3D

Andrea 3D 1

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

My first attempt at building a virtual world was using a technology called VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). I soon abandoned this, but not before creating a simplified model of the Andrea spaceship (see Andrea 1 on New Stuff). I didn't have Maya or Cinema 4D back then. The vertices of the dish at the rear of the ship I generated with JavaScript. The vertices for the rest of the ship were worked out using a pen and a ruler on graph paper.

When I abandoned VRML I started learning C++. At that time, .NET had only just been released. So when I went out and bought myself a copy of Visual Studio (you had to pay for it in those days), all the books on how to use it were about .NET. But because it had only just come out, all the books about game programming for Windows were in Win32. So I had to learn enough .NET to find my way around in Visual Studio, then I spent a whole pile of time learning Win32. Now of course, books about game programming for Windows are all in .NET. At that time, it was DirectX 8.

I painted a nebula in Photoshop to serve as the background. In every direction you looked you saw the nebula, and the Andrea spaceship was floating in the middle of it, fixed in relation to the background. Next to the Andrea was a little cube, that rotated slowly, like a piece of debris floating alongside. I used coloured materials to build the spaceship, but didn't texture it. I think the spaceship is about half a kilometre long.

You could fly around in the space. I set it up to work as if you were in a little pod, navigating with attitude jets. If you pressed forward you moved forward. The longer you held down the button, the faster you went. The back button caused you to decelerate. Rotate left, rotate right, rotate up and rotate down worked the same way. To turn slowly you just bumped the control. If you held it down you'd spin rapidly. There was also slide left, slide right, slide up and slide down.

If you collided with the Andrea while you were flying around, you bounced off naturally. If you flew over the Andrea and toggled from "fly" to "walk" mode, you dropped to the surface of the top of the ship. Forward now moved you forward at a constant rate. There was a slight natural bobbing motion as you walked as it recalculated the distance to the ground for each step. Rotate left and rotate right now also turned you at a fixed rate.

Andrea 3D 2

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Andrea 3D 3

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Andrea 3D 4

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

On the top of the ship, at the back of the head was a door, and beside the door was a kind of monolith.

Andrea 3D 5

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Andrea 3D 6

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

A section on the front of the monolith was the only part of the spaceship that had a texture.

Andrea 3D 7

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

You may recognise the texture as Hellfire Preface 3 from Hellfire 2.

Andrea 3D 8

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Pointing at the texture with the mouse caused it to illuminate, and clicking it caused the outer door to open.

Andrea 3D 9

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Looking into the airlock with the outer door open.

Andrea 3D 10

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

The inner airlock door has a button next to it that illuminates when you point at it with the mouse.

Andrea 3D 11

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Looking out the open outer airlock door from inside the airlock.

Andrea 3D 12

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Inside the airlock with the outer airlock door closed.

Andrea 3D 13

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

With the outer airlock door closed, the inner airlock door will open. There is an inner chamber with two objects standing in it and two doors: one to the left and one to the right.

Andrea 3D 14

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

The door opens automatically as you approach and there is a sloping corridor leading down.

Andrea 3D 15

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

The corridor contains tubs that I envisaged as containing lotus flowers. Not very practical on a spaceship.

Andrea 3D 16

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Andrea 3D 17

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

The chamber at the bottom of the sloping corridor.

Andrea 3D 18

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

Looking back up the sloping corridor from the chamber at the bottom. That's as far as I got with building the "Ziegler's World" virtual world. I added a box to the room that turned to face you if you entered the room. This was to represent a game character turning to face you.

Ziegler's World Workshop

Screen capture of Ziegler's World.

One module of the Ziegler's World application was the virtual world. Another was the "Workshop" which I envisaged developing into a basic 3D modelling application and a place to set up scenes. I got as far as being able to import 3D models using a dialog box, choosing how to display them (e.g., wireframe), and adding lights to the scene via another dialog box.

