Computer-Based Art: “Claw Foot Tub”

Lightwave 3D Claw Foot Tub

Before taking up oil painting I spent a fair amount of my creative free time creating computer-based art on my Macintosh. For this piece, I used a software package called Lightwave 3D. I started by modeling the claw feet, which took a while due to my limited 3D modeling experience. After thinking about modeling of the tub itself a bit, it was rather easy. The faucet was a challenge as I was trying to figure out how much detail to add to the model and how to get the segmented portion of the steel hose to look flexible and not stiff.

Claw foot tub scene wireframe

To the left is the wireframe of the scene. It does not look like much but represents about 15 hours of work. Once the scene was modeled, I had to go in and apply surfaces to each of the objects. Applying surfaces is among the most difficult challenges in creating this type of art. There are tons of settings and you don’t really get to see the result in full detail until you tell the computer to go and render the final image. You basically apply “qualities” to the surface that tell the computer how to render the final image under certain lighting conditions. Once the surfaces are complete, you actually set up lights in the virtual scene and then render the image.  For the lighting in this image, I used what they call volumetric lighting and radiosity for the final render, which takes a ton of time and computing power. In total, this image took the Mac about 17 hours to render at high resolution. That was above and beyond the modeling and surfacing of the objects. I have a huge appreciation for what Pixar is able to pull off in their movies. I suppose the army of people and computers helps.

I know a lot of this may sound like a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo but it was really fun to work on. Working in 3D satisfied my love of technology and combined it with my artistic side. I have not done much in 3D lately but feel that my experience with the medium helps me understand light and its impact on surfaces even if it is in a virtual sense.

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