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Introduction

This page is about Kevin's 3D computer graphics hobby. It is probably only interesting to other 3D hobbyists, if at all. If you're unfamiliar with 3D computer graphics and would like to learn more, there's a nice summary of the history of computer graphics at "A History of Computer Graphics and Animation" as recounted by Wayne Carlson at The Ohio State University.

Kevin writes:
One of my hobbies is computer graphics and animation. I've been doing 3D modeling, rendering, and animation since the late 1980s (you'd think I'd be better at it by now). I can't remember what the very first ray tracer I used was called. It was C language source code, which I compiled and ran on Unix boxes at school, and on my Amiga once I got it. Later, I remember using DKB Trace by David Buck. Once I had the Amiga, I managed to scrounge up the money to get Sculpt 3D, which I used for several years. Meanwhile, DKB Trace evolved into POV-Ray. The input to POV is a text file containing a scene description written in a custom scripting language. I liked the output of the POV renderer, and the fact that I could compile it on several different platforms, so I wrote a tool to convert Sculpt 3D files to POV-Ray. This allowed me to use the modeling tools in Sculpt with the POV-Ray ray tracer.

Later, I purchased Aladdin 4D for the Amiga, and it became my tool of choice. As the Amiga grew old and eventually died, I was able to continue using A4D, limping along using emulation software under windoze and Linux. I was looking for a new tool. I liked POV-Ray, but wasn't thrilled with the modeling tools available for it. In particular, the animation tools were primitive compared to what I'd grown used to with A4D. Lightwave and Maya found their way to the top of my wish list, but were priced beyond what I could justify spending on my on-again off-again hobby.

I considered a couple of free / open source projects. OpenFX is a descendant of Sculpt, and so has an interface that's very comfortable for me. However, it ran only on Windows at the time, and the animation support wasn't what I was hoping for. Blender had also become free by that time. It has a nice set of features, but I just couldn't get the hang of the interface (I'm told they're redesigning it). I had just started writing my own 3D modeling and animation package (for the 5th time), targeting POV Ray as the outboard renderer, when I happened across the Art Of Illusion project. I was skeptical about the performance of its Java-based renderer, but was very interested in the Java-based modeling and animation features. The renderer has since won me over (a POV Ray export facility for AoI also exists). In fact, an AoI-generated image won the Internet Raytracing Competition (IRTC) in the Sept-Oct round of 2003. You can get a look at it here. AoI is currently my 3D tool of choice, and I'm happily (though slowly) working my way along its learning curve. In particular, I like the fact that it's relatively easy to "hack" the source code, allowing me to modify the program to suit whatever project I'm working on.


Some Favorites

Modern 3D software tools, even the free ones, are capable of producing some amazing results. Unfortunately for me (and for you, gentle reader), there's still no substitute for talent! So before you look at my stuff, here, in no particular order, are some links to the works of a few of my favorite 3D artists and animators.
Soa Lee Jaime Vives Piqueres Gilles Tran
Dennis Miller Nate Ryan The CGTalk Gallery



4D Gallery

Here's a brief chronology of my own 3D projects, with links to some of the work I've managed to keep from losing over the years. Although the number of entries may give the impression that I spend lots of time on this hobby, the poor quality should quickly disabuse the reader of that idea. Typically, I'll work on a 3D project for a week or two, then drop the hobby for months or even years at a time.

  • USD Backgrounds: circa 1990
    In the old MS-DOS days of PCs, when Windows was still a bit of a joke, people who were trapped using PCs used to build text-based menues of their commonly used applications and put them in the startup scripts (autoexec.bat). To jazz them up, I used to display them over background images. Among the first 3D images I made were a couple of background images for my dad's computers at U.S.D.
    Click to view the Charlie Coyote Image, and the USD SOM Image. These were made on an Amiga 2000, using Sculpt 3D.

  • The Algorythms: circa 1991
    The first 3D animation project I remember working on after I got the Amiga was modeling and animating a band of Robots who would play rock and roll. They were to be called "The Algorythms", and they'd be playing the music my friends and I were making. (Later a Jazz band came along who called themselves the Algorythms. Given that I had never gotten very far with the project, I didn't mind sharing the name.) Here's one of the original images I rendered of the band, modeled and rendered on the Amiga using Sculpt 3D. Click to view The Algorythms!.

