The production process for "ten_bulls" was a matter of tying diverse
elements together; objects like trees, the house, the old man, and
the topography were modeled in Maya, then imported into "VirTools"
where they were integrated into the world and scripted. Many of the
elements used in the landscape were derived from photographs taken
by Katie and Leigh (which later became most of our texture maps),
or from research in ancient Chinese clothing, architecture, and biosphere.
Likewise, much of the soundtrack was recorded at our homes, such as
Leigh's water sounds for the stream.
The modeling process for our real-time environment
is quite similar to designing environments for games; all models have
to be polygonal, and, more importantly, economical, and we made use
of alpha channels in textures whenever possible (a way to reduce the
number of shapes the computer would need to process).
Katie and Alan churned through most of the coding
in VirTools, using the programs's unique "circuit board" interface
to script out the randomization of topography, trees, the stream,
placement of the house, bridges, and of course the bull. Alan designed
the 'flash light' interface, which places a light in front of the
principle camera which the viewer can move around. Leigh built the
mock flashlight the viewer will hold to control the piece; using a
gyroscopic mouse, any movements of the viewer's flashlight will trigger
a corresponding movement of the flashlight on the screen. She also
modeled the trees, plants, and rocks used in the forest, the fish
swimming in the stream, an the footprints left by the farmer and the
bull.
Blake built the detailed models of the house and the
'old man' character who sits in the corner. He designed an animation
sequence for the old man (who looks up at the viewer when approached
and gestures with his arms) which was scripted into the interface.
Jay designed the texture maps and surfaces of the ground, building
12 equal squares with 12 symmetrical textures and symmetrical stream
segments. Jay also drew the bull character and built the 'flipping'
textures for it, which were then put together in VirTools.
