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faces were scanned, giving a common area that could be used to 
connect the separate data sets. This process worked well for all 
pieces except the helmet, where is was not possible to scan the 
inside as there were wooden pieces present used for mounting 
the helmet on the display stand. Even though these were obvi- 
ously not part of the original armour, there were ‘old’ and there- 
fore unable to be removed as they represented one phase of the 
existence of the helmet. 
Visualisation 
The scanning software is optimised for processing the scan data, 
however in order to achieve high quality visualisations of the 
armour it was necessary to use a package more suited to this 
process. The Department has used 3D Studio Max in previous 
projects, once again this high order animation and visualisation 
package was employed to prepare the final version of the ar- 
mour model. One additional benefit of 3d Studio Max is the 
ability for the software to manage a ‘render farm’ of networked 
computers, thereby speeding the rendering process considera- 
bly. 
The photographs of the armour were scanned, creating a library 
of digital images that formed the basis of the material maps 
used on the model. Great care was taken to ensure that surface 
features in the images matched the geometry of the surface, for 
example the makers marks needed to exactly co-register be- 
tween the material map and the scan of the lettering. This was 
achieved using a ‘plugin’ in 3D Studio max that ‘unwrapped’ 
the surface of the armour onto a plane, giving a reference sur- 
face for the generation of the material map. This proved to be a 
very successful approach. 
  
Figure 7: Ned Kelly’s Armour with shoulder panels, and lappet as currently attached. 
  
Figure 8: Breast plate, close-up render 
  
Figure 9: The Death Mask, with skin tone 
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