Integrating 3D Media
Integrating 3D and immersive media into a museum's current digital presence
The museum’s digital presence
Before joining the RETOLD project, Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen already had an established digital presence.
https://steinzeitpark-dithmarschen.de https://www.facebook.com/Steinzeitpark https://www.instagram.com/steinzeitpark https://www.youtube.com/@steinzeitparkdithmarschen
A website was presenting information about prominent visitor attractions, organisational information and projects. The main pages, “The Hunters’ Camp” and “The Famers’ Village” already displayed a rich collection of media, such as photos of stone age crafts, 360-degree images and video material showcasing the museum and its appearances in national media. As main social media channels, the museum uses Facebook and Instagram to reach their target audience, as well as Youtube, where short documentaries by volunteers and museum educators are hosted.
What did Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen want to achieve?
Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen's aim during this case study project was to maximise the use value of the 3D materials that they had created during the RETOLD project.
- 3D media should act as a way to help museums document their inventory, and
- 3D media should enhance the museum's digital storytelling capabilities.
- Use the 3D media to provide educational material.
- Use their digital presence to invite visitors to come and experience the real thing.
- Use the website and social media to provide value during the off-season.
- Allow creative people to re-mix the 3D media and tell their own stories.
- Documentation of buildings with annotations.
- Engaging with stakeholders and maintenance staff.
Members of staff and volunteers at the Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen noted at the start of the project, that they were only beginning to establish a practice of digitally documenting and disseminating media material, and that 3D media in particular were quite complex to integrate into everyday museum practice. This is one of the main reasons the RETOLD project focussed on training and exploring 3D media and their uses for museums, instead of creating a more complex VR or AR experience that then would weigh smaller museums down with technological implementation and maintenance issues.
Process overview
The process involved a lot of planning around the learning needs of the staff - and their schedules - , and took around four months to complete, involving:
- R&D into model making
- Creating 3D models
- R&D into 3D viewers for web
- Curating the material into an engaging story for visitors
- Documenting the process
What issues did Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen encounter?
Website structure and narrative. Before planning on adding 3D models to their website or social media, the director of Steinzeitpark and the volunteer webmaster identified the challenges that had to be solved during the process.
The first one was the general structure of the website, which had been built up over the years, with the content becoming less coherent over time. To ensure that the 3D media actually provided enough value in terms of storytelling, together with Nuwa Studios, Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen decided on opportunities for integrating 3D content by drafting initial designs for the website.
As illustrated above, the models available were included with the re-written text of the web page, so that they were mentioned and their functionality described to the audience.
The technical challenges were choosing appropriate embed tools for the website, as well as deciding where to host the models. In an organisation reliant on shorter-term volunteers and part-time staff, it was important to also ensure that access to the various accounts was centralised or at least documented, so that the media could be maintained on the website.
What techniques did they use?
Creating the 3D content
For the web page, Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen staff and volunteers created three medium-resolution photogrammetry models using a digital SLR camera and a drone, processing the models in Reality Capture, with some light editing in Blender, an open-source 3D package.
Simply said, you need to take a whole lot of photos, hundreds, in a systematic way, preferably using only one camera, under stable circumstances (so do not record a bit today, and the rest next week). But what about the roof? We needed to make our camera fly, or better said: we needed somebody with a drone to take pictures from above, to construct the roof in the models. Otherwise, there are open holes in the roofs and ceilings of the model.
Presenting the 3D content
Once the models were ready, the next challenge was to present them to the public.
Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen decided for a combination of self-hosting and using a free subscription on Sketchfab due to its ease of use, shareability of content, and its annotated tour feature.
For the integration of the models on the website, the museum made use of PausAR Viewer, a German-based 3D viewer for WordPress which includes an AR viewer for mobile devices. ↓
Conclusion and outcome
Through judicious use of existing 3D tools and plug-ins, Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen were able to extend and modernise the visual presentation of their museum on a minimal budget, using the 3D materials they had created for documentary purposes. Existing staff and volunteers were able to easily access publicly available educational material and tutorial, and train themselves rapidly in the relevant techniques, while drawing on their previous experience with photography, videography and web development.
The website can be viewed here: https://steinzeitpark-dithmarschen.de/dorf-der-bauernsteinzeit/