Wraith's First 3D Digital Art Album

firstplanet * One of my first forays into PHOTOSHOP. I achieved this with painted layers and filters. The planet's lighting is not perfectly aligned with the most visible solar light source (yes, a mistake), but it sort of works. Just imagine another sun just out of camera range... it'll be okay... * 399 x 376 * (94KB)

formztest1 * SHAPES ON WATER: Not long after after I got Rhino, I acquired FormZ, which I like for ease of shader application and rendering. FormZ is very good in that regard, and creating materials and shaders is a breeze. Unfortunately, actually DRAWING in FormZ is a bit more difficult, as the user interface is not necessarily very intuitive.

This was my first rendering using FormZ. Simple shapes on a plane. Then materials were applied, which I could not get with standard Rhino (no shaders!). I was really taken with the glass and the chrome shaders, as well as the water (

galactic sky * GALACTIC SKY: Another early merging of 3D and 2D work. I built this

mansring * RING: I'd heard that jewelry makers use 3D graphics programs to design and render realistic looking jewelry prior to manufacturing. I wanted to give it a shot, but I didn't know Rhino or FormZ well enough to actually model something. Still, I wanted to see how it would look, so I modeled a basic man's pinkie ring in DOGA-L and exported it to FormZ for finishing.

I added a displaying surface, lit the scene, and shaded the ring with diamonds, ruby, and gold materials. The ring and gemstones themselves are faily crude, of course, but I was more intrigued with what can be done with lights and shaders, and in that regard, it looks good to me. Lighting the scene was actually interesting and there's more to it than one can tell from first glance. Hint: blue light. * 890 x 538 * (90KB)

mansring1 * RING: A medium distance view, showing more of the reflective glass surface on which the ring rests. * 890 x 538 * (59KB)

firstplanet

formztest1

galactic sky

mansring

mansring1

MoondogFMZ1 * MOONDOG: Yes, it's a hokey name; so sue me! I wanted to make a model reminiscent of the Moonbug space ships seen in the show SPACE 1999. That show was basically awful, but had very advanced effects for its day. The minitures used on the show were terrific. So, I tried to do something along the lines of the Moonbug. The DXF model was snapped together in DOGA-L. I learned a lot making it.

FormZ: I applied two basic materials: a gold foil-like metal and a shiny metal. I added running and interior lights, and tried different environmental coloring. In this image, I used a dark environment, and let the ship's onboard lighting and sunlight provide the glows you see. I used an image of the moon's surface as a background. * 867 x 586 * (374KB)

$MoondogFMZ2 * MOONDOG: A different angle on the FormZ version of the 'dog. Again, I relied mostly on onboard lighting. I used sunlight for overal lighting, but dimmed down the intensity to a fraction of$

MoondogFMZ3 * MOONDOG: Yet another FormZ view. The 'dog is deorbiting and we can see the landing skids and lifting rockets. We also see a better view of the vernier positioning jets on the sides of the lifting rocket pods. I lit this scene with normal sunlight and white environment coloring. * 867 x 586 * (363KB)

MoondogRhino * MOONDOG: This version was rendered in Rhino with Flamingo shaders. I used photometric rendering versus raytracing on this. Neither rendering option came out as well as I'd hoped, but I liked this rendering more. The glows are a bit more realistic in photometric, and the shiny white metal came out more like the original shader (which is actually silver-gloss pearl automobile paint). Notice how the moon's surface (actually not modeled, but a scenic background) is reflected on the 'dog's hull. * 944 x 499 * (351KB)

oldtownA3ds * OLD VILLAGE (work in progress): There a story too long to tell about this model. The short of it is that my wife inspired me to do this one when she wanted me to actually draw this scene on a canvas. I created the village with several large buildings along a narrow street, at the end of which sits the town's church; used Sketchup and then exported it as a DXF file to FormZ.

Exporting in DXF dropped away all the textures I'd applied in Sketchup, so I had to recreate the whole thing all over again in FormZ. The image above has many obvious flaws. The most obvious is that it LOOKS like a model-- one that a kid would have made out of construction paper (note the trees)... sheesh! * 744 x 604 * (185KB)

MoondogFMZ1

MoondogFMZ2

MoondogFMZ3

MoondogRhino

oldtownA3ds

radialeng * RADIAL ENGINE: A more ambitious project; I got a little too big for my britches on this one. This is a simplified model of a WWII-era airplane radial engine. It's not exact because I didn't have the skills or the plans to work from to do a better job. Still, it works if seen from a medium distance. I used DOGA-L to model it, then rendered it with Sketchup, after applying finishes and materials. I intended to use it in other models, as a component. * 940 x 602 * (188KB)

radialeng1 * RADIAL ENGINE: A closer view, showing a brushed steel finish on the lathed parts, such as the cylinder heads and the propeller hub. * 940 x 602 * (224KB)

radialeng2 * RADIAL ENGINE: More brushed steel; this time seen from the rear. Again, not having plans to work from, I had no clue as to what the rear of a radial engine looks like. You purists out there can just simmer down! * 940 x 602 * (177KB)

shuttlebow * CAPTAIN'S YACHT: One of my early models created in DOGA-L and exported as a DXF to Sketchup. In Sketchup, I installed interior furnishings and cockpit controls to the shuttle, which is meant to be a yacht used by the captain of a Star Trek type of starship for trips farther out than a transporter can reach. Testing Sketchup, I rendered this model in several views and added text. I have subsequently used this basic model in other renderings in this album. * 940 x 579 * (115KB)

patrol

radialeng

radialeng1

radialeng2

shuttlebow

Album last updated on 7/5/05 10:45 PM