TITLE: Curiosity
NAME: James Radvan
COUNTRY: AU
EMAIL: jim@t130.aone.net.au
WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/wallstreet/5081/index.html
TOPIC: Magic
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: tower.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    3D Studio MAX 1.1

TOOLS USED: 
    Lightning shareware plugin, Fractal Poser

RENDER TIME: 
    6 minutes

HARDWARE USED: 
    Cyrix 6x86 133, 64 Mb RAM

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

I wanted to do something that reflected the 'dark' side of the traditional
fantasy magic
 genre.  The image depicts a sorcerer, stripped and in agony, flailing out of
the upper
 window of his tower; struggling desperately as he is 'consumed' by the faceless
demon
 within.  I named it "curiosity" because the image reflects all of the 'other'
sorcerers
 that never made it into the tales and legends because they were too curious and
careless
 in their early days...

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

I found out about the IRTC in mid-August and, realising that I only had 2 weeks
to submit
 my entry, hopped to it.  I don't know where I got the idea; I was just stuffing
around
 in MAX and it grew on me.  All the materials, unless stated otherwise,  are
standard MAX
 materials.
The tower is a simple tube with windows carved by boolean subtraction.  The rock
material
 is a standard MAX one, with slight adjustments to the filter colour.  The steps
at the base
 have the same material and are lit by a yellow-orange volumetric spotlight from
within.
The roof is a cone covered in an old wood material.  It is capped by another
cone with
 noise and edit mesh modifiers covered in a rusted metal material, as are the
struts; which
 are simple noised boxes.
The upper room is lit by a single red volumetric spotlight.  The wizard was done
in Poser,
 exported as a DXF and brought into the MAX scene.  He is covered in a custom
skin material.
 I went for a naked wizard because it emphasises his vulnerability (and because
i didnt have
 the time to model his clothes!). Anyway, the pinky white, tortured look of his
skin gives
 a good impression that he is in some serious pain.
The only unoriginal object in the whole scene is the wizards hair, which is a
fern plant
 (!) downloaded from www.3dcafe.com.  I liked the fern because it gives that
wild unkempt
 look to the hair.  It has been noised and actually has a white plastic material
on it; 
 this would likely be unsatisfactory for an animation involving a closeup of the
wizard, but
 for a still it works fine.
The ground is a large flat box with fractal noise applied and is covered in the
'dino skin'
 material.  I spent a long time rendering different ground materials to get the
effect I
 wanted, and this is the closest I could get.  I think it gives the impression
of a forest
 clearing at night fairly well.
The lightning was done with the shareware plugin 'lightning' from
http://www.platinumpictures.com.  The random bolts were created with the fractal
spline
 generator, then lofted with the lightning lofter.  The superglow video post
effect
 completed the lightning object.  Lightning is a way cool plugin (I must get
around to
 sending them the $50!)
A large directional light behind and to the left of the camera lights the tower
and forest
floor.  I avoided the use of fill lights as i wanted the theme of the image to
be fairly
 dark and foreboding.  The directional light casts a nice shadow behind the
tower, and the
 shadows from the lightning give the rest of the clearing a 'treed' look.  I
particularly
 like the dramatic camera angle.
The text, a little spiel of my own design, was added in Photoshop 4.0
post-render (i assume
 this is ok by the rules).
Had I a little more free time I might have added rivets in the roor struts, a
couple of
 lamps by the front door, windowsills, etc.  All the little details.  Also, as i
get better
 with MAX (I have been using it on and off for 2 months) I'll be able to  render
more
 impressive scenes.  Watch out in September/October!