Bytescapes

a gallery of computer-generated images

Under the towers

Comments

This image began as an attempt to model a Martian scene - not the real Mars as seen by Pathfinder, but the Mars of towers and canals of Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles". During the course of evolution of the scene I removed the towers and broke up the canal system, as the landscape with the distant mountains was becoming more interesting for itself. Then I had another change of direction and put the towers back not, this time, as Bradbury's slender, graceful palaces, but as giant, menacing shapes on the horizon, projecting beams of light skywards and surrounded by an unearthly glow under an oppressive sky. To complete the feeling, two small Poser figures were added in the middle ground, one supporting the other as they negotiate the broken terrain. I'm not sure what the story is here, but it's something sinister.

No particularly interesting techniques in use; the towers are simple shapes lathed in Extreme 3D, imported as DXF's and squeezed a little, with a metallic texture applied. The beams of light they emit are cylinders with the standard Green Lit texture applied, and they are each surrounded by an ellipsoid with a whiteish fuzzy additive texture. The Poser figures were imported directly as DXF's.

The citation is an afterthought and is perhaps not wholly relevant. It's a vague sort of eco-doom idea which doesn't jar too badly with the wasted lands shown in the image.

Applications

KPT Bryce 2.1
Metatools
Photoshop 4
Adobe
Extreme 3D 2.0
Macromedia
Poser 2
Fractal Design