Ranger

Marty Zankich
Nathan Glynn
Nick Muraki
Jimmy Dickerson

Freedom From Confinement
by
Jailbirds

Group Scene

Inspiration:

Our group wanted to capture the surprise and shock of a prison break. The guards were slacking on the job, playing poker like they always do. One clever prisoner caught on to their routine and planned out his escape. He managed to sneak pass the guards without them even realizing it. The red alarm went off on the back wall before the poker players knew what was going on. There is now an escaped convict amongst us, lurking in the shadows of the night.

Objects:	Staircase	Nathan
	Walkway	Nathan
	Alarm	Nathan
	Lighting fixture	Nathan
	Glass	Nathan
	Walls/floor	Nathan
	Cigarettes	Marty
	Card Box	Marty
	Cards	Marty
	Ashtray	Marty
	Poker Chips	Marty
	Smoke off cigarette	Marty
	Coffee Mugs	Marty
	Cigarette Box	Marty
	All Jail Cell Objects	Nick
	All Jail Cell textures	Lightwave
	Table	Jimmy
	Chairs	Jimmy
	Keys	Jimmy

Textures:	Railing	http://www.dreamsandmagic.com/free/tchest2/worn_metal.jpg
	Stairs	http://propro.iis.nsk.su/go/Wshop/textures/images/metal2.jpg
	Cement	http://amf.pocketmovies.net/textures/textures_img.htm
	Cards	www.djmcadam.com/bicycle-playing-cards.html
	Card Box	www.djmcadam.com/bicycle-playing-cards.html
	Cigarette Pack	www.tobaccobymail.com/ completelistng.htm
	All others	Lightwave

Resources:	Coffee Mug Tutorial	www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/modeling/modeling/cup.html
	rail extrude tutorial	http://www.meshweaver.com/htm/t_railextrude.htm
	Inspirational Photos	http://www.ci.rocky-mount.nc.us/police/stoppers.html
		http://www.cadsc.com/photos.htm
		http://www.houstoncounty.org/Jail/Jail.htm

Problems and Solutions:

Jimmy Dickerson

Problems:

When I started this project, I wanted to make my objects really good so the scene would be great. While I was designing the table and chairs, I didn't have any problems there, but when I started to make my set of keys, that's when my problems started. I could not figure out how to cut the part of a key that has the jaggy edges and make it look real. Also, I had to form the odd shape of the top of the key and it was difficult figuring that out.

Solutions:

After searching on the Internet for hours on trying to figure out how to make a key, I finally figured it out when my group member Nathan showed me how. The main part I had to do was make the piece that I needed to cut off a polygon and cut it then and it detached itself from the rest of the key. After that, I figured out how to bend and shape the top of the key by just selecting points and dragging them out to form the shape.

Textures/Techniques:

I used textures from lightwave for my table and chairs. To build my table and chairs I just used boxes and measurements to make sure our scene will be sized right. For my keys, I had to use a lot of techniques like building separate polygons, bending and forming the top part of the key and making sure the edges are jagged like regular keys.

Problems and Solutions:

Nick Muraki

My portion of the scene involved making all the jail cells. Once we had our idea for our scene sketched out, we chose one of the final renderings to include a close-up of the detail inside the jail cells. Instead of making multiple jail cells, I made two which could be duplicated as many times as necessary. I chose to make one cell with detail, and once cell that was empty. Only one copy of the detailed cell would be used (for the close-up) and the empty cell would be multiplied and used for the rest of the cells in the scene.

Most of the jail cell is made from simple boxes and discs. The first bed that I made consisted of just unaltered boxes. So I experimented with tools such as the bevel tool and smooth shift tool to round off the edges. I experimented with the effects of the drag and magnet tool on spheres. I found the effect of the altered ball or sphere to be very useful in making the sink bowl as well as the toilet bowl. My biggest difficulty was deciding on the layout of the jail cell. I had seen some possibilities from photos online, but had much difficulty making a final decision. Once I decided on the layout, creating it took some time, but wasn't very hard. I also wanted to keep all the furniture at a realistic size. In order to do so, I ended up taking measurements of some of the furniture in my room and using those measurements in creating the furniture in Lightwave.

I had intended on using more textures than what I actually used. Although it is not easily seen, a lightwave chrome texture was used on the entire bathroom (sink and toilet) assembly. The only other texture I used was marble on the cell floor. I had planned on using some texture on the table, chair, and bed, but I never got around to it. The only thing I would do differently is the one thing I didn't make time to do the first time. I would add texture to the table, chair, and bed. Other than the missing textures, I am quite proud of the end result of my part.

Problems and Solutions:

Nathan Glynn

Problems& Solutions:

The thing that was hardest for me to get right was the handrail on the staircase. I started out with a rail extrude tutorial, and then spent a lot of time experimenting to try and get the right curves on the rail. I found that it turned out the best if I used a lot of points to define the curve of the rail before extruding it, but even then, I had to do a little bit of tweaking to get it to look right. Once I got a good rail going, it was easier to finish the rest of the staircase.

Another issue I came across was getting a decent cement texture. Typically pictures I found on the internet weren't large enough to cover the big surfaces I needed for the walls of the jail, so I ended up using layers in the textures, and putting a procedural texture over a blown up bitmap texture. It turned out ok.

Problems and Solutions:

Marty Zankich

Problems & Solutions:

My job for our group scene was to design objects for the table. We wanted to imitate a poker scene, so I needed to make cards, poker chips, and other objects associated with a poker game. The first problem that I ran into was with the texturing of the playing cards. The texture was straight up and down and I could not rotate my cards because the texture would stay vertical while my cards were sideways. The solution is to design one good card and take it to layout. Import your object as many times as cards you need. When rotated in layout everything works out great.

The coffee mugs were made from a tutorial and should have taken me twenty minutes at the most. Instead it took me almost a whole class period because I kept messing up little steps that caused huge problems later on. Even though it took a while it was a great learning experience.

The poker chips were fun to design, but I should have made stacks of them in modeler. I decided just to make one good poker chip and stack it in layout like I did with the cards. The problem with poker chips in layout is that they are small. When I would bring the camera close enough to the table everything would disappear making it almost impossible to stack them properly without spaces. It would have been easier and more time efficient to do it in modeler.

CSCI 140 Group Gallery	3-D Computer Modeling CSCI 140 Spring 2003	Freedom From Confinement
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