TITLE: The Acolyte's Invitation
NAME: Barrett L. Bowen
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: batronyx@cadronhsa.com
WEBPAGE: http://www.batronyx.com (Just a GeoCities alias, nothing much here)
TOPIC: Worship
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: aclytblb.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    Imagine for Windows v1.0

TOOLS USED: 
    sPatch, PaintShopPro v7.0, FL.exe (by Patrick Sauvageau)

RENDER TIME: 
    10 mins for the scanline rendered entry.
            The intended raytrace entry is still at it after 18hrs and only 30%
            complete (sigh)

HARDWARE USED: 
    Intel Celeron 450 w/64Mb RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

        Alongside the straight and narrow path are many temptations appearing to
offer
        pleasure, power, or a restful easy way of life, but they all lead to the
same
        place. It's hot down there. The evil of their ways is easy to spot if we
but 
        choose to see past the apparent beauty.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


        The woman's body is about the fifth iteration of an attempt to model a
realistic
        woman, a process started long ago and only finished for this round. The
head was 
        modelled in sPatch by following Anton Maktovich's tutorial and imported
and attached to
        the body in Imagine. The hands and feet were "borrowed" from a model
found on 3DCafe ( It is 
        apparently a Poser 3 model but the torso is expanded so large as to be
totally 
        useless as is.)
        
        Specifically, for this round the the horns were extruded along a spline
path, and the horn
        ridges, where they come out of the head were extruded and smoothed out,
as was the collar
        bone. Then subgroups were defined on the geometry for texturing and
boning. This was
        my first real attempt boning and posing a model and was much more
difficult than I 
        expected. The eyes were modelled following a tutorial by Bill Fleming
found on 3DCafe.
        Except my eyes use an Imagine procedural texture called Iris rather than
an image map
        as is used in the tutorial. Image maps 'were' used to add color to the
lips and some 
        purple tint around the eyelids, and a bumpmap created for the abdomen
and ribs.
        The ribs extend down lower than I wanted, but I didn't have time to fix
them. Also the
        navel is inwardly extruded geometry, and the knees fixed with an outward
extrusion.
        I spent a good month on just these modifications.
        
        I spent about 3 days on the robe, not wanting a completely naked woman.
But ultimately 
        I settled for a fuzzy diaphanous texture so as not to completely obscure
all of the hard
        work I put into the acolyte. The robe's style was made to look
semi-religious with wide
        hems and the length. It was modelled around the woman after she was
posed. First, I 
        took a copy of the woman and started deleting geometry until I had
fairly clean edge
        encompassing the perimeter of the torso and arms. I then extruded the
edges down several
        times and closed the geometry around the sleeves part of the way down. A
deform tool
        was used to shape the robe around the rest of the body and fine tuned
around the
        legs by moving the points one at a time until test renders showed they
no longer 
        intersected any of her. Finally the hem & collar were extruded and fine
tuned as well.
        I don't think I've done anything here with Imagine that couldn't be done
in sPatch/hamma
        patch although I'm sure the process would be different.
        
        The bones were made from the Bones Font letter 'I'. The geometry was
scaled out on the
        ends, twisted slightly, then the whole thing smoothed. I then placed a
few around the
        scene to add an ominous quality. Also at this time I made 'skull &
crossbones' earrings
        for the woman using a similiar techniques on the Wingdings Font letter
'N'. It's there
        but you can't really see it.
        
        The ground is generated with FL.exe, a fractal land generator for
Imagine and textured with
        Imagine procedural textures. Not as good as a POV heightfield, but
workable. The pedastal
        (representing power) and the walls are just primitives with Imagine
procedural textures.
        
        The tree and shrubs were modelled in Imagine and use a texturing
technique of my own
        invention that I'm rather proud of. The branches are simple path
extrusions but the
        leaves are created by deforming a polygon sphere to generally fit around
the branches.
        Several triangles from the sphere were then extruded inward towards the
center, then
        about 30-40% of all of them deleted. A particles function was then
applied -- one randomly
        sized & rotated geometric shape ( also randomly selected) per triangle.
Finally several
        procedural textures having transparency were layered on to suggest
foliage and smaller
        branches. 
        
        I want to try this technique in POV-Ray soon. I think it could be done
with the Colefax pcm
        or explode macros and some turbulent spots and a crackle. There are
better techniques for
        creating realistic close up plants in POV, but it ought to be great for
creating space filling
        background foliage in the mid to far distance, and at a savings in
modelling time
        and possibly memory ( depends on how much geometry you actually
define.)
        
        I haven't had an entry since the summer round, for career reasons, and
I'm tired of
        investing time, sleepless nights and such hard work, in unfinished
images that nobody
        sees. I wouldn't really consider this image finished either, but it is
more complete than
        most of my others. So I'm excited to actually have an entry this time!
        I hope you enjoy :)