  • Spot Dance: circa 1991
    The first animation of the Algorythms was a very short clip of the lead singer dancing on stage. I can remember showing this animation at an open house for the Computer Science Dept. at Kansas State University. It was part of a multimedia presentation that my friend Jeff Brogden put together about ray tracing. That animation still exists as part of the Dancing Robot animation. See the Dancing Robot entry below.

  • Dataplex / Goof Plant: circa 1992
    This animation was made with a combination of Sculpt 3D and NewTek's DigiPaint. Hypertext was a hot topic on University campuses, but the World Wide Web and web browsers hadn't turned up yet. Click to view the Dataplex Anim

  • How To Make A Paper Airplane: 1994-1995
    This was a longish animation I did on the Amiga. Most of the shots were done with A4D, but some bits were done in Sculpt 3D (the folding paper, in particular) and the cave sequence was done using POV Ray. The dragon model was done in POV Ray by Rick Wedgeworth. At that time, only Amigas and SGI machines could really play back video in realtime, so I dumped the animation to video tape using just the Amiga, a $40 TV adaptor, and a standard VHS VCR. Because the Amiga could play back the animations full-screen, I didn't need any sort of single-frame recording device, though I did hit pause between shots! Here is a link to the Flash and Quicktime versions at Revver.com (why Revver?)

  • Spiral Penguins: 1995
    In 1995, I entered a 3D animation contest hosted by entertainment software company World Fusion Software (I'm not positive that this is the same company). For this contest, they wanted "looping" animations. That is, animations with no beginning and no ending. Such animations would be suitable for screen savers and the like. I entered two animations; an early version of 3D Coolness (see below) and an animation called Spiral Penguins. I no longer have the original version of this animation, but here's a rerendered version. I received an award for these entries, thus becoming an award-winning animator!    ;-)   Spiral Penguins was made using Aladdin 4D on the Amiga.

  • Pointee Advertisement: 1995
    Matt Moses had access to some fancy single-frame video recording equipment at the Army High Performance Computing Research Center at about this time, so I tried to come up with an animation that we could maybe dump to tape using their toys. This is the animation I ended up with, though we never got around to putting it on tape. The winter landscape and barren trees were generated using custom programs I'd written. The animation was all POV Ray, rendered on a network of Sun workstations to which I had "after hours" access. Add a couple of simple shell scripts and "viola!" a render farm! The train model was made by Rick Wedgeworth. These are the original frames I rendered back then, but the original audio is lost, so this is a remake. Click here to watch the video.

  • Time: 1996
    I collaborated with Matt Moses on an IRTC Stills entry in May-June of 1996. The topic was "time". I used Sculpt 3D and Matt used LightWave. The final render was done with POV-Ray running on a Sun workstation. Ours is the kmtime.jpg entry.

  • Keep Cool: circa 1996
    This is an image I did on the Amiga using Aladdin 4D. I believe I intended to submit it to a contest somehwere, but I'm not sure which. I never submitted it because I never quite finished it (background scenery wasn't done). Click here to see keepcool.jpg.

  • Character Alchemy Advert: circa 1997?
    At around this time, our friend Rick Wedgeworth had started a company that made utility software for Dungeons and Dragons players. The cover art on the box (software came in boxes in those days) included a very cool dragon he'd modeled as part of our "The Education of St George" project. I thought it would be fun to make an animated advertisement for their product based on that box artwork. I never quite finished the project, but here's a link to the test animation. The voice-over was going to say something like "Character Alchemy: real tools for real dungeon masters." or "the only tool used by real dungeon masters." or something like that.

  • 3D Coolness: 1998
    An IRTC-anim entry from the 4th quarter of 1998. The topic was "Microcosms". I had originally done this animation as part of another contest (see above) but had been wanting to rework it. This round's topic gave me a chance to get back to it. Mine is the 3dcoolne.mpg entry. Here's what I had to say about it at the time, and here's what other people thought of it. This project was done on the Amiga using Aladdin4D.

