"Bug
Hunt" was an experiment for building a set entirely within
Poser, as I had no other modelling program available to me. The
piece introduced an armored figure using my own textures and
allowed me to experiment with spotlights. The figure was another
experimental element. I had been trying various texturing
techniques for it, and this was the first real render of the
figure. While the image was originally slated to include a number
of background figures, the air of tension turned out to be
heightened by using just the one lone hunter. Offset placement
allowed the empty environment to become just as prominent as the
figure, thus making him appear more vulnerable. Using veiled light
to partially obscure the background further enhanced the effect.
CREATING THE SET I began the image by creating a single
corridor section, which would act as the basis for the set. This
section included a floor, a wall, a ceiling, a light fixture, and
other small props. It was held together by parenting all the pieces
together. All corridor pieces were created from prop primitives
that were resized to suit. The ceilings and floors were flattened
boxes, and the lighting fixture was a squashed sphere. I created
the walls using a component of an old car engine, which was part of
a modelling project that I had made using a demo software package
and had long ago given up. Extra parts, such as boxes and nodules
(spheres) that I created from primitive props, were added to the
walls to break up any plain looking areas. Many of these details
were eventually lost during the render and postwork phases. A
temporary pole/cylinder prop, lengthened to the height of a Poser
figure, allowed me to rescale the corridor to a suitable size. I
removed the prop once the corridor was done. Using a simple prop
instead of an actual figure for scaling purposes prevents the usual
long pauses encountered between adjustments when using more than
one type of figure or prop in a scene. I saved the completed
section as a .pz3 file and then repeatedly imported it to build up
a larger set. Adjusting position and orientation with the Parameter
dials allowed me to make accurate placement of these sections. When
all the desired sections were in place and parented to each other,
I imported a background picture and added the spotlights.
LIGHTING The process for setting up the lighting may not be
the best method for everyone; it was just the route I happened to
take. After selecting the light-fixture object, I adjusted its
surface material in the Materials window. Colour, highlight size,
and transparency were altered to create a glow effect. For the
fixture to actually emit light, I created a spotlight and parented
it to the object. This spotlight was oriented downward, and its
properties adjusted until it produced the desired effect. Once I
was satisfied with the effect, I created another spotlight with the
properties of the first. I then moved the second light into
position and parented it to the next fixture further up the
corridor, and so, on until all the light fixtures had spotlights
parented to them. To create an ambient glow around the fixture, I
placed a new spotlight on the ground directly beneath it, pointing
upwards, and once again adjusted the properties for a pleasing
effect. I used the same process of copying and pasting for the
lower lights until the entire corridor was lit. I also included
infinite lighting, with blue-white hues, to illuminate the
corridor, both through the view ports and directly up the corridor.
THE CHARACTER 
The battle-suited figure, which is the centerpiece of the
image, is a test-bed character that I created using elements from a
number of characters; namely Obiwan's Space Marine figure, which
provided a base to work from, some pieces of armor from jbezorg's
Titan character, and Joerg Weber's Space Suit for the foundation of
the helmet. All were heavily modified and retextured. I imported
the figure, placed it under a light, and posed it and rendered it.
This turned into a rather long process, as the figure's position
and pose required tweaking after each render to get just the right
kind of shadow and highlight effects I was looking for. Once I had
eventually achieved this, I exported the final render to Photoshop.
POSTWORK Because Poser is unable to produce volumetric
lighting, I simulated the effect in Photoshop simply by using the
airbrush on a large brush setting and a low opacity pressure
setting. I added or augmented various details during this process,
such as weathering effects on the battle gear and flooring. I found
it handy to see how different metals and shapes become weathered
and worn over time by using reference material, such as photos of
aircraft and other vehicles. Set creation, lighting setup,
positioning, posing the figure, and postwork took approximately 11
hours to complete, although this could be done more quickly the
second time round.
Software: Poser 4, Photoshop 6
About Frank
Berger: Frank Berger is a typical struggling artist, trying
to make a living from his work. When he isn't working on
commissions, or spending time with his young family, he is playing
with his Renderosity buddies in the "Expansion Project." This
collaborative sci-fi series of images sprang into existence from
the Renderosity chat rooms as a result of Bug Hunt, and is still
going strong.
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