Hilary Rhodes:
Designing a Virtual World
Gazing across the flat, grassy plains of a virtual savannah, you may as well be standing on another planet — which, in a sense, you are. The Myst-like virtual world of Dr. Hilary Rhodes’ “Exploration Without Boundaries” is built with three-dimensional dreamscapes that have never been captured on film, and never could be.
Part theater, part art, “Exploration Without Boundaries” invites armchair travelers to explore 48 virtual landscapes that Rhodes created on the Mac as part of her doctoral thesis at Australia’s University of Wollongong near Sydney.
Presented in QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) Cubic, the scenes let travelers wander icy Arctic wastes, gently-rolling hills reminiscent of English moors, volcanic islands, deserts and a dozen other fantasy landscapes — all to the sounds of winds soughing through the grass, ethnic music, excerpts by composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams and her own compositions.
Wide-Open Virtual Spaces
Inspiration for Rhodes’ project comes partly from her love of wide open spaces and partly from her love of 3D work. “I like to go for walks in big spaces,” says Rhodes who, English by birth, grew up largely in South Africa and emigrated to Australia after spending six-months crossing Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
“While living in South Africa,” she says, “I was impressed by the wide vistas of the veldt, the rolling hills of Colenso, Ladysmith and the Valley of a Thousand Hills. I would imagine traveling endless distances through these lonely and beautiful places, somehow without going thirsty or hungry.”
Rhodes, who had worked as an architectural drafter specializing in perspective rendering, had a natural affinity for 3D environments, but it wasn’t until she discovered Corel Bryce on the Mac that Rhodes found a way to “make real what I imagine.”
Using the Mac both as a tool and a medium, Rhodes created 16 virtual environments as they might appear in a Primeval Era — pristine and unexplored. Then she modified each landscape to reflect changes during two more time periods, the Era of Exploration and the Era of Power.
Fractal Textures
Rhodes chose Bryce on the Mac because she could create virtual domains using fractals rather than photographic textures. “Photos are resolution dependent,” she explains, “and many 3D programs map photographs onto textures and wrap them around 3D objects — something like the way matte paintings might be used for film backdrops.
“With Bryce,” Rhodes adds, “I can create textures with fractals — mathematical algorithms. Fractals emulate infinite space with an infinite sky and horizon, so I can create images that look more how nature really appears.
“With fractals, everything is random, so the skill is to combine the textures and waveforms in such a way that you get realistic results. The process is more like building, sculpting and model making than painting or photography,” Rhodes says, “though producing a 2D rendering of the finished landscape is achieved by placing a virtual camera in the 3D world in order to take a picture of the scene from a particular point of view.”
“The process is more like building, sculpting and model making than painting or photography. The experience of creating these scenes is almost dreamlike.”
Seeing the Dream
Rhodes begins each landscape by constructing the virtual equivalent of a topographic map in Bryce in Mac OS X. “The experience of creating these scenes,” she explains, “is almost dreamlike, as if I’m in a three-dimensional space.
“I remember walking around Maiden Castle in Dorset and the Scottish Highlands and English moors, and for one scene I wanted a landform that would be a cross between English downs, ramparts and rolling hills. I also wanted a spiritual, ethereal feel, so the scene had to be misty and green. I visualize the type of sky, the sun angle, all the elements that compose a particular landscape.”
Editing Terrain
Based on her vision, Rhodes chooses the appropriate geological formations in Bryce’s terrain editor. “The terrain editor has about 30 or 40 different types of formations, but the choice is really infinite because all of these formations are built from the almost random generation of fractal textures. On the Mac, I can choose grassy plains, add mountains, manipulate and blend landforms, change scales, cut into one formation, pull another out and modify it in Photoshop.
“This is where 3D thinking comes into play,” Rhodes says. “Because of my experience doing architectural drawings by hand, I can visualize the terrain as it might rotate in three-dimensional space. I can look at the grayscale map in Bryce, I can tell where the hills, valleys and rivers are, and I can decide where the best view will be.”
When Rhodes gets a grayscale terrain map that’s close to something she likes, Bryce converts it to a wire frame, which becomes the foundation for all of the other elements in the landscape.
