Madam Your Mother Craves a Word with You by John Rogers

thingiverse

At the Orpheum Theater in downtown Sioux Falls, four John Rogers plaster sculptures take center stage, showcasing their timeless beauty. I had always been fascinated by these stunning works of art and was thrilled to receive permission to capture them for modeling purposes - a huge thank you to the Orpheum Management! John Rogers (1829-1904) was an American sculptor who revolutionized the art world with his incredibly popular, affordable figurines in the late 19th century. His small genre sculptures, known as "Rogers Groups," were mass-produced in cast plaster and became a sensation across the United States and abroad. A staggering 80,000 copies of almost 80 Rogers Groups were sold, gracing the parlors of homes throughout the United States and even reaching as far as Chile and Australia. The English novelist Charles Reade was so enamored with these figurines that he filled his home with every single one available to him. Meanwhile, in the Dakota Territory, Lt. Col. George Custer and his wife proudly displayed one of these stunning sculptures. These affordable masterpieces were a staple of middle-class homes, selling for just $15 apiece. Rogers' unique approach to sculpting in plaster, painted to resemble putty and hide dust, added to their allure. His inspiration came from popular novels, poems, and prints, as well as the scenes he witnessed around him. For more information about John Rogers and this captivating sculpture based on "Romeo and Juliet," please visit the following links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rogers_(sculptor) http://johnrogers.info/index.html http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/madam-your-mother-craves-word-you-0 Designing This Masterpiece I relied on my trusty Sony Alpha 5100, set to ISO 100, f8, and mounted on a sturdy tripod to capture the sharpest photos possible. I took an impressive 408 shots from every conceivable angle, carefully navigating the sculpture's intricate details and challenging lighting conditions. Rotating the heavy pedestal allowed me to minimize blown-out highlights and reveal hidden details in the shadows. However, I was cautious not to touch the sculpture, given its painted surface and visible chips and cracks. After importing the photos, I converted them into DNGs and double-checked their sharpness before exporting them as DNGs into a folder. I then imported this folder into Photoscan and utilized the 'Medium' setting at every stage of modeling. I was thrilled to discover that Photoscan adeptly handled the varying lighting conditions and recreated the sculpture with minimal artifacts, which were easily corrected. Moreover, Photoscan successfully incorporated all 408 photos! Next, I ran the model through Meshmixer's quality checker to ensure it was printable-ready. While there were some minor issues, they were quickly addressed. However, extensive smoothing was required to remove "noisy" areas. Finally, I opened the model in Meshlab and carefully decimated it from over 12,000,000 faces down to just over 400,000, making it small enough for sharing. Although this process diminished some of the smallest details, it preserved the overall sculpture's essence. As a final step, I scaled the model to 30cm.