Statue of Alexander Hamilton

Project Title: Statue of Alexander Hamilton

Description: Hamilton College’s iconic statue of Alexander Hamilton, which gazes down at passers-by from its plinth before the campus chapel, serves as an emblem of the college’s history and ideals. However, since the statue rises far above those who walk beneath it, students and staff rarely have the chance to see its intricate details up-close. Photogrammetry, the process of converting hundreds of images into 3D models, was deployed to create an accurate, highly-detailed model of the statue, which can be viewed online in Sketchfab. To generate the model, the Digital Initiatives, Scholarship, and Collaboration (DISC) team uploaded hundreds of images of the statue to Agisoft Metashape, a photogrammetry software which collated and processed the photos to produce a cloud of points representing the images in 3D space. The background, as well as extraneous points, was painstakingly removed; then, a mesh and texture representing the surface of the model were produced from the point cloud, generating the final model of the statue. Crafting the most detailed and accurate model possible necessitated experimenting with different steps and workflows, resulting in a plethora of different statue models that could then be compared and adjusted. Difficulties included refining small details, like buttons or embroidery on the coat, and closing holes in areas which were tricky to photograph. A drone was used to secure images of the top of the head, which could not be reached from the ground, even with a ladder. After months of work, the end result is a precise 3D model which makes sharp and distinct even small details such as the folds of Mr. Hamilton’s coat and the strands of his hair. 

Deliverables: Digital 3D Mode

Date: 2024