Poser 1

Poser 5 Judy, a square and two boxes.

In 1993 the game "Doom" was released, and the personal computer had started to become interesting. So I bought one. You still couldn't really do art on one. That would take another 10 years. I later bought a copy of Photoshop CS (released in 2003).

For a while I had a Wacom graphics tablet, but at that time "tablet" didn't mean a touch screen. The tablet was a rectangle of opaque grey plastic. You had a stylus (pen) that you touched to the rectangle of plastic, and that controlled the position of the cursor on the screen. Not so different to using a mouse you might think. The complication is that, while a mouse follows your hand, and the tablet stylus follows your hand, the tablet itself does not. When you use a mouse you don't need to look at it because its position relative to the table doesn't matter. But with this tablet you had to remain aware of the location and orientation of the rectangle of plastic relative to the stylus in your hand. The cursor on the screen told you where on the surface the stylus was, but to know the orientation without looking at the tablet you had to move the stylus. Which way was up? Checking the orientation while actually drawing was an issue. Some people mastered the Wacom tablet but I didn't. I decided to wait and continue with my colour pencils.

When actual touch screens (touching with a stylus not your hand yet) became affordable I bought one and could finally start to draw and paint on a computer. In those days screen resolution was still an issue. I didn't do much with it, just a few experiments in Photoshop. When that computer died I bought a Surface Pro 3 (2014), which not only had a real touch screen (stylus or your hand), but finally had a high enough screen resolution. This was the first computer on which drawing felt natural. The iPad had come out in 2010, and the iPhone in 2007. Suddenly touch screen technology was everywhere.

At the time that I was doing those first Photoshop experiments on the tablet prior to getting a Surface, I also came across a website called Renderotica. Although it was aimed at 3D erotica, they had a section for the posting of 2D drawings and paintings as well. So in November 2003 I posted The Red Worm (see Zulu and Newanda) to the Renderotica website, and a bunch of other images followed. I've great fondness for the Renderotica website.

I was keen on 3D since at least the first Doom. The idea of being able to walk into a picture, and walk around in it was awesome. But high resolution stills using 3D technology were appearing that were also very impressive. 2D stills (and movies) of 3D virtual worlds. So I bought Poser 5 (2003) and dabbled in it from December 2003 till January 2007. I didn't do more than dabble in it, for reasons I will give later (see Poser 17).

The picture above was the first Poser picture I posted to Renderotica (December 2003). I called it "Hello Poser". The human figure (called Judy) came with the Poser application. The background is composed of a square and two boxes, the texture on each (and the sky) is generated algorithmically by functions built into Poser.

Poser 2

Poser 5 Judy and Don, and some more squares.

Posted to Renderotica December 2003.

Poser 3

Poser 5 Judy and Don, in a cave by regineMOINE.

Posted to Renderotica December 2003.

Poser 4

Poser 5 Judy (x2) and Don (x2).

Lounge chair by Hieronimus, vanity and blanket chest by Anthony Hernandez,

drawers by User601, teaset bandeja (tray) by 3DMost.

Posted to Renderotica December 2003.

Poser 5

Poser 5 Judy (x2) and Don (x3).

Posted to Renderotica December 2003.

This image was probably my most ambitious piece of actual posing. Actually coordinating something like this is quite difficult. Posing a figure means manually setting the position of every joint in the body: the waist, neck, shoulders, hips, elbows, knees, and every joint in every finger and toe. As well as the jaw and mouth, the eyeballs and eyelids. So it can be a maddening process. At the end of the process you end up with something that looks like a collection of posed manikins. Actually imbuing the figures with personality is a level I never reached. It wasn't only the joints that needed positioning. Sophisticated Poser artists also moulded the flesh. For instance, if a butt was sitting on a hard surface, or a hand was holding a breast, the surface needed to deform appropriately. So too lips around the shaft of a penis. Long hair might also need positioning. Fabric introduced a whole new set of problems.

