December 2004 Scene of the Month

The long journey home
by Tom Beattie

Tom Beattie writes about his model:

With a range of over 1000 KM the Martian Surface Rover (MSR) typically spends many weeks away from base performing geological surveys and mapping activities. This scene illustrates a MSR driving onto the rocky plains at the base of the Columbia hills inside Gusev Crater. The crew have finished all science activities and are on the long journey back to base.

This scene was created using a number of different applications through the production pipeline.

The MSR was modeled in MLCad and LSynth. Exported to POV through L3PAO (using the LGEO part library for part substitution). Terragen was used to create the height field and position the scene camera. This file was imported into Forester where base textures and scene elements (rocks, sky, fog) were added. This file was then exported to POV. Both the MSR model file and the scene file were combined in POV with final adjustments to textures, Lighting and camera characteristics taking place. Render processing time: 16 hours. The raw image file was then post processed through Photoshop for global colour, contrast, and area sharpness. The image was subsequently cropped to 16:9 (for that immersive wide screen feeling).