We’re currently working on a new website for ScapaMAP, documenting the remaining wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow at the end of the First World War. The latest additions to the site are 3D files for each of the warships still in the Flow. These are based on the acoustic surveys carried out by the ScapaMAP project.

The 3D models were created in Fledermaus by the project team. This format does not run as a browser plugin, so we can only offer them as downloads, though there is a free player. In an effort to make the survey work more approachable to all visitors, we’ve been looking at creating some simple 3D environments in Flash to compliment these.

One of these is the 3D image of the light cruiser SMS Köln, shown above. This is based on the contour data from the multibeam survey, which is sliced into a series of layers depending upon their relative depths. Each layer moves independently, controlled by your mouse position over the model. Your mouse position acts as a viewpoint for this simple model, which still shows clearly how the hull encloses a mass of salvage debris, where salvors have broken into the engine room, to remove the condensers and other fittings that were made out of copper alloys.

With only a limited range of viewing angles, the model of the Köln, (above) is not nearly as impressive as the Fledermaus 3D model, but at the same time it will run on most people’s browsers without problem…

Visit the ScapaMAP website for more information:

ScapaMAP – archaeology of the WW1 German High Seas Fleet

One of the simplest 3D modelling techniques that can be used with the Flash is something I call ‘Pop-up 3D’ – as it works in a very similar way to old children’s pop-up story books. The structure that you want to give a 3D appearance to is distributed across a number of layers – with the top layers having the parts of the structure that would be closest to the viewer.

In the final movie the layers are moved according to your mouse position, with the top layers moving with the mouse, and the bottom layers moving away. If you place your mouse cursor to the top right of the movie, therefore, the top layer will be displaced to the maximum extent in this direction, while the bottom layer is displaced to the maximum extent towards the bottom left corner of the movie frame. Intermediate layers move proportionately smaller distances in the appropriate direction – it is quite a lot of fun setting the scaling of the movement to give a believable 3D effect.

This technique gives allows a model to be viewed from a limited range of viewing angles, and works best where this would be a ‘natural’ situation. One example is for maps – and the model displayed here is an early draft of a contour map showing sediment errosion from around the Stirling Castle, a shipwreck dating from 1703. Each contour height has been separated onto a new layer, clearly demonstrating the technique.

In the final version, which can be seen on the RASSE project website, the contour areas have been replaced with a multibeam image of the seabed, which gives the model a startlingly realistic 3D effect. In the final version I have also added data from all three survey years, showing how sediment is currently being deposited around the wreck site.

RASSE website, final 3D model

This is a short movie based on a 3D model of a protein fibril created for Nanofolio, if your browser supports flash, move your mouse over the image to rotate the model.

The fibril is composed of four ribbons, each of which is in turn composed of two tapes joined back to back. The tapes are composed of peptide molecules sitting side by side. Peptides are just visible in the model as rectangular blocks or steps in each of the four ribbons.