Good examples of Poser artists are KristinF and Nemain, though Nemain does pinups almost exclusively.

Poser 6

Poser 5 Judy and Don.

Schoolroom, watering can, electric fan and dropped clothes by Gerald Day.

Ballerina box by Anthony Hernandez.

Posted to Renderotica January 2004.

Poser 7

Poser 5 Judy.

Schoolroom, electric fan and dropped clothes by Gerald Day.

Wall with windows by Fredi Hartmann.

Posted to Renderotica January 2004.

Poser 8

Poser 5. Figures are Victoria 3 and Michael 3.

Hut by Svenart, skullcaps by Harvey Mann, Pubic Hair by Tintifax,

genitals by Digiport; dildo by totorovianclub.

Posted to Renderotica April 2004.

Here I departed from using the human figures that come with Poser and splurged on buying Victoria 3 and Michael 3, at that time the cutting edge in Poser figures. These figures are manufactured by a company called Daz3D. You can buy 3d models of pretty much anything from online stores like Renderosity. You can also buy "morphs" for figures. There are a bunch of 3D artists taking the base figures manufactured by companies like Daz3D, and tweaking them to form new characters. There are some stunning figures available. So you buy the base figure, then you can purchase morphs for the character. You can buy hair, shoes, clothes, homes, cars, trees, city streets. Whatever. Like digital Barbie and Ken dolls.

Poser 9

Sirya by StefyZZ with Misaki hair by Ukon Osumi.

Arlinton by orion1167 with Kyoko hair by Kozaburo.

Background painted in Photoshop.

Posted to Renderotica August 2004.

Poser 10

Poser 5. The Girl.

Soda Shop costume by Macelene. Wicker chair by Powder Monkey.

(And a little Photoshop post work.)

Posted to Renderotica October 2004.

Poser 11

Poser 5. Victoria 3, Autumn by HandspanStudios and FaerieGuild.

Alice Hair by Kozaburo.

Tankini and Swimwear Thong from Glamorous Resorts Collection by MAB / Jim Burton.

Posted to Renderotica December 2004.

Poser 12

Poser 5. Victoria 3, Michael 3 and Don.

WedgeCut Hair 2 by Dark Whisper, Rei Hair by Kozaburo;

3 Piece Suit by the3dwizard, Strap Sandal by B-man,

Venue Long Sleeve by Uzilite, skirt from Day in the Office Collection I by Jim Burton;

Deco Club Exterior by Stonemason: and a little Photoshop post work.

Posted to Renderotica June 2005.

Poser 13

Poser 5. Michael 3 and Victoria 3 (x2).

Jose by Shahara, G4forMen penis by Insomnia Works,

Veronica and Livia by ilona, Bliss Vision Hair by danae,

Grace Lion Hair and Silky Long Hair by Quarker, SLH Real Hair by goldtassel,

M304 by Uzilite, Reia Sport tank top by Seraphira,

Collezione1 by As Shanim, L75 Collezione by lobo75 and room 9 by expert.

Posted to Renderotica October 2005.

Poser 14

Poser 5. Michael 3 and Victoria 3 (x2).

Jose by Shahara, G4forMen penis by Insomnia Works, Veronica and Livia by ilona,

Bliss Vision Hair by danae, Grace Lion Hair and Silky Long Hair by Quarker, SLH Real Hair by goldtassel,

floor texture and couch by expert, couch texture and wall texture by LadyBea32.

Posted to Renderotica October 2005.

Poser 15

Poser 5. Victoria 3. Diana by Alyah,

Legend Hair by hmann, Rumors Are Spreading jacket by wusamah, Dreamlace II panties by hongyu,

RPDsets for DreamLace II by renapd, Thigh stockings from Second Skin Hosiery by Lisa Buckalew,

3 Times A Charm boots by idler168, and some postwork in Photoshop.

The setting is Urban Living by Stonemason.

