A new life-sized 3D scan of the wreck of the Titanic really has to be seen to be believed. Created from hundreds of thousands of images this full-sized 3D model is giving historians new details on how this tragedy happened.
The secrets of 3D scanning aren't new but to create this incredible model of the Titanic, to its original size, the deep water experts at Magellan Ltd spent over 200 hours and created more than 700,000 images, working 3,800m (12,500ft) below the sea's surface.
The BBC has reported more details on how this outstanding project took place, with scanning taking place throughout the summer of 2022 and filmed by a documentary team from Atlantic Productions.
The famous luxury liner sank in 1912 and questions still arise from how this disaster happened. These new scans and incredible 3D model reveal greater details about the ship and where it came to rest – for the first time the model shows the entire ship in one space. The wreck lies in two parts, the Titanic's bow and stern are around 800m (2,600ft) apart on the ocean floor. The scans and model also show debris strewn across the sea bed.
Magellan's Gerhard Seiffert shed some light on the complexity of the project in a BBC interview, saying: "The depth of it, almost 4,000m, represents a challenge, and you have currents at the site, too - and we're not allowed to touch anything so as not to damage the wreck.
"And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimetre - even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects."
The full-sized 3D model is so detailed historians are able to zoom in and even see serial numbers on the ship. This capture of the Titanic is important as the wreck is slowly decaying and such highly detailed scans and model ensures researchers can study the famous ship for years to come.
Similar tech as that used to create this life-sized 3D Titanic model isn't that far out of reach, and we have a tutorial to creating 3D scans with reality capture and a guide to the best laptops for 3D modelling that could get you started. For now, scroll down to see more of the amazing Titanic 3D model.
