Project Scroll Studio
The studio. Pictures, design, film and 3D.
The same care the research gets, turned on pictures, places and the record itself.
Digital imaging and restoration, illustration and character design, graphic and web design, photography, video, landscapes modeled in 3D from public LiDAR surveys, and animation. Your originals come back as you sent them.
Ask about studio work See the work
A visual-media studio for photography, video and information design.
On the light table
A few pieces from the studio. Move over a picture to look closer, or choose a frame from the strip to bring it to the table.
Aerial and 360° photography
The valley from above.
Drone photographs of the valley’s lakes, shores and towns, taken all the way round and stitched into one picture. Flat, the whole horizon turns past; folded, it becomes a little planet you can hold in one look.
Diamond Lake, with its island at the heart of it, and the piers at St. Joseph at sunset, both flown and made by the studio.
Photography
Light, line and texture.
Chrome that holds the whole room in its curves. Ivy on a wall that has stood over its moat for centuries. Photography is where the studio started: seeing the light first, then waiting for it.
Plans, drawings and 3D
From line to life.
A floor plan becomes a room, a sketch becomes a ship, a pencil drawing becomes carved stone. Drag across the first; the other two draw themselves as they come into view.
Worlds made from nothing
Concept and digital art: a fish with something to say, a saucer that came for the flowers, a robot waiting for the light to change, a city kept under glass. Choose one to see it larger.
Illustration and character design
Characters with a personality.
A mascot for a shop, a creature for a storybook, a cat who plainly knows the odds. Every character starts from what it has to do for you, on a sign, a menu, a page or a screen, and is drawn until it does it.
What the studio makes
Ten kinds of work in three trades. Pick one and ask: the first answer is always an honest one.
PicturesMade, mended and studied
Digital imaging
Careful, high-resolution images of photographs, letters, certificates, maps, Bibles and heirlooms, so the originals can be put safely away and the copies shared.
Imaging analysis
Faded ink brought back, water-stained pages made readable again, and the small details in an old photograph studied: the clothes, the buildings, the signs in a window.
Image creation and restoration
Torn and faded photographs repaired, old maps redrawn clean, and new illustrations made from what the record describes, always labeled as new work.
Photography
Heirlooms, documents and family pieces photographed properly, and the places that matter to a family history, from the ground or the air.
DesignFor the page and the screen
Graphic design
Family-history books and their covers, ancestral charts, reunion and memorial pieces, logos, signs and brochures.
Web design
Websites for families, historical societies, museums and small businesses: easy to read, quick on a phone, and easy to keep up to date.
Ask about this (Web design)This site is an example
Living documents
Research papers, timelines and family records that keep growing as new evidence turns up, every change dated, so the latest version is always the true one.
Motion and 3DLandscapes, films and fly-throughs
Video production
Short family-history films, recorded interviews with the people who still remember, and documentaries built from the record and the photographs.
3D LiDAR imaging
Landscapes modeled in three dimensions from public LiDAR elevation surveys, which show old roads, field lines, mill races and shorelines. Made from the data, with no need to set foot on anyone’s land.
3D animation
Fly-throughs of a landscape, and buildings or places shown as the record describes them, every reconstruction labeled as a reconstruction.
The wall
More of the studio’s work, from menus to mascots. Choose a kind to narrow it down, and a picture to see it larger.
Made in the studio, on this site
The maps, plates and 3D landscapes on Project Scroll come out of the same studio. Try them.
Walk Broadway in 3DA town rebuilt from the public laser survey, every building at its measured height.
Fly the valley in LiDARThe St. Joseph River Valley from the air, with its old roads, mill races and shorelines.
Explore the valley mapEvery place in the valley on one map. Pick a day to see what is open.
How studio work goes
Three steps from your first message to the finished files.
- Tell us the job.What you have, and what you would like made: a photograph to mend, a book to design, a mascot to draw, a landscape to fly over. The message form lays it out.
- An honest answer, a plain quote.We tell you what can be done with what you have, what it will take, and how long, before you commit to anything.
- Proofs, then the finished files.You see the work before it is final. Then the finished files are yours, and your originals come back as you sent them.
Questions people ask
What happens to my originals?
Everything you send is handled gently and returned as you sent it. For studio work you get the finished files; the originals stay yours.
Is a restored or new picture labeled?
Always. A repaired photograph, a redrawn map or a new illustration made from what the record describes is labeled as new work, and every 3D reconstruction is labeled as a reconstruction.
Do you need to visit the land for a 3D landscape?
No. The landscapes are modeled from public LiDAR elevation surveys, so they are made from the data, with no need to set foot on anyone’s land.
How much does it cost?
It depends on the job, so there is no price list. Tell us what you have and what you would like made, and you get a plain quote and timeline first.
Can the studio and the research desk work together?
Yes, and they often do: a family history researched at the desk, then designed, illustrated and printed in the studio. Both reach the same desk. See the research desk.
Bring us the picture.
Tell us what you have and what you would like made. We tell you honestly what can be done, and you get the finished files, with your originals returned as you sent them.
Looking for research instead? The research desk takes the questions.