TITLE: "Nth of a Second"
NAME: Agustin Garzon
COUNTRY: Argentina
EMAIL: agusgarzon@hotmail.com
TOPIC: Frozen moment
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: nth.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    3DSMax 4

TOOLS USED: 
    VRay

RENDER TIME: 
    1h 22m

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium 4, 1.4ghz, 256mb ram



IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


By definition, an imagen, a frame or a still is a moment frozen in time wether
it's a 24th of a second, a 120th of a second or a "Nth of a Second"

I expect you have seen the image before reading this in order not to broke the
magic and I also expect the image talks by itself, as it should.

I wanted to create a very radical shot. I thought in the clasical apple being
penetrated by the bullet but then turned to the glass of champagne because of
the beauty of the recursive reflections and refractions.

In real life this kind of shot can't be achieved with a video cam or standard
24fps film equipment because of the supersonic speed of the bullet, but thanks
to this 3D paralel universe I was able to capture that "Nth of a Second" when
the bullet creates a real mess.

I wasn't able to find source material so I just pull it out from my mind.

Cuting to the chase: It's a cup of champagne crossed by a bullet. The maihem
occurs so fast the liquid, chunks of glass, and debris have no time to fall and
instead are sucked by the power vortex of the bullet.




DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


The only plugin used is VRay that permits 3DSMax use a Raytrace renderer instead
of the standard Scanline renderer. Nothing fancy else but the power of
imagination and problem solving ability :)

- Creating several tentative desings from where the cup araised.
- Modeling the cup using a U-loft from the base of the cup till the inward
center.
- Unwrapping the mesh to cut it all in pieces (some large one, some tiny).
- Cuting the cup and folding it back.
- Positioning the chunks of cup in the space.
- Creating the basic shape of the champagne (liquid)
- Distorting it, hollowing the way of the bullet, creating a vortex there,
simulating the splashes of the in and exit wounds, creating drops and bubbles.
I used lots of particle systems to achieve satisfying, realistic water.
- Modeling the bullet.
- Creating the shockwave of the bullet.
- Creating the enviroment for reflections and refractions: The glass table where
the cup is sitting, the ground and the reflective elements.
- Setting up the lighting (2 lights, 1 main casting shadows, the other for
filling).
- Creating materials (Glass and water mainly)

I also minded the subtle detail of the design in the cup. That's the only map
used along with the stretch bump map in the base of the cup. I designed and
painted both of them.

The texture where the cup is sitting was scanned.

The number of faces (colateral triangles) is 240.000 aprox. The final render
took 1h 22m with the highest settings for a perfect antialiasing.

Enjoy every "Nth of a Second" you live, and please send me feedback. 
Regards.

Agustin Garzon
AgusGarzon@hotmail.com