=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Image: sjg_auto_safety.jpg Background: Entry for the July 1995 Internet Raytrace Competition Render time: 800x600 with 2x oversample anti-aliasing: 2 hours 5 minutes using Strata Studio Pro 1.5.2 on on a PowerMac 8100/110 with 32 Meg of memory. Legal: Created by Samuel J. Goldstein. This file is Copyright (C) 1995. All rights reserved. You may use this source file to create the scene or use the components in your own scenes, with or without modifications, freely for NON-COMMERCIAL purposes. Please send me a copy of any scene (other than the original) that incorporates any significant part of this file. Commercial users please contact me for terms of use or information about my art services. I can be reached at: 4227 Sunnyside Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90066-5609 310-822-5426 goldstein@aerospace.aero.org =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Gadgets and wierd devices. What a topic. Here in Los Angeles, there're ads on half the busses in town with a stern looking Cop telling us that if we want to keep our cars, we'd better buy their anti-theft product. I can relate to the whole concept, having had my car ripped off a couple of years ago. Of course, their ridiculous anti-theft device did nothing to save it. So the thought occurs to me, why not get serious about preventing auto theft? I mean, it won't protect your investment, but hey! Nobody messes with a car protected with The Bludgeon [tm]! OK, about the picture. The dashboard is pretty closely modelled after the dashboard of my car. A few things were added because I liked the juxtaposition; the cigarette butts, for example (I don't actually smoke, but they looked so good near the dynamite). Unfortunately, JPEGing the image at a moderate quality (in keeping with the Will Of The Judges) kind of smeared much of the text and screwed up the anti-aliasing. Oh well. If anyone wants a cleaner image, email me and we'll figure out how to get it to you. Technical Stuff: I know there were some objections to the use of image maps. This picture uses them rather heavily -- the world outside the windshield, the Porsche logo, the VDO gauges, the rear-view mirror reflection, the radio and ventilation faceplates, and the lighter logogram are all either scans of original photos or hand-drawn bitmaps. I tried modelling the outside world, but decided that this effect was nicer. After all, it's the combination of elements between the modelled and the textured (and image-mapped) that makes a good picture. Still, this picture also has a lot of modelling in it as well, some of which is more obvious than other parts (steering wheel vs. the windshield wipers). The rear-view mirror dangle (mask and strings) was probably the greatest modelling challenge in the image. Additional Legal Stuff: A lot of the image-map stuff is probably trademarked. The Porsche Logo is definitely a registered trademark, and the VDO guage faces may well be too. I recognize all trademarks used, and claim no title to them. I've been told that the dashboard configurations to many cars are trademarked [!], but I suspect in the days of the good ol' 914, this wasn't true. Also, the *sshole security guards at the Marina Marketplace Mall in Marina del Rey, California assured me that I was not permitted to take photographs in their parking lot. For what reason, I don't know. They can bite my tailpipe. Source is 3.8 Meg (TDMP*), and requires Strata Studio Pro to read. I'd be happy to send the source to anyone who's interested. Email me for arrangements. * TDMP - Too Damn Many Polygons