Who, what, why: What is the method for reconstructing Richard III's face?

Credit: BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21350181     / Bones  Leicester car park have been confirmed DNA testing as those of Richard III technique scientists used to reconstruct his face scientist skull no portraits king reign survive built a model of Richard III's face died 1485 bones well preserved  anthropologists right conditions soil with low acidity few bugs bones remain pristine thousands years team of scientists at Dundee University facial reconstruction never got near the bones sent CT scans photographs skull, which they ran through a computer programme Richard III Caroline Wilkinson Dundee University professor of craniofacial identification crucial ignore any existing preconceptions what Richard looked like shape of the face had to be based entirely on the scans answer 3D digital recreation of face using CT scans 3D printing onto plastic Artist guesses at hair, skin and eye colour build someone's cheeks nose eyebrows piece of bone lots of clues she says teeth width of mouth determined exactly by position of the teeth little bump on the outer orbit is where the outer corner of the eye is. We can use these anatomical standards to help us rebuild the face nose used toughest features to recreate because it's made of cartilage recent research unearthed formula allows predict what the soft nose would look like from the underlying bone she says  shape of the brow can be guessed at although the number of lines on someone's forehead will not be apparent historian Holinshed Shakespeare used source calls Richard little of stature ill-featured of limbs crook-backed the left shoulder much higher than the right hard favored of visage ears are the hardest thing to get right deduced from the skull is whether the person has earlobes and where they sit on the side of the head 70% of the facial surface should have less than 2mm of error guesswork amount flesh 15th Century face use average tissue depth from today but he may have been substantially thinner or fatter than contemporary faces digital head build one out of plastic using a rapid prototyping system essentially 3D printout prosthetic eyes realistic skin texture created plausible wig added artist artist Janice Aitken stage process was guided posthumous portraits science draws blank Richard's eye colour color skin hairstyle 3D printing cheaper access CT scans exhibition Dresden last year recreated faces of hominids dating back millions of years Twisted bones reveal a king Martin Evison director Northumbria University Centre for Forensic Science limits technology can achieve Facial reconstruction can yield a resemblance from the skull, but not an exact likeness. It is not a method of positive identification facial reconstructions often look young, Wilkinson  can't really add any age creasing as we don't know where to put them tyrant element of subjectivity acial expression /