Theme: Sea of Science -- dive deep! (For May/June 1995 competition "Science") Filenames: 1. sea_of_sci_full.jpg full view 2. sea_of_sci_closeup.jpg closeup view Author: Yue-Ling Wong (ylwong@aol.com) 3D program: Autodesk 3D Studio release 4 Description: I think science is like a gigantic ocean and scientists are like the diver in the scene to discover and explore. I tried to make each object in the scene symbolize one or more scientific fields, for examples: - the big Erlenmeyer flask --> experiments - the diver --> scientist - the DNA double helix --> life science, genetics, etc. - the fishes --> oceanology - the globe -->earth science - the planet --> astronomy - the atomic model --> chemistry/physics - the peaks --> spectroscopy, instrumentation, etc. Due to the limitation of my imagination and my computer's power, I certainly cannot include all the scientific fields in the scene. Even if I did, the scene will look like Minestrone soup. The Making: 1. The big Erlenmeyer flask I drew out a slice of the flask in Shaper and lofted it in a circular path in Lofter. Assign the cyan glass texture which I increased its transparency and reduced the shininess. 2. The diver The original mesh (50pman.3ds) comes with 3D Studio. First, I defined the joint parameters for the linked body parts. Then, using IK (Inverse Kinematic) and just Keyframer to rotate and move the body parts to make him look like diving and discovering. However, it is either a bug or a feature that any movement I made using IK on the mesh (even on Frame 0 in the Keyframer) does not reflect on the 3D Editor. So, if I want to convert the 3ds file to povray file, the diver's pose will not be seen. The diver will only be a stiff man. Therefore, I did not ray-trace my scene. 3. The DNA double helix I drew a thin rectangle in Shaper and lofted it in a helical path in Lofter to make one helix. Duplicate and mirror this helix, and make it offset somewhat horizontally and vertically to make another helix. The bonds inside the double helix are made of cylinders, each have equal vertical offset and a 30 degree rotational offset. 4. The fishes The original mesh (walleye.3ds) is from the Autodesk's World Creating Toolkit CD-ROM comes with 3D Studio. To make its tail bend a little, I bend the faces at about bottom half of the fish. Then assign texture. The fishes are swimming towards the diver directing people's focus to the diver, the center of the scene. 5. The globe The original mesh (earth2.3ds) is from the Autodesk's World Creating Toolkit CD-ROM. 6. The planet It is only a sphere and a thin torus. The sphere was texture mapped with a Jupiter image (comes with 3D Studio texture library). The torus used the pink marble texture. I put them near the white peaks to make them look a bit outer-space. I made them tilt towards the diver, so that it can again direct people's focus to the diver, the center of the scene. 7. The atomic model Six spheres grouped together as the atomic nucleus -- red as protons and blue as neutrons. Three very thin torus around the nucleus represent the electron orbitals. 8. The peaks Draw a circle and the lines (peak shape) in Shaper. Loft the circle in the path of the peak-shaped line. 9. The landscape at the bottom of the flask The original mesh (crater.3ds) which is from the Autodesk's World Creating Toolkit CD-ROM is rectangular. I did a Boolean (subtraction) between the crater and the bottom of the flask, so that the crater landscape can fit perfectly at the bottom of the flask. 10. The title Type text in Shaper and loft them in Lofter. I chose the Cobra font because it seems to have a scientific look. 11. The lighting To make the bottom of the flask look like glowing (due to all kinds of treasures!), I added one spotlight below the flask and one above the diver. Both spotlights point to the diver. This way also highlights the diver making it the center of the scene.