COVERING OUR TRACKS DECEMBER 1999
by John
Mantzefield
Copyright 1999
This
months Mouse Tracks cover either reveals the truth
about UFO’s, or it presents an effort of composited
graphics images. Are these a pair of flying saucers
from the planet Appleonia, or just rendered 3D objects
composited in Photoshop? The later is of coarse the
truth.
THE AERIAL PHOTOS
My original inspiration for this cover came from a series of photos I took while flying with a friend in his single engine plane. We were traveling to central Oregon to assist an acquaintance in the production of an independent film... a 16mm B&W gangster/action short film that would be used to acquire backing for the feature length production of the film. While flying back and forth to Eugene I shot a couple of rolls of 35mm Kodak color film and later I had many of these negatives scanned and put on a Kodak Photo CD. I had this CD made through Citizens Photo which is located in South East Portland. I prefer this approach because the resolution of these scans is higher (5 sizes on the CD - 192 X 128 thru 3072 X 2048) than the images produced by most electronic cameras. The other important factor is that this method retains the picture quality found in the chemical based film process.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF AN APPLE KIND
While sorting through these aerial photos I noticed that some of the cloud's shadows on the landscape almost formed recognizable shapes. What followed was this classic musing, "well what if I made the shadows look like" this or that - this line of thought finally intersected with the concept of doing a Mouse Tracks cover using one of these images. Then the question arose of how to integrate something about the well known superior Mac into the cover image. After a few pencil sketches of potential cover layouts I settled on what you see on this months cover. Flying saucers were chosen because they're the only type of aircraft that have the correct basic shapes needed in this cover design. No other craft of Earthly manufacture could be used, at least not the ones we are told about. Many years ago some friends and I saw a large disk shaped craft in the sky one summer evening - it silently moved back and forth for about twenty minutes and then ascended at a high rate of speed up into the evening sky until it was no longer visible ... a sight never to be forgotten!
MAKING F/X WORK
An aspect of human perception that is well known by motion picture special effects experts acknowledges how we see the world around us, and how we recall the correct geometry of light and shadow, as well as object shapes and textures. Most of the people in a movie theater's audience will unconsciously recognize special effects shots if the majority of the image isn't true to life as they know it. This was one of my first considerations in designing this months Mouse Tracks cover. To test my layout against the laws of nature I held a couple of junk-mail CDs below a reading lamp, arranging their positions so that their shadows fell on a sheet of white paper which represented the intended cover design. This simple test revealed that the basic layout and physical geometry was true to what one could potentially see in the natural world.
FINALIZING
THE DESIGN
The next step was to determine exactly what shapes ware required to cast a shadow that looked like the Apple logo - this turned out to be a bit trickier than I first though. After cutting out a couple of cardboard circles and taping a small rectangular piece (the apples stem) to the edge of one disk, and then holding them below the reading lamp I realized that one of my UFOs had to be rather unconventional in it's design. After a few sketches of what I thought the odd craft might look like, I began modeling the two craft in Strata Studio Pro v2.5.3. The image at the left is a strata rendered image that shows you how I tested the final craft shapes with the type of lighting that would eventually be used.
THE AERIAL PHOTOS
My original inspiration for this cover came from a series of photos I took while flying with a friend in his single engine plane. We were traveling to central Oregon to assist an acquaintance in the production of an independent film... a 16mm B&W gangster/action short film that would be used to acquire backing for the feature length production of the film. While flying back and forth to Eugene I shot a couple of rolls of 35mm Kodak color film and later I had many of these negatives scanned and put on a Kodak Photo CD. I had this CD made through Citizens Photo which is located in South East Portland. I prefer this approach because the resolution of these scans is higher (5 sizes on the CD - 192 X 128 thru 3072 X 2048) than the images produced by most electronic cameras. The other important factor is that this method retains the picture quality found in the chemical based film process.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF AN APPLE KIND
While sorting through these aerial photos I noticed that some of the cloud's shadows on the landscape almost formed recognizable shapes. What followed was this classic musing, "well what if I made the shadows look like" this or that - this line of thought finally intersected with the concept of doing a Mouse Tracks cover using one of these images. Then the question arose of how to integrate something about the well known superior Mac into the cover image. After a few pencil sketches of potential cover layouts I settled on what you see on this months cover. Flying saucers were chosen because they're the only type of aircraft that have the correct basic shapes needed in this cover design. No other craft of Earthly manufacture could be used, at least not the ones we are told about. Many years ago some friends and I saw a large disk shaped craft in the sky one summer evening - it silently moved back and forth for about twenty minutes and then ascended at a high rate of speed up into the evening sky until it was no longer visible ... a sight never to be forgotten!
MAKING F/X WORK
An aspect of human perception that is well known by motion picture special effects experts acknowledges how we see the world around us, and how we recall the correct geometry of light and shadow, as well as object shapes and textures. Most of the people in a movie theater's audience will unconsciously recognize special effects shots if the majority of the image isn't true to life as they know it. This was one of my first considerations in designing this months Mouse Tracks cover. To test my layout against the laws of nature I held a couple of junk-mail CDs below a reading lamp, arranging their positions so that their shadows fell on a sheet of white paper which represented the intended cover design. This simple test revealed that the basic layout and physical geometry was true to what one could potentially see in the natural world.
