space that will be filled with an assortment of objects. After determining the layout of your inte- rior, make adjoining walls that are connected to each other, the floor, and the ceiling. Each of these can be a four-sided polygon. Using a Boolean or solid drill operation, you can make openings for windows.
If you make the polygons face inward, the cam- era can be placed outside of the room (Figure 8-2). Since the surface normals are facing in, the outside surfaces will be invisible. Your camera placement will no longer be hampered by the interior space, and you can use long lenses for less distortion.
The baseboard covering the joint formed by a wall and the floor should also be modeled. Create a polygon that shows a profile of the baseboard and then extrude it for the length of one wall. Duplicate it for the rest of the walls.
Add textures on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Set up your lights so that parts of the room, such as the corners, have shadowed areas. Spotlights usu-
ally work best, since they can be controlled in many ways. Place rows of these lights around the room. You may need about sixteen lights to illu- minate the ceiling, floor, and walls. Later, when you add objects to the room, exclude these lights from them. Any objects that hang on the walls, such as pictures and windows, should not be excluded from the room lights. Rugs should not be excluded either. The rest of the furniture and other room contents will have their own lights. You can see that after a while, your room will have quite a few lights in it. It is not unusual to have 30 to 50 lights in a room. For easier identification, be sure to name your room lights.
Windows
The window that will be modeled in the next sev- eral steps is made up of a number of components (Figure 8-4). First, there is the molding around the glass. Then there is the window blind, and finally, the valance, a decorative framework to conceal cur-
Fig. 8-2Building the four walls, floor, and ceiling. The surface nor- mals face inward.
Fig. 8-3The rendered room. Since the surface normals are facing inward, the camera can be placed outside the room.
tain fixtures at the top of the window casing. In addition to this, you may decide to include cur- tains or other drapery. As you work through this exercise, sit by a window or use photos as refer- ence. The modeled window will face toward you on the z-axis.
Step 1 (Figure 8-5). Create one polygon in the top view. Add points to it and shape it like the one in the illustration.
Step 2 (Figure 8-6). Extrude the polygon along the y-axis. Slice the ends of the molding at 45- degree angles so that you can place duplicate ones right up against it.
Step 3 (Figure 8-7). Place duplicate moldings against each other to make a rectangle shape around the window glass. Shape the bottom shelf of the window frame. Add extra molding on the inside of the window frame.
Step 4 (Figure 8-8). Create a polygon for the
Fig. 8-4A rendered window.
Fig. 8-5Step 1. Creating a 2D outline of the window molding.
Fig. 8-6Step 2. Extruding the 2D win- dow molding outline.
Fig. 8-8Step 4. After drawing the outline of one window blind, it is extruded.
Fig. 8-9Step 5. Two holes for the strings are drilled into the single window blind section.
Fig. 8-7Step 3. Different views showing the finished window frame. Each section was extruded and placed against its neighboring one.
outline of one of the window blinds in the side view. Extrude this 2D polygon along the x-axis.
Step 5 (Figure 8-9). Cut two holes into the sin- gle window blind, through which the cord will be
Fig. 8-10Step 6. The single window blind is cloned sixty times with an offset of 1 inch on the y-axis.
Fig. 8-11Step 7. A box is made for the top of the blinds. Cords and a pole with a hook are also added to the blinds.
Fig. 8-13Step 9. Points are moved on all three axes to get the billowing look of the valance.
Fig. 8-14Step 10. The rod that holds up the valance is made from a sphere with one side that has been beveled out.
threaded.
Step 6 (Figure 8-10). Clone the single window blind sixty times on the y-axis with an offset of 1 inch. If you want your blinds to be tilted up or down, rotate the single blind before cloning it.
Step 7 (Figure 8-11). Model the casing for the top of the blinds out of a box. Add cords, a pole, and a hook to the blinds.
Step 8 (Figure 8-12). For the drapery, create a rectangle that is divided into approximately 300 polygons. UV map an image of a valance or a cloth with vertical folds onto this flat polygon.
Step 9 (Figure 8-13). Shape the valance by mov- ing points forward and backward, as well as up and down and sideways. Try to get the wavy look of the drapery. Follow the curves of the UV-mapped image.
Step 10 (Figure 8-14). Make the rod that holds up the valance out of a sphere. Select the polygons on one side of the sphere and bevel, smooth shift, or extrude them out on the x-axis. After placing it behind the valance, you can mirror duplicate it for
Fig. 8-12Step 8. The drapery that forms the valance is made from a rectangle split into about 300 polygons. An image or texture of the drapery is UV mapped onto the wire mesh.
the other side. Both ends should stick out a little on either side of the valance.