TITLE: Worship the Can
NAME: Alan Wong
COUNTRY: United States of America
EMAIL: alan.2.wong@uconn.edu
TOPIC: Worship
COPYRIGHT: I Submit To The Standard Raytracing Competition Copyright.
JPGFILE: awxxwtc.jpg
RENDERER USED: 

  3D Studio Max R3.0


TOOLS USED: 

  Adobe Photoshop 6.0
  IrfanView32 2.80


RENDER TIME: 

  6 minutes and 18 seconds


HARDWARE USED: 

  Athlon Thunderbird 800
  384MB Ram
  Logitech MouseMan+ Wheel
  3M Precise Mousing Surface

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IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

  Well, the topic is worship. And I thought, what can I do that
  is different? So I found my thoughts moving towards an ant, a 
  lowly ant, but it had its God. That God being food, large 
  amounts of food. But that was too boring. What else?

  So then my mind kept wandering as I model the ant, and a 
  story started to form. That story is based on my current 
  residence, a college dorm. And in a college dorm, some things 
  take precedence.

  And it was thus, let me make an ad about what college students 
  worship, using the lowly ant as the carrier of the message. 
  
  And in that ad, I have two ants holding the can for all to see.
  Is it a life or death struggle for the can or is it a friendly 
  drinking buddy who wants to help out? Why not you make that 
  personal preference next time you see a can of RedLine.


  Notes: The RedLine brand does not exist, I made that up. 
         Also, I do not drink alcohol. And do not drink 
         and drive, but since they are ants, there are no
         worries.

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DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

  Ok, now to be serious.

  This is my second attempt at using splines as a modelling 
  tool. My first was modelling my head, which came out decently 
  but not good enough for this contest, and it was not going to 
  fit any story I had in my mind. So anyway, here I go:

    The ant was made using both spline modelling (using MaxR3's 
    built in surface modifier) and mesh modelling. The splines 
    were used to make the entire ant itself, using reference 
    pictures from various places (internet sites, books, animal 
    cards, etc.), and then a surface mod was placed on it. I
    made the ant in sections (as an ant would be due to the
    exoskeleton) and I also tweaked the surface with edit mesh.
    Nothing more to say other than it took 5 days of really 
    long hours to finish.

    In the mesh modeling area, I modelled the "mouth" from a 
    sphere. You cannot really see it since it is covered by 
    hair, which is the second thing I made from meshes. I just
    made a rectangular prism with 2 sections, welded one end 
    to make a point, welded an edge to make it into a 3 sided 
    long thing, and bent it. Then I used MaxR3's Scatter to put 
    it everywhere. This hair helped to kill the render time.

    Next is the texture of the ant, which was tough. I love 
    MaxR3's composite procedural, and I used it to make the 
    dirt like stuff on the ant. Basically the main channel is
    the ant's color (using MaxR3's raytrace texture) and the 
    next couple channels are the ant's dirt using noise. Add 
    some bump and there we go. But there was too much dark 
    shadow areas so I added some color to the black shadow 
    areas with the raytraced texture. Done.

    The can came next. Simple spline work here. Make a half cross 
    section then lathe it. Done. The texture on the can consists 
    of frost on top of the logo. Frost is done with some noise 
    opacity maps and bump and specular and so on. The can logo was 
    made in Photoshop. Both were placed into a composite procedural.

    And finally the posing part. The text is all actual 3d objects 
    that have no depth that are several inches from the camera. The 
    fonts were found on the internet from months or years before. The 
    logo on the bottom is mine, and I just rendered my logo animation 
    in sections, and textured a block with it. The RedLine logo is 
    the same logo as on the can, except with an alpha channel, easy.
    Bind all to camera so it would move with the camera, like a HUD.

    I then proceded to move the ants' joints and such to meet the 
    can, hoping nothing intersected, and do some test renders to make 
    sure. Add in clouds in the back with an opacity cloud map thing, 
    and make a flat mirror with bump for the ground.

    And that is the story of this little pic.

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Additional Information:
  I am a college student (freshmen), and this is my first IRTC entry 
  though I have frequented the site to look for techniques and ideas.

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Credits:
  Alan Wong

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