CSCI 140 Group Gallery

3-D Computer Modeling 
CSCI 140 Spring 2003

A Night Alone

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Travis Logan
Scott Lawless
Kristin Kempa
Salvador Barrera

A Night Alone
by
Tent Group		Group Scene
 
Story:

You work every day of your life.  Doesn't it get boring?  We hate the trials and tribulations of the every single day!  That's why we love to go camping.  We feel that this is the only place for us to unwind and let loose.  We throw of our baseball hats and join as one.  It doesn't matter if we all have opposing views regarding sports.  Here we can all just relax and feel like we are one.  Our ice chest is always full of beer and our spirits are always filled with hope.  Just sit back, enjoy the weather and toss back a cold one.  No one judges and no one regrets!!!
 
  
 
Objects:GroundTravis
 Picnic TableScott
 Ice ChestKristin
 TentScott
 RocksSal
 TreesTravis/Scott/Sal
 Baseball CapLightwave
 FirefliesKristin
 StarsSal
 Pop CansLightwave
 BBQLightwave
 Mustard & Ketchup bottleLightwave
 AppleLightwave
 BananaLightwave
 ShoeLightwave
   
Textures:Bench & FirewoodTeakwood
 GroundLizard Skin (from default)
   
Tutorials:How to create flamehttp://www.lightwave3d.com/tutorials/specialfx/volumetric_fire/volumetric_fire.html
 
Problems and Solutions:

Fire (Kristin)  The hugest problem that I came into here was to actually make the fire look realistic.  I tried using the tutorial to show me how to make the fire. The only problem is that once you bring the flame into lightwave, you have to make sure that the flame is in the right position.  Even if you follow my tutorial tooth and nail, it will never turn out exactly how you had planned for it to look.  You have to actually have your scene all laid out and then render your project for the ability to see how the fire will actually look at the very end.  It is also very useful to know the coordinates that your fire will be in to know the actual size of the fire compared to the rest of your picture.  You may also have to use size down, or change diameter to get the correct size.

Tent (Scott)  The Biggest problem that I had with making the tent was using the bend tool to get it looking like some kind of coverage.  Also making it look realistic was a minor problem, trying to get it to look like a shiny tarp with the write texture took a little longer then I expected.  Last, I had to make a few small adjustments to make it look like less of just a triangle with the bottom cut out.  I think it ended up looking pretty good, but there could have been a little better in the end.

Ground: (Travis)  The most difficult part of the ground for me was creating a believable color tone and look to the ground. I ended up using lizard skin and taking the glossiness off so the ground looked like trampled grass instead of scales.
     
Fire Pit:  (Salvador)It was difficult to begin constructing the rocks since they had to have a natural look. The biggest problem was the development of the different shapes that had to be aligned in a circle.   I chose to use the ball tool in conjunction with the twist tool.  By modifying the rock correctly, I eventually came up with a natural looking rock.
     
Bringing it Together:

Of course, in any project, you are going to find problems within your group.   No one seems to be able to fit their time in together.  It is very important to put your entire scene on student work space as well as on each of your discs.  This way something might accidentally get erased, it is that easy to finish what everyone has started.  It takes a lot of work to get the scene set up especially since we have to get our coordinates straight before any of us add anything onto the screen otherwise things will be out of order.  Teamwork is a necessity if you want to get a good grade.

The lighting: (Kristin)

We were very lucky because we really only had two lights in our project.  We used a distant light in order to set up our campfie. (This is also in the tutorial for future reference.)  This was very easy, but it is easy to confuse this light with a spotlight.  Make sure distant light is checked in the volumetric light option.  The other light that we used was the regular light that every lightwave project has.  We tried to make this very distant because we wanted to make sure that it looked dark outside.