Cinematographer Daniel Voshart and Lausanne-based Tunisian artist Haroun Bin have used H. V. Canter’s book Personal Appearance in the Biography of the Roman Emperors as a reference to reconstruct the heads of more than sixty of the most important figures in ancient history. The project took eight months in total and bringing each one to life took three days, using a mixture of Photoshop and machine learning-based Artbreeder.
Lacking sufficient information about 3rd and 4th-century emperors, they had to conduct deep research and make a number of assumptions to settle on the most appropriate skin tone, eye colour, and general appearances.
For Haroun Bin, Septimius Severus was the most difficult: “When an emperor has a lot of hair and a nice beard, it means a big problem for me as AI does the job well processing the face, but not the curly hair.” Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, was his favourite: “I think he is my idol for what he did and how he was as a person.”
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Source: HipToro