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2006 Spring ->3D Computer Modeling ->Galleries ->Desk Gallery ->Katie Walker
| | | Katie Walker | | Desk Scene | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lovers and Fools | |
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| | Inspiration
Ever since I read the novel The Fool Reversed in my early teenage years tarot cards have fascinated me. I’ve never been one to really believe in such phenomena, but I’ve had a lot of fun telling fortunes for my friends and playing with the idea. When I began to brainstorm my desk scene, the idea of a fortuneteller’s table was one of the first ideas to come to mind. I wanted to have a crystal ball in the scene for my glass element. I pictured the ball on a round table for the desk element to echo the shape of the glass. I saw the scene looking out onto a moonlit night through large windows that allowed the moonlight to stream in. The entire scene utilizes rich jewel tones, which are often associated with fortunetellers, wizardry and magic. The scene is entitled “Lovers and Fools” because of the kind of people often associated with fortune telling and mysticism, and also refers to two tarot cards in the scene.
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| | | Objects | Table | Katie Walker | | | Crystal Ball | Katie Walker | | | Tarot Cards 1,2 and 3 | Katie Walker | | | Windows and Frames | Katie Walker | | | Room | Katie Walker | | | Lamp and Chain | Katie Walker | | | Notebook | Katie Walker | | | Pencil | Katie Walker |
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| | | Textures | Outside image | http://www.casabrian.com/ images/medium/ Home/CRW_1762_med.jpg | | | The Lovers Tarot card | http://www.eosdev.com/ Illustrations_Quotes/Cyndi/ eos_fool_lovers.htm | | | The Fool Tarot Card | http://www.eosdev.com/ Illustrations_Quotes/Cyndi/ eos_fool_fool.htm | | | The Moon Tarot Card | http://www.eosdev.com/ Illustrations_Quotes/Cyndi/ eos_fool_moon.htm | | | Lamp Shade | Hammered Chrome | Lightwave | | | Room Walls | fBm Procedural Texture | Lightwave | | | Window Frames | Wood Procedural | Lightwave w/ | | | Wooden Sections of Table | African Mahagony | http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/ ~pbourke/ texture/display image.cgi?woodgrain/ africanmahogany.jpg | | | Table Top | Marble Procedural | Lightwave | | | Table Top | Marble Image | http://textures.forrest.cz/ | | | Crystal Ball | Katie Walker | | | | Floor Stone | Lightwave | |
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| | Problems and Solutions
P1: The first problem I encountered was creating a realistic crystal ball. I searched for a tutorial, but could only find ones for two sided glass objects such as tumblers or wine glasses. Using these methods, my crystal ball looked like a blown glass ball that was hollow, which was not the effect I wanted.
Solution: To create my crystal ball I ended up doing several tutorials for glasses and then experimented with my own settings to create a ball that looked like solid glass. I used the settings for the outside of a glass originally and then altered them a lot through experimentation until I got the look I desired.
P2: I wanted to make my lamp hanging from a chain and started out trying to create my own from scratch. It was too irregular and hard to create a realistic looking chain.
Solution: I did a tutorial for Rail Extrude from a past student, which showed me how to create a chain of uniform links using the tool.
P3: I wanted to have claw feet on the base of my table but could not figure out how to create smooth curves from the base out to the feet. I had some suggestions but was not able to utilize them in a way I was happy with.
Solution: Creating the feet was not working out and since I could arrange my scene effectively without the bottom of the table even being shown, I decided to make the bottom of the table very basic and will look into creating the claw feet shapes in the future.
P4: Another problem was simply knowing how to realistically texture surfaces.
Solution: I searched a lot for textures online that I thought would work well in my scene, as well as in Lightwave. I then read through parts of Essential Lightwave 3D 7.5 about texturing and experimented with many different settings. I tried altering settings and then rendering the image to see how worked out many times. It was a good way to see the effects of many different surface and texture settings.
P5: My last problem was lighting. I wanted my scene to be somewhat dark, but for all the objects to be clearly visible. With my initial lighting situation, my lamp was just a dark shadow.
Solution: To fix the lighting, I increased the intensity of the moonlight shining in, and added a low intensity fill light that affects only the lampshade and casts no shadow. While I still don’t think the illumination on the lamp looks completely natural, I think it works well to show off the lamp and chain, and is low enough intensity that it is not strikingly out of place to the eye.
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| | | Time Frame | Time planning: | 1 hour | | | Modeling and texturing Room: | 1 hour | | | Modeling and Texturing Windows and Frames: | 3 hours | | | Finding and projecting Outside image: | 30 minutes | | | Modeling and Texturing Table: | 4 hours | | | Modeling and Texturing Lamp: | 5 hours | | | Modeling and Texturing Crystal Ball: | 3 hours | | | Modeling and Texturing Tarot Cards: | 30 minutes | | | Modeling Pencil: | 30 minutes | | | Modeling Notebook with text: | 2 hours | | | Placement: | around 3 hours (overtime due to camera angles/lights/rethinking scene) | | | Lighting: | 6 hours |
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