization in production life. For museums, the

development of three-dimensional digital technology is the most direct and prominent change is for the

protection of traditional cultural relics related aspects, after all, compared to the traditional protection of

cultural relics, digital channels can make the preservation of its way more permanent, in addition can also go

with virtual reality and other technologies to achieve multi-angle, multi-mode observation of cultural relics.

Therefore, in the process of development and construction must also accept digital thinking and strengthen

digital construction, so as to meet the trend of social development and promote the further development of

the museum. Cultural relics are the witness of history, but also the proof of culture, the application of digital

technology to protect cultural relics to a greater extent to show its artistic and cultural value, easier for people

to access, to better meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people.

1 RESERACH SIGNIFICANCE

Conservation is an important form of life extension

for cultural objects, and it is vital that they are left as

'intact' as possible before they are destroyed or

accidentally lost. As one of the most important places

to collect, preserve and conserve artefacts, museums

are also a source of information for archaeologists

and graphic experts, so reducing wear and tear and

increasing survival rates are key to their study.

For example, in this case, the Yatim Father B

beast-faced wine container was inadvertently found

on the London Spring Auction 2019 website by a

British collector in his private collection, which in

contrast to museum collections means that a large

number of artefacts are in the pockets of private

collectors, making them unavailable to the world,

which is a pity for heritage research. This is a pity.

A drinking vessel often found during the Western

Zhou period and the late Shang dynasty, the bronze

wine container was used in ancient times to hold wine,

and it is also documented that it was often used by the

ancients specifically as an aromatic wine during

rituals hence the name. There are many different

types of wine containers, the basic form being a flat

garden with a short neck, a lid, a bulging belly, a

rounded foot, a lid and a carrying beam. The shape of

the vessel varies considerably. In this case, the wine

container is from the late Shang and Zhou dynasties,

where the majesty of the ruling class is emphasized,

hence the predominance of animal-face motifs in the

design, which highlight the seriousness of the class.

In addition, the non-reproducibility of cultural

relics is a key characteristic of heritage, which makes

them rare and unique in China, and the low awareness

of heritage conservation in the early years and the

turmoil of the late Qing dynasty made it difficult for

the public to access them outside of museums. The

digitisation of cultural relics allows information

technology to preserve the original information of the

relics themselves, and also to extend the life cycle of

the relics.

1.1 Historical Background of Bronzes

and Their Types

For example, the famous aesthetician Mr Li Zehou

devoted the second chapter of his The Course of

446

Zixu, S., Yu, Y. and Yang, C.

Research on the Application of 3D Digital Model in the Conservation of Digital Cultural Relics: The Example of a Bronze Yatim Father B Beast-Faced Wine Container.

DOI: 10.5220/0011951000003612

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Automation, Information and Computing (ISAIC 2022), pages 446-451

ISBN: 978-989-758-622-4; ISSN: 2975-9463

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Beauty to bronze ornamentation, calling it 'carnal

