TITLE: A Joyful Clutter
NAME: Charles H. Rousseau
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: CHRousseau@aol.com
TOPIC: Toys and Games
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: crtoysce.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    Bryce 5.0

TOOLS USED: 
    Rhinocerous 2.0

RENDER TIME: 
    5 hours

HARDWARE USED: 
    Windows PC

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

The scene grew from a checkerboard to one with a single puzzle, then a pegboard
as well. Next came the train and toy soldier/dancer.  The gyroscope, the
magnifying glass and the marbles evolved next.  Then the jacks and the game
pieces and the dice.  A little hodgepodge of many things recalled from
childhood, from the simple wooden toys to the complex precision of the
gyroscope and the magnifier.  Catalysts of curiosity, inspirers of imagination,
my own toys served me well and some of them linger to do the same for my own
children, perhaps someday grandchildren as well.  

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

After fighting a losing battle trying to master some of the 'industry standard'
modeling tools which shall remain nameless, I have found heaven with Rhino. 
There is hardly anything that I have been unable to make with this software if
I just have some good photographs available or pictures in my head as well as a
plan of attack on assemblying the pieces.  All of the objects in the scene are
original mesh objects and none of them uses painted textures to achieve a 3D
look--it all really is three dimensional, from the crowns on the checkers to
the grid in the hub of the gyroscope.  Modeling the objects took about four
hours over two weeks of adding one, then another item into the scene.

It was rendered in Bryce because that is what is available and affordable to a
hobbyist on a limited budget.  I know I could get some better texturing and
lighting in Lightwave or 3DSMax, or one of the other softwares,  but they seem
far more difficult for an activity which is supposed to be fun.  Assemblying a
scene is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle for me--it is not supposed to be
work but recreation.  

I did not have the usual amount of leisure time to devote to this contest, but I
did try to brighten the scene.  Two of the standing critiques of my past
entries have been that the images are too dark and too blurry.  They look great
as bitmaps in their original condition; the compression and color loss to the
jpeg format usually transform what I think is a passable image into a murky
shadow of its original form.

But still, I like the chance to make something new and it is a pleasure to see
my final image, even reduced, in the midst of so many others.