The next step was to determine exactly what shapes ware required to cast a shadow that looked like the Apple logo - this turned out to be a bit trickier than I first though. After cutting out a couple of cardboard circles and taping a small rectangular piece (the apples stem) to the edge of one disk, and then holding them below the reading lamp I realized that one of my UFOs had to be rather unconventional in it's design. After a few sketches of what I thought the odd craft might look like, I began modeling the two craft in Strata Studio Pro v2.5.3. The image at the left is a strata rendered image that shows you how I tested the final craft shapes with the type of lighting that would eventually be used.
Strata
Studio Pro was running on a PowerMac 9600/300 with
190MB of RAM, MacOS 8.1 and an ATI 3D Accelerated
display card. This version of Studio Pro has real time
simulated surface mapping and lighting in the modeling
windows.
MODELING IN 3D
The two space craft were modeled in Strata by first drawing a cross section view of a half of the craft (with pen tools like those found in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop) and then using Strata's Lathe Tool to turn these 2D outline shapes into fully formed 3D object. There were a few attempts made at getting the two ships to look just right, but finally one of each was saved as the basic hull shape for each craft. These modifications to the hull design were needed so that it's shape could be easily distinguished (by it's own shadow areas) once it's relatively small size was composited with the aerial background photo.
The
next task was to create the Apple logo's "bite" in the
outer edge of one of the craft. This was done with
Strata's Subtract Tool. First you create a 3D cylinder
that is the size of the material to be "cut" out of the
craft's edge, then merge it into the edge of the craft.
Once the Subtract Tool is activated the cylinder
vanishes and so does that part of the craft's edge
where the cylinder once was. The two objects protruding
from the top craft's hull (casting the apples stem
shadow) were created by drawing a cross section view
and using the Extrude Tool to pull the 2D outline out
into the desired 3D shape. All of the objects in the
upper craft were eventually combined into a single
polygon-mesh object. Once the two craft were lit and
properly positioned a metallic texture map (a PICT file
imported into Strata) was applied to both models and
then rendered as a PICT file with a black background.
WORKING IN 3D SPACE
Programs like Strata Studio Pro have become popular because they offer a range of creative features that can make the modeling and rendering of 3D objects about as easy as this complex task can be. In the modeling part of the program (where you begin creating shapes without specific lighting or surface colors) you can have up to four views (like top, left, isometric/3D and others) active simultaneously... if you make a change to the model in one view, this is instantly seen in all other views. Many times I'll work on a model in only one view, rotating the 3D model as I progress towards the final shape. Another nice feature is Strata's fast "rendering engine" which has several quality setting to choose from. The Camera Tool (also on the Toolbar) allows you to click and drag over your modeled scene creating an outlined selection area - when you release the mouse button a 2D PICT image is quickly rendered in full color showing you approximately what the final scene will look like. I usually do dozens of these quick test renders, often of just parts of the model to check object alignment and surface mapping. This is done because there isn't any other way to see exactly how your lighting will appear, or how the textures maps really look on your model. Hopefully this explanation will clarify why you need to have a fast processor and lots of RAM.
COMPOSITING THE COVER
The "Top Secret" security envelope and the wooden table top were also created in Strata and rendered as PICT files. Once these files were opened in Photoshop 5.02 they were each placed on their own Layer, resized and rotated to achieve the desired layout. The text was added in PS5 as well as some additional shadows to give the impression of realism.
MODELING IN 3D
The two space craft were modeled in Strata by first drawing a cross section view of a half of the craft (with pen tools like those found in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop) and then using Strata's Lathe Tool to turn these 2D outline shapes into fully formed 3D object. There were a few attempts made at getting the two ships to look just right, but finally one of each was saved as the basic hull shape for each craft. These modifications to the hull design were needed so that it's shape could be easily distinguished (by it's own shadow areas) once it's relatively small size was composited with the aerial background photo.
WORKING IN 3D SPACE
Programs like Strata Studio Pro have become popular because they offer a range of creative features that can make the modeling and rendering of 3D objects about as easy as this complex task can be. In the modeling part of the program (where you begin creating shapes without specific lighting or surface colors) you can have up to four views (like top, left, isometric/3D and others) active simultaneously... if you make a change to the model in one view, this is instantly seen in all other views. Many times I'll work on a model in only one view, rotating the 3D model as I progress towards the final shape. Another nice feature is Strata's fast "rendering engine" which has several quality setting to choose from. The Camera Tool (also on the Toolbar) allows you to click and drag over your modeled scene creating an outlined selection area - when you release the mouse button a 2D PICT image is quickly rendered in full color showing you approximately what the final scene will look like. I usually do dozens of these quick test renders, often of just parts of the model to check object alignment and surface mapping. This is done because there isn't any other way to see exactly how your lighting will appear, or how the textures maps really look on your model. Hopefully this explanation will clarify why you need to have a fast processor and lots of RAM.
COMPOSITING THE COVER
The "Top Secret" security envelope and the wooden table top were also created in Strata and rendered as PICT files. Once these files were opened in Photoshop 5.02 they were each placed on their own Layer, resized and rotated to achieve the desired layout. The text was added in PS5 as well as some additional shadows to give the impression of realism.
