TITLE: Bald Mountain NAME: Michael Hunter COUNTRY: USA EMAIL: intertek@one.net WEBPAGE: http://www.interactivetechnologies.net TOPIC: Music COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. JPGFILE: b_mountn.jpg RENDERER USED: 3D Studio Max Version 8 TOOLS USED: 3D Studio Max, PhotoShop (for texture maps) RENDER TIME: 3 Hours 49 Minutes HARDWARE USED: Pentium 4 1.8 GHz 768 MB RAM IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This image was inspired by Night on Bald Mountain (by Mussorgsky). I just let myself daydream while listening to the music. This is pretty much what I saw in my mind_s eye. DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: The modeling was mostly done via a process called _box modeling_. In this process you can easily extend and refine a mesh by shift-dragging an edge. Sometimes I Chamfered edges to increase resolution where I needed it at other times I welded vertices together to lighten up the rendering job. In the case of the orb I started with a geo-sphere and extruded selected faces then repeated the process on a clear geo-sphere with the extruded faces pointing inward so that the two spheres could touch at key points. There are three photometric targeted point lights. Two are located to the extreme right and left of the mountain and are blue and purple, respectively. The third targeted point light is set to _spot light_ distribution, pale yellow orange, and is focused on the orb. There is one other light, I forgot to mention... it_s down inside the crater and is bright yellow. The textures are multi-layered procedural maps. The mountain actually has two such maps, a dark, rough map at the bottom and a brighter bone like texture at the top. These two textures are blended using a 2D (procedural) Gradient Ramp. I used the default scanline renderer this time rather than Mental Ray because I thought I would be using some of SimbiontMAX (by DarkTree) textures. Those textures, excellent as they are, are not compatible with Mental Ray. In the end I didn_t use it but didn_t see a need to use Mental Ray either (for this image). RANT: It is a challenge to be spontaneous with ANY 3D tool. The software is designed for technicians who will enact the designs of an artist rather than for an artist who wants direct involvement with the tool. 3D Studio Max is the best I_ve found so far for this but still it seems infinitely bulky and heavy compared to a paintbrush. Maybe I will find a better method of having complete control over every parameter while not being weighted down by the responsibility of having complete control over every parameter. You know... it_s odd that the same image could be made with paint without ever thinking about a number or a setting or typing something. Most of the act of making a 3D image is far removed from the activity of making a drawing or a painting. You can say you have a better tool but honestly if you went back say 100 years ago and showed a painter what you use to make your pictures they_d think you were nuts. Regardless of the end result the act of pushing all these buttons is so abstract it doesn_t seem possible to have any outcome at all other than a headache. I don_t mean to complain. I think I like to make 3D art (I_ve certainly have dedicated enough time and money to the endeavor). But this point I raise seems odd to me. LINKS: Sample of the Msic: http://www.musicstore.jp/~tohru/mp3/baldmountain.hi-fi.mp3 About Mussorgsky: http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mussorgsky.html