CSCI 140 Desk Gallery

3-D Computer Modeling 
CSCI 140 Spring 2003

Al-Ali, Donna

Previous     Next
Donna Al-AliDesk Scene
The Story Begins . . .
 
Inspiration

In the preliminary stages of my project I wanted to create an American Gothic style study, mahogany and wrought iron.  Then as I was trying to create a sconce I saw the shape of a petal in the contorted cone.  I then decided to create a rose and as I knew a lamp was not within my design the rose turned into the light source. Then coming out of this idea surrealism and storytelling emerged.  I thought about how I feel when I just begin a story, how does the environment of the land appear in my mind.  That is how the lake came into the picture, what is more surreal then a writing desk floating on a lake.  The fact that water is a symbol for the unconscious didn't play a part till I needed to finish the scene.  So a fitting final touch was the sheet of paper. There is nothing more apparent then the beginning and that is the statement made on the lone page.
 
 
Objects:PencilDonna Al-Ali
 DeskDonna Al-Ali
 Wine glass w/wineDonna Al-Ali
 Rose w/lightDonna Al-Ali
 PaperDonna Al-Ali
 Sky DomeDonna Al-Ali
   
Textures:WoodDonna Al-Ali
 GlassDonna Al-Ali
 PaperDonna Al-Ali
 LakeLightwave
 SkyLightwave
   
Tutorials:GlassGraham's Lightwave Tips http://www.geocities.com/ CollegePark/9315/ lw/tip4.htm
 
Problems

The main two problems I faced were dealing with textures and getting enough light in my scene without overwhelming the objects within it.  When it came to the textures I had issues with making the wood texture large enough for there to be a significant difference between the markings, to appear as wood grain and not just smudges.  After several different sizes of airbrushes within Aura I found that I needed a medium-large brush to get the effect I wanted.  

When it came to making the texture for the paper it mainly came down to how I would get writing on the page without using the text button.  I found a charcoal pencil brush within Aura and after about ten minutes of erasing finally was able to get the writing just so.  With this accomplished I thought the paper would look perfect, but boy was I wrong.  I put the paper in Layout and the paper had to faint lines through it.  It looked bent and crimped, but I wanted the text on the page.  So fighting with Surface Editor in Modeler I found that I needed to make the texture the exact size of the paper.  Now it seems simple now that I found the right way to apply the texture.

Then to get the lighting in the scene intense enough to see the objects but not so much it hurt your eyes I turned to our professor for his opinion.  I tried a flat board sky object but this left the water looking choppy and the sky color was too bright.  This is when he suggested I use a dome and by flipping the normal apply a texture to the inside; thus my scene got the appropriate light.