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Old 09-17-2006, 11:36 AM   #70
Jim Sachs
Developer
 
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Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,768
Nothing exciting. I'm working on it about 12 hours a day, but it's slow going - pure drudgery. Each tiny object has to be created then reworked countless times until it looks good from whatever angle the camera will see it from as it pans. Even though the viewing angle does not change radically, it's enough to show that the object isn't real. The elephant-ear coral that I'm working on right now is a good example of this. Since it has become something of an MA trademark, I feel compelled to include it, but I only have the one picture to go by. Using this as a texture, it must be projected onto the 3D object from the front, as the camera originally saw it. When the camera moves to the side even slightly, the texture becomes an incoherant mass of streaks.

So, I must create a new object closer to the viewer which will slide in front of the offending object, obscuring it as the camera position exposes an unacceptable angle. Then there's the problem of viewing THAT object from different angles, and so on... Oh, well - If I ever do get this finished, it should remain the gold standard of 3D simulations for a long time, because nobody else would be nuts enough to go through this again.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium
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