TITLE: Knowledge Is Key

NAME: Steven D Place
COUNTRY: U.S.A.

EMAIL: XYZTNT@HOTMAIL.COM
WEBPAGE: www.firefallpro.com

TOPIC: Fortress (March/April) 2001
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: entrytof.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    Cinema 4D


TOOLS USED: 
    Cinema 4D, Photoshop 6.0, Microsoft Paint, Pen/Paper, People.


RENDER TIME: 

        Work Time: 125 Hours
        Rendering Time: 9.57 Minutes


HARDWARE USED: 
    Athlon 800 MHz, 128 pc100 ram, 20 gig hd, Voodoo 5 5500 Video
Card


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 
    Right in the thick of the enemy teritory. . .


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

        The whole theme in this image is to recreate a scene that could be in a
movie where a spy has penetrated the enemy "fortress" and is in search for the
information which is contained on the film strip. There are a few enemy
soldiers located on the inside viewing the film, and the one lone spy from the
US waiting patiently to get it. The boundry of the fence stands in his way of
course, but he is well equiped to handle that.
        
        I have always had a facination with scene's that are dark and
mysterious. This is my first IRTC.ORG submission, and i have been into 3d art
for about 2 years now. Certainly i am not a professional, but i do feel that i
can capture the essence of a scene and ercreate it to please the audiance. I
hope you all like it.
        
        Now how did i make it. Well i first needed some idea's. Since i could
not think of any for a few days aside from making the usual castle or building
on top of a rock surface, and i certainly can not make a plane or anything that
complex, i decided to do a scene. I went to playing my counterstrike as usual
one day, and as i was about to peer into a corner, it dawned on me. I had a
buddy take a screen shop of the area and my posistion. Thus the dawn of my
idea. 

        I studied and studied the picture for days until my eye's poped out.
Finally i could really visualize what i wanted. I started by drawing out my
ideas on paper, the good old fashioned way. Once i got a good visual it was a
matter of where to start. I began construction on the archway first. I know i
could improve it more, but i am not sure how to curve the inside arch exactly,
maby using boolean, but meh, i choose not to. Once i finished with that, i
moved on to what would be the walls on both sides. Those are just a simple cude
object with some 3d textureing effects to give it depth. I had a hard time
debating what ground to put in on the outside, and finally choose a old board
section. This gave it a old time feeling rather than cherry or something
shiney. After i had these three items i realized i needed some better lighting.
This was very tricky, and i am not sure if i even have it all correct. I used
to lights up front. One on the inside wall, and the other by a hook on the wall
with a boom arm outside. Both used soft lighting and volumnetric light flow. I
also enabled soft shadows for a in depth effect.

        After i modeled and finished the lights i realized i need to detial it
up with some better textures. I finalized that and moved on to the
walls/textures for the walls. The walls are pretty cut and dry with some
special effects with the texturing.The real mood with this picture is the
suspense of wanting to knwo what happens next. 

        Once all materials were made, and models modeled (i am cutting this
description short on the fact that i don't want to bore people), i can say that
this hs been my best work. It has taken me some time since i am not an expert,
and constantly learning new software for 3d imaging is a real treat. If you
have any questions regarding my picture let me know, or have any suggestions on
how to improve on my technique, let me know as well. Thank you for allowing me
this submission and i hope you regard it as highly as i do.

Thank you
Steven D Place




p.s.

The one item attachment that i would like to add is that the film projector and
reel were both modeled in cinema 4d by tutorials that showed me ho to do this.
They were slightly modified and i am happy with the results The same goes with
the man.

