Summer 1995
During the summer of 1995 four members of Princeton's class of 1996,
David Thom, Susannah Hobbs, Jennifer Smith, and Sanjay Arwade, were
enlisted to continue the project begun in Professor Cakmak's class.
After a spending some time getting familiar with the various software to
be used in the project (AutoCAD, 3dStudio, and Photoshop) we set about
the task of turning the wire frame models built in AutoCAD into fully
rendered 3dStudio models, complete with animated walkthroughs. The
AutoCAD models first had to be broken down into upwards of 100 objects
each in
order to allow accurate material mapping. The files were then exported
to 3dStudio where photographs taken of the buildings were applied to the
models as texture mapped materials.
In addition to the modeling of the buildings, the topography of the
peninsula of Constantinople was created from a topographical map of the
area. The contour lines were digitized by tracing the contour lines from
transparencies affixed to the computer screen. This seemingly primitive
method was employed due to our lack of a digitizing tablet, and proved to
be quite effective. A surface was generated in SoftDesk's DTM module,
and then imported to 3dStudio, where a
grass texture was applied
and an ocean and sky were created.
If you are interested in more information about the logistics of the
project, please take a look at a more detailed description of
topography
and
building creation and rendering.
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