  • Beard Blaster: 1999
    An IRTC-anim entry from the 1st quarter of 1999. The topic was "Gadgets and Odd Devices". I decided to use that round to evaluate the Ray Dream Studio product. I found the tool to have a good set of features, but the interface was just too annoying for me. Mine is the beardbla.mpg entry. Here's what I had to say about it at the time, and here's what other people thought of it. This was modeled and rendered on a dual-celeron (no, really) PC running Windows NT 4.0

  • Dancing Robot: 2000
    An IRTC-anim entry from the 4th quarter of 1999 , when the topic was "Robot". For this round I resurrected the old Algorythms project, and actually incorporated the original Spot Dance animation into my entry (it's the sequence with the reddish background). Mine is the robovide.mpg entry. Here's what I had to say about it at the time, and here's what other people thought of it. The spotlight dance sequence was done with Sculpt 3D, the CD insertion sequence was Aladdin 4D, and the rest was POV Ray.

  • Sunset: 2001
    This is an image I did on the Amiga using Aladdin 4D. It was part of an animation, but I've lost that. Here's the image: sunset.jpg.

  • Tornado Farm: 2002
    An IRTC-anim entry from the 3rd quarter of 2002. The topic was "Force Of Nature". Another old Amiga animation. I used the competition as an excuse to get back to it, and I've done more work on it since the competition. Mine is the tornadof.mpg entry. Here's what I had to say about it at the time, and here's what other people thought of it. Here's a still image from the animation: tfarm.jpg.

  • Is Juggling A Sport?: 2005
    An IRTC-anim entry from the 3rd quarter of 2005. The topic was "Sports". Here's what I had to say about it at the time, and here's what other people thought of it. If you'd like to, you can add your opinion. This one actually got first place! This project was done with Art of Illusion, and rendered on various Linux, Mac OSX and Windows boxes. Higher-res Flash and Quicktime versions

  • Allegro Gets Lunch: 2005
    Allegro.jpg was my IRTC Stills entry for Nov-Dec 2005. The topic was "Speed". Here is the submission form that accompanied it. I used this project as an excuse to play with a fur plugin for Art of Illusion, although I didn't get very far with it. Unfortunately, I ran out of time on this one and so had to submit what I had at the deadline. I should go back and fix that fur some day.

  • The Nuggetizer: 2006
    This was my IRTC Animation entry from the 4th quarter of 2005. The topic was "Inventions". Here is the submission form that accompanied it. This project was made with Art of Illusion. You can read the comments it's received, and you can leave a comment of your own. This one got second place in the competition. Higher-res Flash and Quicktime versions

  • Dippy Bird Player Piano: 2006
    PPiano.jpg was my IRTC Stills entry for the Mar-Apr 2006 round. The topic was "Music". Here is the submission form that accompanied it. You can read the comments that people have made about the image, and you can even leave a comment of your own. I was able to use a still image from a scene that's also part of a couple of small animation projects I'm working on. --I'll post links to those here when they're done. I wasn't very happy with the felt texture on the Birds' heads. I've improved it since then.

  • Talk to the Hand: 2006
    This was my IRTC Animation entry from the 3rd quarter of 2006. The topic was "Technology". Here is the submission form that accompanied it. This project was made with Art of Illusion. You can read the comments it's received, and you can leave a comment of your own. If you're not familiar with text-based interactive fiction (and these days, not very many people are), this little joke won't make much sense to you. At first, it may seem like the interface provided by the machine adds accessability, but for whom? Quicktime version, High-def version. Incidentally, the message being spelled is the first line from Janitor.

  • The Linebacker: 2008
    The Linebacker is a weird little thing I did while watching Superbowl XLII. I'd come across a strange website dedicated to modeling and rendering images of spheres. Really. I noticed that no one had submitted anything made with AoI, so I decided to throw something together. They eventually rejected my image, saying it wasn't spherical enough. Take a look at the other entries on their site, and see if you agree.