Theme:  Sea of Science -- dive deep!
(For May/June 1995 competition "Science")

Filenames:
1. sea_of_sci_full.jpg
    full view
2. sea_of_sci_closeup.jpg
    closeup view

Author:  Yue-Ling Wong (ylwong@aol.com)

3D program:  Autodesk 3D Studio release 4

Description:
I think science is like a gigantic ocean and scientists 
are like the diver in the scene to discover and 
explore.  I tried to make each object in the scene 
symbolize one or more scientific fields, for examples:
- the big Erlenmeyer flask --> experiments
- the diver --> scientist
- the DNA double helix --> life science, genetics, etc.
- the fishes --> oceanology
- the globe -->earth science
- the planet --> astronomy
- the atomic model --> chemistry/physics
- the peaks --> spectroscopy, instrumentation, etc.

Due to the limitation of my imagination and my 
computer's power, I certainly cannot include all the 
scientific fields in the scene.  Even if I did, the 
scene will look like Minestrone soup.

The Making:
1. The big Erlenmeyer flask
    I drew out a slice of the flask in Shaper and 
lofted it in a circular path in Lofter.  Assign the 
cyan glass texture which I increased its transparency 
and reduced the shininess.

2. The diver
    The original mesh (50pman.3ds) comes with 3D 
Studio.  First, I defined the joint parameters for the 
linked body parts.  Then, using IK (Inverse Kinematic) 
and just Keyframer to rotate and move the body parts to 
make him look like diving and discovering.
However, it is either a bug or a feature that any 
movement I made using IK on the mesh (even on Frame 0 
in the Keyframer) does not reflect on the 3D Editor.  
So, if I want to convert the 3ds file to povray file, 
the diver's pose will not be seen.  The diver will only 
be a stiff man.  Therefore, I did not ray-trace my 
scene.

3. The DNA double helix
    I drew a thin rectangle in Shaper and lofted it in 
a helical path in Lofter to make one helix.  Duplicate 
and mirror this helix, and make it offset somewhat 
horizontally and vertically to make another helix.
The bonds inside the double helix are made of 
cylinders, each have equal vertical offset and a 30 
degree rotational offset.

4. The fishes
    The original mesh (walleye.3ds) is from the 
Autodesk's World Creating Toolkit CD-ROM comes with 3D 
Studio.  To make its tail bend a little, I bend the 
faces at about bottom half of the fish.  Then assign 
texture.  The fishes are swimming towards the diver 
directing people's focus to the diver, the center of 
the scene.

5. The globe
    The original mesh (earth2.3ds) is from the 
Autodesk's World Creating Toolkit CD-ROM.

6. The planet
    It is only a sphere and a thin torus.  The sphere 
was texture mapped with a Jupiter image (comes with 3D 
Studio texture library).  The torus used the pink 
marble texture.  I put them near the white peaks to 
make them look a bit outer-space.  I made them tilt 
towards the diver, so that it can again direct people's 
focus to the diver, the center of the scene.

7. The atomic model
    Six spheres grouped together as the atomic nucleus 
-- red as protons and blue as neutrons.  Three very 
thin torus around the nucleus represent the electron 
orbitals.

8. The peaks
    Draw a circle and the lines (peak shape) in Shaper.  
Loft the circle in the path of the peak-shaped line.

9. The landscape at the bottom of the flask
    The original mesh (crater.3ds) which is from the 
Autodesk's World Creating Toolkit CD-ROM is 
rectangular.  I did a Boolean (subtraction) 
between the crater and the bottom of the flask, so that 
the crater landscape can fit perfectly at the bottom of 
the flask.

10. The title
    Type text in Shaper and loft them in Lofter.  I 
chose the Cobra font because it seems to have a 
scientific look.

11. The lighting
    To make the bottom of the flask look like glowing 
(due to all kinds of treasures!), I added one spotlight 
below the flask and one above the diver.  Both 
spotlights point to the diver.  This way also 
highlights the diver making it the center of the scene.