ALIENWARE Challenge 2004
The Making of “Alien“
Adrian Lazar, 4 May 2004

The Alienware Challenge 2004 saw a collection of highly original scenes ranging from whimsical to sinister to the utterly out of this world! The directive was to create a unique alien scene, a setting no one has seen before. Adrian Lazar shares his experience creating Alien for the challenge.

Concept

At first I had no clear concept of the scene in my mind so I considered it carefully for two or three days before beginning to elaborate on the vague idea I had. While the concept for Alien evolved throughout the assignment, I initially had a specific direction I wanted to go with the idea. I set a high priority on the illumination since it had an important role in creating the atmosphere.

The sketches I make before starting any project are generally very simple, especially when it's for a personal project and I don't have to show them to anybody else. I cannot define them as concept art since the concept was developed in my mind and I only put certain elements on paper for an easier visualization of the entire scene. The present case is not an exception, and the concept I had in mind did not require a very complex layout.

Modelling

The modeling for this scene was simple.

For the background forms, I used a plugin to generate the meta-balls in 3DS Max, after which I extruded several polygons and applied the Relax and Meshsmooth modifiers to polish the surface. Although the result was not as good as it could have been, the geometry errors were covered with the material used so it wasn't a problem. Extruding a group of polygons within the object created the rift in one of base forms.

The large spheres in the foreground are made of a matte material. These and the shiny ones in the rift are basic spheres not modified at all. The rest of the spheres were generated with a system of Particle Array particles that use the ground as an emitter object and another sphere as the generated object.

To create the ‘lianas’ I generated surfaces generated with the Loft modifier using a circle and a spline.

Texturing

The ground material is made up of a fractal noise map for the bump map and a falloff map applied to the materials self-illumination with no highlight. The material used for the five large spheres in the foreground is an Oren-Nayar-Blinn shader using a noise map for the bump. Spheres generated with the particle system and the ‘lianas' use the same material as the ground. The spheres inside the rift have strong highlights, a falloff map for self-illumination and a cellular map as the bump, while the background is a simple gradient.

Lighting

As can be seen in the sketch, the scene has three illumination sources: an omni light, global illumination and a second omni light placed in the rift, which has a volume light effect. As the atmosphere for this piece depended on the illumination, I worked hard to find the right colors.

Rendering

I used Brazil R/S for rendering, mainly because the DOF (depth of field) is superior to the Scanline renderer in 3DS Max. I also used global illumination. At 2477x1303 on my slow computer, rendering took about ten hours. The rendered 3DS Max image had no post-processing, so this was my final image.

Hardware: Duron 900, 256 RAM, ATI Radeon 7200
Software: 3DS Max, Brazil R/S

About Adrian Lazar

I am 20 years old and I live in Bucharest , Romania . I first encountered 3DS Max six years ago, but now work with it almost every day. I work full-time as a web designer at a web design company but 3D remains my true love. My passion for art started as a child, with my first hand-made drawings, although unfortunately I haven't done any hand-drawing for a very long time now. My 3D passion began when I saw the movies in StarCraft and I draw inspiration in my environment.

Thanks goes to CGTalk and Alienware for organizing a stunning contest providing the CG community with an opportunity to admire and contribute numerous excellent works.

Words and Images by Adrian Lazar

Lazar's Alien – click to enlarge