beauty', which evolved from the pottery patterns of

the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the mysterious and

hideous bronze patterns, which on the one hand

illustrates a shift and deepening of the hierarchy. On

the one hand, this is an indication of the

transformation and deepening of the hierarchy. The

bronze was used as a ritual instrument to maintain the

basis of the feudal system of the Western Zhou, and

the ritual system was based on the patriarchal

relationship of slavery, reflecting the strict hierarchy

of the slave-owning nobility. In the Records of the

Zhou, it is stipulated that "the Son of Heaven had nine

tripods, the vassals had seven, and the ministers had

five". The bronze vessels themselves therefore have

symbolic meanings and symbols, with "ritual" ruling

through the form of "witchcraft", a process of creating

gods and totems, such as the appearance of the

"Taotie "Zhang Guangzhi also believes that 'bronze is

politics and power', but at the same time he believes

that because of the low productivity, people wanted to

create gods and spirits in their minds and use them as

rituals to please them. He also argues that because of

the low productivity, people wanted to create gods in

their minds and use them as rituals to please them and

to dominate things through divine power

1.2 Status of Digital Conservation of

Cultural Heritage in China

At present several regions of China's heritage in the

conservation and restoration of the use of virtual

reality, three-dimensional data collection, human-

computer interaction and other new technologies to

achieve cultural digital conservation, digital

restoration, digital heritage has become a mainstream

development trend. Zhejiang University, for example,

has taken the lead in digital conservation and research,

proposing techniques for the evolution of the forest

and colour of murals, and realising a virtual tour of

the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang as a travel system.

Beijing Normal University has carried out research on

3D modelling and virtual restoration of the broken

terracotta warriors and horses, and 3D modelling and

virtual display techniques for the ruins of the Little

Wild Goose Pagoda.

In terms of museum conservation, the Jining

Museum, for example, is digitally collecting relevant

information for submission to the State

Administration of Cultural Heritage, which also lays

the foundation for digital conservation and

management. On the other hand, however, the digital

artefacts exhibited in museums often suffer from a

lack of model accuracy and an inadequate interactive

system. And the management of resources and

display services are still lacking.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

AND TECHNICAL APPROACH

The first step in the process is to collect reference

drawings of the object and as many three-views as

possible to obtain as much information and detail as

possible about the object, so that the artistic style and

use of the scene can be adequately reproduced. Once

the design parameters have been collected, the basic

modelling process begins, and the bronze is finally

modelled in 3D. The software and technology used to

produce this paper is shown in the figure below.

(Figure 1)

Figure 1: Basic production process

3 A STYLISTIC COLLECTION

AND STYLISTIC

DETERMINATION OF A

BRONZE SUB-TEMPERATE

BRONZE WINE CONTAINER

WITH ANIMAL-FACE

DECORATION

The bronze sub-temple B animal-faced wine

container is from the late Shang and Western Zhou

periods. The wine container was one of the main types

of vessels used for ancestral worship, and its role as a

ritual vessel is more indicative of the style of

decoration of the period than that of a food vessel, as

in the case of this bronze vessel, which is symmetrical

in the centre, with a flattened, beast-headed, beast-

headed vessel at either end of the upper part of the lid,

with a bud-shaped knob and 'horns' at either end of

the lid. The central part of the cover is surrounded by

birds of prey, and in the middle of the vessel there is

a sheep's head in relief, the largest area of which is

Research on the Application of 3D Digital Model in the Conservation of Digital Cultural Relics: The Example of a Bronze Yatim Father B

Beast-Faced Wine Container

447

occupied by the taotie animal-face motif in the middle

of the vessel. This sense of sacred majesty was the

main tone in the production of this model. (Fig. 2) As

there are only a limited number of images for

reference, we have also chosen to use a large number

of bronze wine containers from the same period as a

stylistic reference. (Fig. 2)

Figure 2: Bronze Yatim Father B beast-faced wine

container.

Figure 3: Reference to the production of the Shang

and Zhou wine container types.

4 MODEL MAKING THOUGHT

PROCESS

In order to use less resources to achieve a better visual

effect, the amount of data in the model is increased

according to the needs of the project, in this case the

medium model is completed first and then the high

model details are portrayed using ZB. This allows a

low precision model to produce the effect of a very

high precision model. A tongue-in-cheek metaphor

for this process would be to give a peeled apple and

its surface a layer of peel, with the peel being given a

natural material that is full of visual information and

gives sufficient texture. Such a digital resource will

also save resources and storage for subsequent

imports.

4.1 Middle Mould Production

Once the preparations have been completed, the basic

creation of the centrepiece begins. At this stage, it is

important to establish the basic size and silhouette of

the object as closely as possible, without paying too

much attention to detail, and to make the proportions

and features as accurate as possible. At this point we

have completed the basic middle modelling stage.

