Objective:
- This image was generated using a ray tracer (POV-Ray)
for an introduction to graphics couse at DePaul University.
- The assignment was to use a height-map to model a "natural"
scene.
|
Analysis:
- The movie "Return of the King" was being heavily
promoted around the time of the assignment, so I decided
to model a scene from Tolkein's Middle Earth. I chose
to model the land of Mordor because it is a barren place,
devoid of trees; this would allow me to use the POV-Ray
camera to zoom in fairly close without giving away the
fact that any added vegetation was really just a green
color map.
- The height map was drawn using photoshop. I started
with a shade of black to form the ground plane and a slightly
darker shade to create the sea. I then began adding high-transparency
white dots to slowly raise the mountain peeks until I
got them the way I wanted them.
- Next, I applied a color map to make the Sea black, the
land and mountains grey and the mountain peaks white with
snowcaps.
- Using "stock" code that comes with POV-Ray,
I added a sky plane over the height map and turned the
sky red in order to make the scene more menacing.
- I added a "crackel" pattern to the land to
give the appearance of broken, rocky terrain, but it never
seemed quite right even after several adjustments.
- The Sea layer was given a slight reflective property
to add to the illusion of water.
- The "focus" of the peak is The Orodruin (Mount
Doom) to which I applied a red spotlight, hoping to bring
it out. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of way to mask
the "snowcaps" that were applied to it using
the color map. In retrospect, I think I could have applied
a second color map at that exact spot, or perhaps a "Volcano"
texture.
|
