5/28/00

This image was created with Bryce and Carrara. The landscape and contrail were done with Bryce and the aircraft with Carrara. Rendering was done in Carrara.

A discussion of the landscape can be found in View From A Height.

This image grew out of experimentation which led to Below Traffic, which is the visualization of the aircraft at the tip of the contrail far below. The aircraft was modeled in the spline editor using four cross-sections and five shapes - one for the fluted body, one for each intake, one for the rudder and one for the T-tail. The shader is a zinc shader modified with a mixed Julia Set and color black in the reflection channel, which provides the tarnished tin look, and the zinc-supplied highlight channel provides the glare.

The intent was simply to give something to reflect on the aircraft and to give a background fairly similar to its intended final position down beside the mesa. But the image was too good to discard as a draft. Indeed, the material on the aircraft was so enjoyable that three images, counting the above, were created. The following is the sequence of "Crossing Traffic"...

As an artist, I was looking for a look for vehicle skin that I hadn't seen before. The "tin" look is reminiscent of a 1950s style used for small appliances, and is shown even more in that light in the Below Traffic image.