TITLE: Leonardo's Space Ship
NAME: Marlo Steed
COUNTRY: Canada
EMAIL: marlo.steed@uleth.ca
WEBPAGE: http://www.edu.uleth.ca/faculty/members/steed/
TOPIC: Great Inventions
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: inventio.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    Lightwave

TOOLS USED: 
    Lightwave for modeling and rendering

RENDER TIME: 
    Radiosity - 28 hours

HARDWARE USED: 
    Powerbook G4

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

Leonardo daVinci's inventive mind was incredible for his time.  I am intrgued by
the inventions he devised and the intricate yet artistic sketches that act as
visual representations of his ideas.  This image is my recreation and his
sketches that illustrate machines for flight, by combining the attributes of
severl of his works.  The concept of ships going into space is a recurring
theme throught out the ages (Enterprise, etc.) and this image tries to capture
that innovative feeling with with this rustic renditio, based on Leonardo's
ideas.  I know it would be cool  to have had an occupant but you know how that
goes - lack of time, etc.  However, I think it works quite will as an object
without human intrusion - helps focus on the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

The wings and tail were created by sketching out the shape using splines and
then subdividing the surface.  The ribs started out as spline curves that were
then used for extruding shapes.  The boat was created from a disc that was
stretched and then extruded to create the smooth hull.  The Wing supports that
keep the wings attached to the side of the boat were created from a cylinder
that was beveled and smooth shifted with a boolean subtraction to create the
holes.  The middle beams were created from boxes that were subdivide, beveled,
and routered.  The wooden threads on the central fixtures, were created by
using the lathe tool.  The other objects were variations on this theme - take a
primitive and modify it (metal rings, wooden nuts and bolts, etc.).  The
background sky was generated with Sky Tracer 2 (a build-in sky generator in
Lightwave).  Lighting was done with 7 lights and using radiosity - 2 bounces (2
key lights, 2 back lights, 1 fill light, 1 top light, one sun light).  I was
hoping to combine the sense of nice soft ambient light with the sense of a
strong light coming from behin.  It is still not quite right but it is
difficult to get lighting perfect and since it is art rather than a realistic
recreation, it works - at least I think it does.  I will be interested to see
your comments.