| | | Steve Liebenberg | | Final Scene | | | Dreamscape | |
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| | Inspiration
I chose to depict a scene that would tell a personal story. This scene is comprised of a past chapter in my life and a desire to return to that life style in the future. I lived in Brazil for eight years, had a house by the beach and went surfing or sailing on my catamaran almost everyday. In a nutshell, it was a very good life.
I, however, chose to return to the U.S. and complete my higher education. Now, with the added stress of the aforementioned I often drift off into the memories of my past life and desire to return. I know I will return. So, for the time being I decided to use what I’ve learned over the semester to create a scene from memory. This scene is of a place called Praia de Castelleanos, located on the opposite side of the island where I lived.
I decided to challenge myself and depict the delicious transparency of tropical ocean water. I also wanted to give an uncluttered minimal dreamlike scene without a bleak feeling.
Story
This scene is the story of where I’ll be in several years at my kiosk on the beach selling beers and coconut water. I didn’t include my house on the mainland; which will have my 3D workspace, including both my computer and sculpture equipment. At this space I plan to build my bed and breakfast hotel that will include ecotourism. This is actually a work in progress. I see it as the beginning of a journey. I’ve landed my catamaran on my newly purchased land and commenced the building process. It’s a metaphor for a dream that has been initialized and not yet completed.
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| | | Objects | Kiosk | Steve | | | Rocks | Steve | | | Land | Steve | | | Catamaran | Steve | | | Water | Steve | | | Coconut Palms | Lightwave manipulated and retextured by Steve | | | | | | Features | Skytracer 2 | Lightwave | | | Sasquatch light | Lightwave | | | | | | Textures | Water and sand | Steve Liebenberg | | | Catamaran | Lightwave | | | All other textures from www.3D café.com |
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| | Problems and Solutions
My initial obstacle came in the form of creating realistic water. I had plans for building more objects then, came to the conclusion that I was comfortable building objects and wanted to focus on lighting and textures. I figured that my scene didn’t need too many objects to tell the story. Also, more objects wouldn’t have made a bit of difference without a cohesive environment.
The direct solution to this was to start rendering from the onset of the project. With water and sky, I found that I couldn’t get the results with quick renders so, I had to turn on the anti-aliasing, reflection and transparency. Since, I didn’t get the results that I wanted with tutorials I decided to use them as a base and start tweaking the procedural textures and shaders to get the transparency and reflection that I wanted. I did about thirty renders total.
Conclusion
I think this project was quite successful. I do feel, however, that the wind blown sand seems a little too CG. Beyond that, I’m happy with the end result. It gives you a feeling of a tropical island that you’d like to escape to; a place I’d like to be.
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