CSCI 140 Group Gallery

3-D Computer Modeling 
CSCI 140 Fall 2002

Dark Star

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Matt Carlson
Liz Champion
Katie Stokes
Adam Vesely

Dark Star
by
Lost in Space		Group Scene
 
Inspiration:

Blinding stars, glowing nebulas and the chance to explore the depths of the unfathomable: outer space.  Unexplored, except through high-powered telescopes and experimental science, lies the terrific space extending beyond our atmosphere.  It holds galaxies our imaginations can hardly fathom  and it is largely a mystery, what some call the great unknown.  This great unknown and the possibilities for adventure, exploration and great beauty or even great danger are the inspiration for this project.

While looking at pictures of nebulas, planets and stars taken by telescopes we were instantly in agreement about this project.  The photographs of particular nebulas, particularly the Eagle Nebula are what drew us to creating Dark Star.
 
 
Objects
Space stationLiz and Matt
ShuttleAdam
PlanetKatie
MoonKatie
Red StarMatt
NebulaAdam
Star fieldAdam
Garbage ScowLiz
 
Problems and Solutions:

Space station  the three-tier station began as an individual ring.  Matt and Liz were working separately on these.  The center ring was lacking once it was placed in layout it was clear that more was needed.  Matt and Liz agreed to add two more rings, one on either end of the center ring.  This gave the space station more depth and balance.

Red Star  when this star was first created there were problems with making it reflect the right amount of light at the right angles.  After adjusting the specularity and changing the angles of lights made this star give off the best light show.

Shuttle  going back and forth between the computers and using different tutorials can make creating objects more challenging.  During the modeler phase of this object it was difficult to find the correct function in the program that the tutorial was using.  A lot of time and exploring the program led to the functions needed or getting the right effect a different way.  Lighting was also challenging for the shuttle because of the various planes and angles which needed lighting to highlight important details.

Star field  after the star field was placed in layout and rendered with the shuttle it was clear that the stars were not bright enough and would not be seen when projected.  To resolve this, the numbers of stars were tripled and their pixel lengths were increased.

Planet  atmospheres are very tricky because they require a gradient effect as well as strategic lighting set-ups.  There were two trial planets before the final one was created and right at the end the atmosphere would not show up when rendered.  It turned out that the diffuse % needed to be adjusted differently from what the tutorial had stated.

Garbage Scow  while working on this object there was difficulty with using different tools.  One of the problems that occurred numerous times was related to the drag tool.  When the object was being dragged there were often polygons affected by this, distorting the object.  The boolean tool also created some difficulty due to the amount of segmentation of the object and that some things were not attached to the surface.

Final Layout  In our final stages of production we had a great amount of trial and error before we had success sizing all of the objects into one cohesive scene.  Many of the objects were created using meters as the base unit, however the nebula and star field were 5 mega meters across.  This did create difficulty in locating the smaller objects once they were loaded in but by reducing the two very large objects we were able to create our final layout.