TITLE: HeroQuest

NAME: Chris Bianchi
COUNTRY: United States of America

EMAIL: chrisbianchi@earthlink.net
TOPIC: Toys & Games
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: heroques.jpg
RENDERER USED: 

        Corel Bryce 5


TOOLS USED: 

        Corel Bryce 5
        Curious Labs Poser 5
        Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004


RENDER TIME: 

        2 minutes 34 seconds


HARDWARE USED: 

        Intel Pentium 4 HT


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

        When I saw the topic for this round, I glanced at my shelf for
        inspiration. HeroQuest by Milton Bradley is my favorite board
        game of all time. It's no longer manufactured (that I am aware
        of), but if you have not had the opportunity to experience it,
        I highly recommend it.

        For any that might be interested, the map configuration follows
        Map #2 (The Rescue of Sir Ragner) in the mission book.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

        ** NOTE ** I will send the Bryce Scene file to any that want it,
        but note that it is not posted here because even compressed as
        a .ZIP, it is 28 megabytes in size.
        
        THE BOARD...

        The base of the board is a flattened box (pretty standard), but
        that's really where the standard stuff ends. Every square on
        the board is a unique lattis object with rounded edges, cracks,
        and such. The color scheme, square count, and even the placement
        of the cracks match the original game board. Whereas the real
        board is simply a decal on half-fold cardboard, I wanted to give
        the illusion of real rock.

        THE DOORS...

        The open doors are three boxes grouped to form the inlay base. The
        doorframe is a lattis object drawn to match the texture and stone
        placement of the original pieces. Again, I was going for a stone
        look. The closed doors take the open door to another level. The
        wooden portion is another lattis, flattened with a wood-grain
        texture. The hinges and knob are yet another lattice set wider
        than the wood grain and given a black finish.

        THE TABLES...

        The legs are lattis objects. The wooden frames are boxes, and the
        surface itself is a box. Pretty standard here, but I'm pleased with
        the effect and the accuracy with which it matches the game.

        THE "RACK"...

        A favorite torture device. The surface is a lattis, the foot clamps
        and shackles are part of that lattis. The roller is a cylinder with
        toroids for ropes around it. The handles are enlongated boxes, and
        the base is boxes. The skull on top is a molded rock object.

        THE TREASURE BOX...

        Lattis objects for the sides with a cylinder and box to make up the
        body.

        THE RED DICE...

        These are Boolean compounds. They are positive cubes encased in a
        negative sphere. The pips are also negative spheres with a gold
material
        assigned. When grouped, the positive part less the negative parts are
        rendered. That gives the dice their rounded corners and appearance of
        bored pips.

        THE COMBAT DICE...

        Same concept as the red dice, but the shapes on them match the game
        dice face for face. These are white skulls, black skull/shields, and
        white coat-of-arms. These are made the same way as the red dice, but
        rather than using spheres for pips, I used symmetrical lattis objects
        that were hand drawn into the lattis editor.

        THE FIGURINES...

        The goblins and skeletons are actually heavily manipulated poser
        characters molded to match to the best of my ability the actual
        characters. The weapons and base were added in Bryce afterwards.

        THE CARDBOARD TILES (ROCK WALLS PLAYING PIECES)...

        These are squashed boxes with a stone wall texture attached. The
        bump height value was reduced to 0 to give the illusion of printed
        cardboard.

        THE CARDBOARD TILE (STAIRS)...

        This is a flattened lattis object.

        THE SPELL CARDS...

        These are imported images taken with my wife's digital camera of
        actual cards. The corners were rounded using an image mask that I
        created in Fireworks. Thickness was added in Bryce to the imported
        2-D object.

