This scene took several months working on and off to create. As inspiration, I started with a photo taken out back
of the Cabin, looking over the river. The marshy island is a group of metaballs
painted with a texture I made from a photo taken in a local cattail marsh. The trees were swept and
deformed splines, one for the bark and one for the interior wood; as the trees all bear fire scars.
The bark texture is from the actual trees, photographed and scanned, then applied to the model.
The ferns were created in a similar way, only I simply slapped the fern leaf on the scanner and skipped a
trip to the photomat. Each fern was modeled, 3 leaves and a stem per plant. Planes painted with transparency
maps were used for casting shadows from the treetops. The scene looked empty, until I ran across an old
photo of my dad fishing. I mapped 'dear ol' dad' onto
a flat plane and stood him out there on the bank. Now, the picture came to life! Entered this one in the
Marlin Texture contest and the Caligari monthly and got an Honorable Mention in both contests.