TITLE: THE MATRIX, UNBELIEVABLE
NAME: Michael Visser
COUNTRY: The Netherlands
EMAIL: nijman@nmtrix.com
WEBPAGE: www.nmtrix.com
TOPIC: UNBELIEVABLE
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: thematri.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    3D Studio Max default renderer

RENDER TIME: 
    7.10 minutes

HARDWARE USED: 
    Dual Pentium 333


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

THE MATRIX, UNBELIEVABLE
The best storyline in a science fiction film ever, the best action scenes,
but above all the best special effects using the coolest characters.
The agents are the new Terminators, the ultimate bad-asses, moving like
lightning, smashing concrete and dodging bullets. Unbelievable...


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

The scene is modelled using 3dstudiomax and took about two weeks to complete.
The Agent is built by combining an older commando model and a superman model,
which
I originally wanted to use for this topic when I decided that the Matrix was a
much
more recent item in the topic of unbelievability. The Agent consists of about
125.000 faces mainly used for the facial details, the body is relatively low
polygon based which increases real-time animation movement.

This shot comes DIRECTLY RENDERED from 3dstudiomax NOT using a photopaint
program. The see-through duplicates of the Agent are created through OBJECT
MOTION BLURRING. 

If anyone questions the reality of the scene I am willing to send them the
3dstudiomax file.
I originally didn't post the max files with the pictures because of the
file-size.

Here's what I did to get the effects:
First I set up an animation sequence of 15 frames, where
I posed the Agent differently at frame 0,5,10 and 15. I selected the
Agents properties and turned on Image Motion Blur. In the Render Scene Dialog
I set the Object Motion Blur Parameters to: Duration 30 frames, Samples 7 and
subdivisions 7. This makes 3dstudiomax calculate 15 frames ahead and back,
displaying only the 5th frames (0,5,10,...). Now I render frame 15 after
which the animation stops and the Agent freezes. 3dstudiomax calculates
15 frames backwards and renders frame 0,5 and 10. Then it calculates 15 frames
ahead in the animation and renders frame 20, 25 and 30, which all display
the Agent in the last pose, thus making the last pose better visable.

The Bullet paths are created by copying a cylinder without height behind
the bullet. The cylinders are mapped using a little Radial Gradient Bump Map
and a Raytracing Refractions map. The visibility of the cylinders you set
to 10 procent.

The background is built after the rooftop movieshot where the Agent dodges the
bullets before Keanu shows off his dodging skills. The helikopter is taken
from a database I created for commercial modelling.