David Spake:  preacher@kuentos.guam.net
August comp picture:
visit.txt -- this document
visit.jpg -- the picture I talk about in this document
visit.zip -- this doc, this picture, and also the 2 pictures i mapped into
	     book so you can see the poems more clearly.


This is my third time to enter the competition.  I am amazed at how much I
learn everytime I do this.  I cant wait till I can start on my September 
entry.

Well lets see other than the modeling and stuff of that nature the most 
difficult aspect of this project is the power situation here.

(Next two paragraphs are my complaining about needing 120megawatts on Guam
and the power company producing about 54)

On Guam we have had rolling power outtages for the last 136 days (but who 
is counting;) and I have had to work around this.  Everyday we lost power 
at least 2 times.  Usually at 12 noon till 2 then from 4 to 6 or sometimes 
from 6pm to 8.  There were other times as well but this is what I could 
count on everyday in my area...  Well that pretty much ruins the work day
so that got carried over to later.. THANK GOD FOR MY UPS.  It saved me sooo
many times. 

Anyway I basically worked on this from 12am till 3 or 4 am on the days that
I was doing it.  I would set my renders up at night while i slept.  Some of 
them were tests for color balance etc..  so I would start it sometime in the
wee hours and hopefully when i woke up it would be done.

Alright you have a bunch of these things to read so I will now try for brevity.
(hehe RIGHT....)

Lets see..  Credits.

I got the original concept idea from the old cover of C.S. Lewis' "Out of the
Silent Planet".  You will notice right away the similarities if you have a 
copy.  I dont have any of those fancy make alien land scape programs so I did
everything you see :)

(I will credit the poems at the end)

I made the planet part and the room part seperately and then combined them...
However not planning ahead I had made them viewing through different cameras..
so my perspectives and stuff was all different.  Took me a while to dope out how
to make it all work without redoing one part of the scene.  Anyway I got it 
done finally.

This has taken me more hours than i want to count.  Between this project and 
a local bbs I have been up till 3 to 4am every morning -- sleeping then until
8:30 or 9:00am when i have to start work..(due in part to the problem i was
complaining about above, and the fact that I kept getting lost in my work..)

I can't deceide which part of the image I like best, but I do want to tell you
about the book that is on the table/desk.  After beating my head against a wall 
for a while, I figured out how to make the book laying open..  I rendered my 
scene a couple times but it just didn't look right just plain white.  I had
been wondering what to put on the pages since I made it (as this really was
my intention to start with).  Then I deceided on a poem.. 

I couldn't deceide what poems..  I thought about something from Robert Frost, 
Edgar Alan Poe, or even Thoreau.  However I deceided on one from Walt Whitman..
well actually just the first few stanzas from the first section of "BIRDS OF 
PASSAGE" which I thought appropriate to the theme (poem.jpg)  

And the second one I chose for the opposite page (right) was by a Chinese poet 
named "Li Bai"and the poem was called "Ye Si" (pronounced Ye Sue) which is also 
the name of the image... yesi.jpg.  Li Bai was a poet during the Tang Dynasty in 
China, and this poem is often found in large anthologies of international 
historical works.  However I first learned it in Chinese ... in my Chinese class.
I almost deceided to write it in chinese, however i dont have a digitizing pad 
and it was too much of a pain to try to do it with the mouse so if you want to 
see it in chinese you have to snail mail me.. or find it yourself ;)

The romanized version goes like this:

	  /      /   /    \    --
	chuang qian ming yue guang,

	/    \  \   \     --
	yi shi di shang shuang.

	 v  /   \    /    \
	ju tou wang ming yue,

	 -  /   -  \  --
	di tou si gu xiang.

The translation i used is the one that is found in the liturature books, but I 
feel that the last line could just as easily be translated:

I bowed my head, remembering my home land.

Which i felt was quit good over a picture of the earth when who/whatever was 
obviously not there..

anyway..I know this is REALLY long hope you don't mind..

Nearly all pictures/texture maps ect were made by me with the exception of the 
pictures under the poems which were some stock photography i had around.  And a 
whispy white cloud looking map to make the "tree" things look more like they do.

Also there were many hours with Bette Middler, Abba, The Mama's and Papa's, 
Shonen Knife, Green Day, The Throes (my fav group), Don Juan De Marco sound track,
and the I Wish I Were a Carpenter compilation.  Lots of water, some chips, 
sore eyes and an aching back.

Well that is about it folks.  I hope you like it.


David

(snail)
#346 Rt. 3
Dededo, GU  96912