Digital artwork shared as 'real human tooth carved with Colosseum image'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 15, 2021 at 03:50
2 min read
By AFP Sri Lanka

An image has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook alongside a claim it shows the shape of Rome's ancient Colosseum carved into a "real human tooth". But the image was shared in a misleading context; it was created digitally by a Bangkok-based design studio.

"A wonderful creation made out of a real human tooth", reads the Sinhalese-language caption alongside the image shared here on Facebook on November 25, 2021.

Screenshot of the Facebook post captured on December 14, 2021

The image has circulated online alongside a similar claim since at least 2020.

Facebook posts shared hundreds of times here and here claim the image shows an actual tooth.

In fact, it is a computer-generated image.

A reverse image search on Google found this Instagram post published on October 11, 2019 by Illusion CGI Studio -- a Bangkok-based CGI studio according to its profile.

The image's caption reads, "Don't let germs settle down / Client: Maxam / Campaign Name: Civilization / Agency: JWT Shanghai / Production Company: Illusion CGI Studio".

The post also contains the hashtags "#cgi" and "#digitalart".

Screenshot of the Instagram post, captured on December 10, 2021

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading posts (L) and the image from Instagram (R):

Screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post (R) and the image on Illusion studio Instagram (L) ( Lakna PARANAMANNA)

"We confirm that the [image] was created digitally using CGI techniques", a spokesperson for Illusion CGI Studio told AFP.

"No actual tooth or photography was used in any process".

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