Modeling craftspeople for cultural heritage: A case study

Intangible heritage is often linked to human actions and performances. The use of digital humans (DHs) for its digital representation and therefore its preservation, allows reframing the way to transmit and deal with content that is difficult to visualize. To that end, the digital human becomes an important element establishing the connection between the action, the objects, the knowledge, and the environment. In this article, we describe the development of DHs acting as practitioners and storytellers for traditional craft processes within virtual environments. We present the process and the tasks involved in modeling, designing, and animating DHs, detailing the underlying technological background. Animations were completely based on real humans' motion extraction while working on the corresponding craft. As a result, we present the different DHs models created for three specific heritage crafts: mastic cultivation, glass blowing, and silk weaving as well as an AR application, built to augment exhibits of the Chios Mastic Museum. This article is a practical description of the steps to model and animate virtual humans. The work aims to bring a methodology for achieving DHs creation for CH applications.