Inside the Model That May Help Restore Notre Dame
Emily Pollock posted on April 25, 2019 |
A point-cloud scan taken from Andrew Tallon’s scans of the Notre Dame Cathedral. (Image courtesy of Vassar University.)
After the spire and roof of Notre Dame were compromised in a serious fire, French President Emmanuel Macron publicly announced that the country would rebuild the cathedral “in five years.” After the announcement, public attention has shifted to pre-existing digital models of the structure. Ubisoft Games’ model of the church has attracted a lot of new coverage, as has Dassault Systemes’ interactive representation of its construction. But perhaps one of the most detailed models of the church was created by one passionate academic, art professor Andrew Tallon.
Ubisoft Games has publicly pledged to donate €500K to the restoration, in honour of their Assassin’s Creed game set during the French Revolution. The game features a detailed digital rendering of the cathedral, one that game fans speculated might be used in the reconstruction. But the developers themselves have said that they’re not currently involved; the game’s rendering, while beautiful, simply isn’t detailed enough to help rebuild the structure.
Dassault Systemes, who offered their help and software to rebuild the church, has a long history with the church. Back in 2014, the company put out Paris 3D: an interactive 3D model of Paris throughout history, which shows the…