EMAIL:macdonald@lonhrlyg.freeserve.co.uk
NAME:Julian MacDonald
TOPIC: Duel
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Gladiators
COUNTRY: UK
WEBPAGE: n/a
RENDERER USED: Art of Illusion
TOOLS USED: EditStudio, TMPGEnc, PaintShop Pro
CREATION TIME:  About 2.5 months.
HARDWARE USED: Athlon 2400XP, 512 MB RAM
VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS:  Media Player
ANIMATION DESCRIPTION:
Pretty self explanatory - 2 gladiators fight it out in an arena...


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED:
All 3D content was produced by Art of Illusion (www.artofillusion).  This is a free, open source 3D modelling/texturing/animation/
rendering package.  

Modelling:
Both characters were modelled as triangle meshes using basic mesh modelling tools (extrude, bevel, scale 
etc.).  Clothes were modelled as part of the same mesh.  The ampitheatre steps and seats were also modelled
as triangle meshes, as was the emperor's hand and all other parts of the outfits (helmets, mask) and weapons.  The 'frill'
on one of the character's helmets was a script.

Texturing:
All textures (except the bat motif - done in Paintshop Pro) were procedural and layered textures were used to assign different textures to 
different parts of the character models.  Texture parameters were used to add blood to the sword at the required time.

Animation:
Art of Illusion has a skeletal animation system.  Models were rigged and base positions set via Skeleton Shape animation
tracks.  Additional motion was layered on top as Pose Tracks (I guess this will mean little to those not used to Art 
of Illusion).  Weapons/accessories were parented to appropriate skeleton joints so that they moved with the characters.
Then it was basically a matter of keyframing the animations for the motion.  (I am unhappy with much of the animation -
this is my first real character animation project and I would liked to have had more time to fiddle with the animations
to get rid of the wooden/robotic motion in some of the animation.

Rendering:
Basic lighting was used (one light) and rendering with anti-aliasing and, for most of the animation, motion blur was used
to try and get a realistic feel.  Focal blur was also utilised in two scenes.

Titles were done in EditStudio.  Individual frames and the different mpg 'chunks' were joined in TMPGEnc.

Given more time, I would have made the following improvements:
(a) improved the character animation !
(b) added some people in the audience.
(c) added some effects - dust clouds, blood splatters ...