Posted to Renderotica November 2005.

Poser 9 to Poser 15 show scenes from Middle Kholleasis (see Kholleasis). In Poser 15 the women are beginning to take up arms at the close of the period.

Poser 16

Posted to Renderotica December 2006, a year after Poser 15.

P6, Jessi with Bun hair, rendered in C4D, materials by Noctua Graphics, and a little Photoshop.

I constructed the setting and the white worms.

The setting relates to Memory. The image was titled "Memory" and appeared with the following text.

It was as if she had just woken up or come to consciousness in an already awake body. She knew who she was, but not where or why. She became aware of the heavy press of writhing, slippery, muscular bodies packed around her, struggling frantically for any avenue of escape; then the loud and continuous squealing like a farmyard of stuck pigs that caused each body to vibrate. Her body shook with their impact. A constant flow of the creatures poured from the pipes around her, some trying to wriggle up onto the structure that held her, their oily bodies invariably failing to find a hold, then falling with the others down to the slow moving river of opaque fluid far below, in a steady and arhythmic splooshing.

Her arms, legs and head were exposed to the air but the rest of her body was enveloped in clear water under pressure. It leaked from the soft rubber seals around her thighs, arms and neck, and poured from the pipes in those intervals when they were not blocked by the body of one of the white worms.

The name for the creatures translates as "Toothless Shit-eating Eels". They sought out confined spaces like crevices and pipe openings, attempting to pass through them if they can, or giving up and looking elsewhere after a time if they can't. They were bred and lived their lives, like trout on a mission, in a series of reservoirs, vats, large and small; and pipes of various diameters made of metal or elastic rubber; until finding their way to the river in which they spent the remains of their short lifecycle, and in which their bodies in turn served some other purpose. The power of the Jangwa (see Memory) was virtually unlimited within their own domain, and they spared no effort in the creation and maintenance of what they called their "living paintings". They consumed the emotional states of other beings, and had arrayed on their worlds countless vignettes where their victims played out one state or other in a closed loop, or a whole life secretly modulated and controlled by their perverse, hidden masters to illicit a varied flow of experiences.

Selene's recent memory was restricted to the last five seconds. As she moved forward through time at a rate of one second per second, the events prior to five seconds ago were rubbed away, only some to return as fragments of long term memory. This kept her in a condition of perpetually fresh realisation of where she was, intensely inhabiting the present. She didn't know why her body was so fatigued, and was fed in her sleep. She remembered her past up to and including boarding the passenger liner on Hoffe bound for Sanbo. The journey was interrupted in Superspace. Instead of emerging in space on the approach to Sanbo, they seemingly materialised already on the ground on some world, in a spaceport situated in what looked like an extensive and ancient stone temple area. An apology came over the intercom from the cockpit saying there would be a short delay and asking them keep their transit harnesses secured because they could be underway again at any moment. But Selene could not move. Her heart was beating and her chest expanded and contracted with her breath. She could swallow, blink and move her eyes; but not open her mouth, turn her head or raise a finger. She assumed from their motionless silence that the other passengers were similarly afflicted, and all the stewards had disappeared from view. Everything after that was just undecipherable flashes, but a sense had been artificially instilled that something supernatural had befallen her, that she was in an afterlife and divine powers now had control of her fate. She was one of a small number of passengers snatched from the plane before it continued on the rest of its journey.

Poser 17

Posted to Renderotica January 2007.

The last Poser image I did.

