TITLE: Night Magic
NAME: Josh Derr
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: xeo@sprynet.com
WEBPAGE: http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/xeo
TOPIC: Magic
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: nightxma.jpg
ZIPFILE: nightxma.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    Truespace v2

TOOLS USED: 
    Fractal Poser, Painter, Paint Shop Pro, Lsys

RENDER TIME: 
    Approx. 2 Days

HARDWARE USED: 
    P200

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


        What is magic?

        I presented this question to one of my co-workers, who after much
thought, 
replied "I think of magic every time I look at the stars in the sky". She was
right.

        This image is attempt to cature that magical feeling, the kind you get
on a 
warm, clean night. Gaze up at the stars with someone special. Watch them dance
in her 
eyes. The air around become surreal, and you are suddenly in a magic, unreal
place, 
as if a dream...


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


        My first concept was from my coworker, as noted above. It made me think
of 
ancient times, when they looked to the stars for signs and futures. For those
people,
the stars were magical. I attempt to capture that with my 5 pointed, glowing
stars. 
The buildings and surrounding lights are an attempt to give it a festive mood,
inspired
by Deep Forest's "Deepfolk Song". If you have the CD, I high recommed you play
it while 
looking at this image.(I also found that Chris Issak's "Spanish Sky", has the
same effect, 
only with a negative mood) I was aiming for a surreal, dream like atmosphere. I
gave the 
models themselves a oil-painted look, to further the dreamy mood. I should also
have 
included a 'production skectch' (partly modelled and drawn over). Gives you and
idea what
I was going for.


I used an LSYS parser (can't remember with one exaclty) for the tree and several
of the 
bushes. And with out Fractal poser I would have NEVER been able to model the
enraptured 
couple. The backgroud was orginally a plane texutured through Painter. Quickly
thought,
I learned that the cloud-plane, and the star-sphere were chewing up processing
time 
considerably(would have been 7 days!). So they were rendered seperatly, touched
up using
a oil-brush tool to texture the clouds a bit more and give the stars their glow.
I realize
that some may feel this is slightly unethical, but it was used as a background,
and the 
final product is still straight from the ray-tracer. Finally, the plants are a
bunch of 
deformed sweeps. Final modelling note: yes, their feet are there. Not sure why
exectly 
they look that way, but according to the modeller, they have feet, and they are
standing 
on solid ground.



        In conclusion, I ask you- 

        When was the last time you gazed at the stars?