The entries of Paul J. Frey, Jr.:

Title: In His Image

Creation Process:
The image "In His Image" was created in Imagine 4.0 and enhanced with Photoshop 3.0. The scene is primarily made up of ten objects: - dome object A widened primitive sphere with the old bricks procedural texture applied to it. - floor object A primitive disk's points were edited then the faces extruded to make the floor. An image map of wood and metal was projected onto the surface as a color map, a bump map and a specularity map. The floor supports were constructed by extruding a 2D shape along a path. Then an image map of wood and metal bands was projected onto the surface as a color map, a bump map and a specularity map. The rails were extruded from a sliced off section of the floor and then connected to the floor by tubes. The steel quick attribute and peened procedural texture were applied. - windows object The windows were created by first creating the outline of the windows in the top view as flat faces. Then I extruded this object through the dome object. Then I used the slice feature to cut the windows out of the dome object. This was necessary to get a perfect fit in the dome object, because the curve was widened. Then I took the resulting object copied and pasted it to use for the clear part of the windows, which I made clear with the glass quick attributes. Then I extruded the original to use for the frame of the windows and I sliced the middle of this object to take it from opaque plates to frames. For the crossing panels in the frame I extruded a disk along a path to match the curvature of the window. The frames had the peened procedural texture and the steel quick attributes applied to them. The stained glass window in the center was created with an image map applied as a color map, bump map and filter map to a faces subgroup in the clear part of the windows object. - capsule object The capsule was created from a primitive sphere that was deformed with the taper and pinch tools. This shell was used to assist in creating the shell for the capsule and the frame that conforms to the shell's shape. The frame that surrounds the capsule are actually primitive planes extruded that were sliced using different scaled copies of the shell object. The window was sliced out of the capsule's shell and made a transparent object with the glass quick attributes. The frame around the window was created by the using the previous object that was used to slice out the window and extruding it. The bolts are seperate objects that are part of the capsule shell. The handle and lock were created by extruding a widened disk along a path. The frame around the window, the handle and the lock had the brass quick attributes applied to them. The collector on top of the capsule was constructed of a cone, sphere and torus. The capsule's shell has the steel quick attribute applied to it with the venetian blind procedural texture, the bump noiz procedural texture and the dirt procedural texture. The fluid inside the capsule was created from the copy of the shell mentioned above with the top sliced off and the red glass quick attribute with the monster procedural texture and the dino skin procedural texture were applied to it (the hardness was lowered to give the object a more jello look than glass). These textures would make the fluid look more viscous. The chains were constructed by taking a disk and extruding it along a closed path to make one link. Then that link was copied, pasted and rotated. The two links were made one object and then replicated along a slightly rotated path. The steel quick attribute was applied to the chains. - man object I modeled the man from blobs and distorted spheres. The face was modeled with an image map which was used with the applique tool to modify the points (this gave the relief for the nose, eyes, mouth and ears). After the applique tool was applied the magnetic tools and smoothing tools were used to clean up the object. Because of all the editing done in the last step, the face no longer conformed to the face image map I used in the applique step. So To ensure that another color image map for the face matched the shape of the head, I mapped an image map of a white background with black grid lines and two red lines crossing across the center of the image onto the head. I then did quick renders with the perspective turned off of the front and sides of the head into three seperate files. I then used these images as a guide to construct the face image map. The face image map was applied as a color map, a bump map and specularity map. - collector objects These objects were constructed primarily of a modified tube. An image map of wood and metal rivets was projected as a color map and bump map. The two tubes of energy are actually two objects, a torus of glass and a disk was extruded along a deformed path with the dancing sparks procedure texture applied to it. The supports and rods are modified tubes with the steel quick attribute applied. The spheres are CSG spheres with the brass quick attribute applied. - control panel This was a simple 8 sided 2D shape that was extruded and then an image map of the controls was mapped as a color map, a bump map and a specularity map. - sky object The sky object visible through the window is a simple plane primitive with an image map applied as a color map and a brightness map. - electrical object The electrical effects that surrounds the capsule's collector and the three larger collectors is basically a disk extruded along a distorted path with the dancing sparks procedural texture applied and the brightness turned all the way up. - smoke and electrical glow object This is a large fog object that was distorted using the magnetic tool and the smoothing tool. The nebula procedural texture was applied to the object and the intensity was lowered.

The image was inspired by the latest movie of Frankenstein which was closely based on the book by Mary Shelley. Also, the Halloween holiday is approaching and it seemed an appropriate subject.

I lit the scene with a faint yellow light to indicate light from torches near the entrance (not seen in the image). The brightest lights are near the collectors and the electrical object. I rendered nine of the objects above (minus the smoke and electrical glow object) in one pass and then rendered the smoke object in another pass. I then composited these images with Photoshop 3.0. I blurred the smoke object layer to allow more of the scene to show.

Creation Process:
The image "Comet Encounter" was created in Imagine 4.0 and enhanced with Photoshop 3.0. The scene is primarily made up of five objects: - star object A large sphere with the confetti texture applied twice (for different colored stars) and the brightness turned all the way up. - voyager spacecraft A model of the voyager spacecraft constructed of sliced and extruded primitives. - alien spacecraft A model of an alien spacecraft constructed of all primitive spheres that were conformed to paths and deformed using the deform tool. - comet The model of the comet was constructed of one primitive sphere and the tail was extruded with the magnetic tool, there is another object in the head (not clearly visible due to the lens flare) that was constructed using blobs. The textures in the comet's tail are ghost and nebula. - light rays The light rays (more pronounced around the alien probe) is an object that has a high filter value and with the dirt texture applied to make it look like light and shadow bouncing off of particles and dust.

The image was inspired by the recent announcement by the President that the new space initiative would be based primarily on unmanned space exploration. I envisioned our first encounter to be between machines.

The voyager object was pretty straight forward. It is constructed of simple primitives with the deathstar procedural texture, dirt procedural texture applied to make it look weathered. To make the gold foil I used the crumpled procedural texture. The steel quick attributes was used for all the struts. I wanted the alien probe to be similar to the voyager craft but more organic looking. So I chose to use all curves and no hard edges in the model. A flesh coloring was applied to the object using quick attributes, the bump noiz procedural texture and the specular procedural texture was added to break up the specular highlights. The energy ports on the side of the alien probe were created by creating a subgroup of faces and applying the dancing sparks procedural texture. The focus in the alien probe's rear transmitter has the monster procedural texture applied to it.

The image was constructed of two scenes modeled in Imagine 4.0. First was the star background with the comet and spacecraft. Second was the light rays object. The two images were composited with Photoshop 3.0.

I am a UNIX/Windows programmer by profession. I am a cartoonist and artist by preference (but 'starving' didn't suit me). I have been using the Imagine product for nearly 3 years, since I first discovered the 2.0 version. I was so excited to find a way to bring my two worlds together. I liked programming and found that in the business world, the PC was king. Therefore, I had to buy primarily PC's for my work. Then when Imagine moved from the Amiga platform to the PC, my world changed. I am extremely happy with the product and I hope to see it grow.

P.S. This was the most ambitious modeling project I have tackled with Imagine 4.0. I was quite happy with the results. I did however, have to double my memory. It has convinced me to purchase the windows version as soon as possible, to take advantage of virtual memory. I also hit the maximum edge limit with the chains objects, so to get around this I broke the object up into smaller grouped objects. While modeling and rendering this image, my wife was extremely patient with the late hours and lack of sleep. If I win, it is primarily due to her encouragement and patience.

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