EMAIL: intertek@one.net
NAME: Michael Hunter
TOPIC: Out of Place
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Minimalist Solution 
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE: http://www.interactivetechnologies.net
RENDERER USED: 3D Studio Max Version 6
TOOLS USED: 3D Studio Max
RENDER TIME: 5 Minutes
HARDWARE USED: Pentium 4 1.8 GHz 261 MB RAM

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
A very thin cube with a circle removed from it. The idea driving this was to make the most direct uncluttered, straightforward solution to the topic as possible.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:
I started, as you might imagine, using a cylinder to cut out the hole (using the Boolean operation). I discovered that you really couldn't see the depth of the cube or the piece that was removed - it just looked like a 2D image - but making the edges beveled seemed to fix this. I selected the leading edges of the circular cut and "chamfered" them. The removed piece was not made by a Boolean operation - it is a cylinder shape so it's cylinder with its edges modified.

I desperately wanted to avoid a background but at the same time I wanted to suggest depth. To do this I created a flat plane for the objects to sit on. It was given a "Matt/Shadow" texture - a 3D Max material type that is completely transparent but will render any shadow cast on it. The dreaded background is a gradient - made within the texture editor of Max. Together the clear plane with its shadows and the gradient background give the illusion of a seamless, infinite space.

Lighting
There are two light sources. One is a Directional spotlight (a light that casts parallel rays) and a Sky Light (which simulates the defuse light from the sky). This is a nice combination of light types because you can get casts shadows and soft ambient light at the same time.

Rendering
I used the Light Tracer. It might not be as accurate as what Max calls its radiosity renderer but its less prone to odd rendering glitches too. One very nice feature with the Light Tracer is that you can specify how many times light is permitted to bounce around in the image. If you set it at 0 light will not reflect from one object to another. A setting of 1 will let light bounce off a table top and light up the bottom of an apple but the light doesn't bounce off the apple on to other objects. In most cases I can't tell the difference between 2 bounces and 3 other than in rendering time.

Links
I found a really great resource for fine art galleries:
http://www.artnet.com/ag/galleryindex.asp?N=1

You can find thousands of paintings and drawings from this one link. Although I haven't found any 3D work though this link its really worth a look just to see what the analog world is doing. These are mostly folks with huge reputations so there's plenty to learn.