The Summer 1995 CAD Class. Rendering Assignment (5)

Summer 1995: Rendering Assignment (5)

PART I: Telecommunications

1. Check WWW Gallery Page, and send in any corrections, typos, etc. by email. Especially check that your email address is correctly indicated on your gallery page. If your work is missing, check the class folder on the New York server to see if your file was rejected because of incorrect format or file type, etc. If your work is on the "highlights" page, check that your image is identifiable. There will be a midterm review of assignments 1 to 4 on Thursday, July 13. Final grading will also be based largely on the work submitted electronically.

PART II: Rendering in Alias, Softimage or Strata

You can choose to do the rendering assignment in Alias or Softimage, on the Silicon Graphics workstations, or in Strata, on a Macintosh. Either way, this exercise can be begun immediately, in the modeling module, while the rendering process, with lights and texture maps, etc., will be discussed in greater detail at the next class. The process will be an investigation of color, transparency, reflections, shadows, lighting and materiality.

It is highly recommended that you log in at an SGI machine, call up Softimage from the menu, and try to work your way through the first few tutorials in the manual. These are step by step exercises which tell you exactly what to do. The roller-coaster and molecule examples are highly recommended. The next time you use Softimage, try doing the same tutorial over again in half the time. The third time, see if you can do it from memory.

This assignment will involve the modeling of a simple, but particular architectural space within a virtual "House for a Renderer," in which you can experiment with materials, transparency and lighting. The space should be scaled for human habitation, and that should be apparent from your treatment of textures. The space should include:

* an opening to the outdoors through a wall
* an opening to the sky through the roof
* a dark interior area in shadow
* a bright interior area
* a glossy surface
* a mirrored surface
* a transparent component
* a marble or wooden sculpture in the form of a simple geometrical primitive
* a structural component in masonry
* and at least two spot lights of different colors

Whatever the hardware platform, you will document two very different treatments of your space, two different moods, by varying the lighting parameters.

More details will be posted here shortly...

NOTE: Add a small descriptive label with your name (in Photoshop) to identify your renderer, such as: Jane Jones: Rendering 1 - Softimage

NOTE: This page will be updated several times, so please revisit it each time you work at this assignment.

Submitting your work electronically..

Check the list and schedule of CAD topics...

For more information...