Ranger's main - Ross Hendrickson - 20032004F - CSCI140 - Galleries - Final Gallery

Textures

The textures in the project were all procedural textures using color and bump, clipping, and displacement maps. The Sky Image (Clouds etc) was a texture created by myself using the SkyTracer plug-in. The Grass was created using SasLite.

Tutorials

I used for reference two tutorials from simplylightwave.com as the basis for this project. I found a sunset tutorial that allowed me to learn Skytracer, and TreeCage, the tree builder. Also I used a Stormy Ocean tutorial, which I used as simply a guide to make the calm lake.

Problems & Solutions

My first problems arose when I thought to redo my entire lake cabin scene with cabins and everything, from which I had created previously in 3D Studio Max. After exhausting myself attempting to import/convert those files w/o success.. I decided to just do the portion of the Lake Scene that I had not yet done in 3DSMax, the sunset/lake view. Planning that I may later bring them together.

Also basing my project off of tutorials was a bit hectic as I attempted to use my own artistic sense when applying textures and maps to alter the models, while the tutorial creator was using his own. I eventually spent most of my time experimenting with many different values, sizes, and colors of these layers to achieve my own 'look'.

Lighting was also tricky, as we are dealing with a sunset, I needed to light the water to see the color, light the water to make a sun reflection appearance, and light the sky to give it a colorful sunset feel. Most tricky, Sasquach Lite required me to light the grass with a spotlight in order for the grass to be visible. I position the spotlight and adjust it just right to be able to see the grass, but still make it not Lit up, as the sun is setting and that would look unrealistic.

To Solve most the lighting problems took a lot of tinkering, and using multiple lights which only effected their proposed surfaces to achieve the desired effect.