Sometime after posting all of these and some of my drawings and paintings, Renderotica had some kind of IO disaster and had to take down all the galleries. It became a blank slate. I never reposted my old work. Sometime later, the original creators and owners of the Renderotica site sold it (Diane Thure-Griffith? As of this writing you'll search in vain for information on Renderotica at Wikipedia, though this forum thread suggests there was at one time). The new owners of the site decided not to honour the lifetime Premier membership that some of us had. Claiming that the changes they made to the site made it a new site. When more recently I started posting my new work, the new site administrators took it all down again, stating: "It's not cool to use the bandwidth we pay for to support our competitors" because I had links to my Patreon and DeviantArt galleries. So I reposted it without the links. From Renderotica's point of view of course, I'm one of many freeloaders on the site. They make their money from people selling things on the site, since you can post images for free. I'm not selling anything. But people come to the site primarily to look at the art that is there. So it could be argued that the hundreds of artists posting art on the site but not selling anything, are still adding value to site, attracting both potential customers and sellers.

You can do some pretty stuff in Poser. Ultimately the problem with doing art in Poser is the problem of doing 3D art in general. If you are patient enough to sit through the end credits of a Hollywood CG blockbuster you will see they go on forever. And they contain enough CG artists to create a sizeable town. They'll have a bunch of artists building the characters, and a bunch of other artists animating them. They have an artist who creates skies, and an artist who creates buildings, and an artist who does cloth or hair or crowds, and an artist who does lighting, and an artist who does vehicles, and an artist who does shoes, and an artist who does hubcaps and shoelaces, and an artist who does trees, and the list goes on and on. The individual artists are small cogs in a large machine.

It is difficult to tell a story in 3D. If you have 2 characters having a conversation in the kitchen, you need to build or buy everything in the kitchen. The table, cabinets, fridge, stove, jars. You need to create all the plates, the knives and forks, and so on. If the characters then walk from the kitchen to the loungeroom, you need to build everything in there. If they walk outside, you need to build that. So I decided it wasn't practical to tell stories that way. Drawing a comic you can do anything. A kitchen scene or a city scene are about the same amount of work. In a comic you can create things with a mere gesture of the brush. However, I didn't lose my interest in 3D. Although I couldn't tell the story with 3D, I wanted to create my own figures, my own 3D objects and worlds. So I bought Maya and Cinema 4D. Ten years from now, AI will have probably progressed to the point that we can just treat the figures like actors and tell them what we want them to do. If we want a model of chair we can just show it a picture and say: "Make me something like that."

Cinema 4D
The figure is Brianna from HandspanStudios.
I created the setting in Cinema 4D.

3D Human 1

So I bought myself Maya, a real 3D modelling application. The first thing I wanted to build was a person. My first attempt I call "Easter Island" because it looks a bit like a statue from Easter Island.

3D Human 2

I bought a book called "Building a Digital Human" by Ken Brilliant. It was building a male figure, which was not really what I wanted, but it seemed pretty serious.

3D Human 3

I had a few more attempts to build a digital human.

3D Human 4

Screen captures from Maya.

3D Human 5

My final attempt (to date) to build a digital human followed the guidance in "Virtual Vixens" by Arndt von Koenigsmarck. I really like this book. It creates a simpler figure than Brilliant's book, and seems to have a very logical methodical presentation, something that can readily be learned, repeated and adapted, and embellished with as much detail as you care to add. Actually, since most of the building a digital human books just show you how to model hot women, Brilliant's book probably fills an important gap, once you've mastered the basics of building hot women. By now I was starting to feel that modelling figures was doable, but also that it was going to take many many hours of practice. So we return now to comic book art.

Toilet

Acrylic on a sheet of what I presume was some kind of vinyl.

Not 3D, but done during this period (post Newanda period). Something I painted with Natascia. I did the figure on the right and the toilet. Natascia did the floor and the figure on the left. The painting was about 2 metres high. I had to clear most of the furniture out of my room so we could paint it, and the room wasn't big enough to take the photo face on and capture the whole image. I don't remember if the painting had a name, so I've called it "Toilet".

We also did a larger painting. An 8 feet tall painting of an erect penis for some event at a local nightclub. Natascia was plugged into that scene. Some other people also helped with the painting, because there was a lot of surface area to fill in with colour. They were members of some kind of inner city art commune.



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