4.2 High Mould Stage Production

The high modelling stage is about giving the model

enough detail so that after smoothing it can still

guarantee a sufficient amount of detail, but in this

process it is not just a matter of jamming, there are

many points that need attention, for example, in the

wiring, for the chamfering of the curvature, the

spacing between the line segments determines the

curvature of the transition between the face and the

surface of the model, this kind of detail is often

overlooked in the modelling process of soft and hard

structure details Processing. When the card line is

completed, it is imported into the Zbrush software to

carve the surface pattern and to complete the details

of the oxidation of the surface bronze using brushes,

and after such a long history, it is inevitable that

deformation and ageing will be avoided in the process

of preservation and use, and this is the part that the

designer needs to be competent to deal with, as to why

not rely on the software SP to do the ageing of the

mapping, the author I think that for next-generation

prop models, chamfers and basic textures are the basis

for the texture of the bearer, if it is simply a texture to

replace the basic texture can only be in a particular

perspective can not help, if the transfer of the axial

will be very abrupt. As shown in Figure 4, the

chamfering and articulation of the model in Zbrush is

shown.

ISAIC 2022 - International Symposium on Automation, Information and Computing

448

Figure 4. Detail of the high mould imported into MAYA

software.

4.3 Production of Normal Diagrams

After converting the model topology into a low film

in Maya, the base colour mapping (Figure 5) is

produced in the software SP to give the material

characteristics, for example, bronze itself is an

oxidised copper material, and in everyday use it is

bound to produce an oxidation reaction when it comes

into contact with air, making it necessary to give a

little green patina on top of the copper material to add

detail (Figure 3). This visual impression will give us

a psychological indication of what the material is,

where at the same time the highlights will also reflect

the texture of the object. In the case of the metal here,

for example, the highlights are gathered and bright,

giving a sense of hardness, and in the case of the

bronze beams, the chamfered corners are smoother

than the rest, probably due to use and wear, which is

not difficult to imagine, as the gripping part of the

handle has been held for many years and worn

relatively flat.

It is worth noting that the overall control of

roughness plays a crucial role in the production of the

material, and this variation is what gives the overall

model its realistic character, for example, in the right-

hand half of the lid where the paste must be less

coarse than the rest of the bottle, and in the bronze

where the grain is raised and less oxidised to retain

the original texture of the bronze. (Figure 4-3)

In general, the use of texture can be adjusted by

overlaying the SP layers and using the corresponding

brushes to adjust the degree of oxidation of the metal

and the effect of the grey layer at the joints. The final

result is the desired colour change and visual effect.

Figure 5: Material mapping display.

Figure 6: Overall base colour.

Research on the Application of 3D Digital Model in the Conservation of Digital Cultural Relics: The Example of a Bronze Yatim Father B

Beast-Faced Wine Container

449

Figure 7: Variation in bronze roughness

4.4 Post Output

Once the materials are complete, the 3D model should

be imported into Marmoset toolbag4 for final

rendering and adjustment, and the lighting should be

designed for display. This is especially true for corner

joints. The final mapping was completed in SP and

then finally imported into Eight Monkeys Light

Render to produce the final result. (Figure 8） (Figure

9）

Figure 8: Final rendering.

Figure 9: Detail view of the model.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As mentioned above, the bronzes of the Shang and

Zhou dynasties are of great aesthetic value, and as

stated in the Khao Kheow Book, "The wise man

creates things, the clever man describes them, and

they are passed on to the world as work". These

valuable artefacts should be preserved using digital

technology to be disseminated in a more convenient

way to today's society, and better combined with

modern art design to give them a historical heritage.

This paper examines the advantages of digital

technology in the conservation and transmission of

the bronze Yatan-fu B animal-faced wine container,

such as ease of preservation, breaking the boundaries

of time and space, ease of dissemination, and public

acceptance. It is hoped that this will help future

research in this field and enable these precious

cultural relics to be appreciated and disseminated by

more people.

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