Pretty cool, what'd you use to do it? I'm into Blender 3D rendering with Yafray.

The blue glos is pretty convincing as is the reflectivity of the IR receiver. The starburst on the power button might be a little over the top, but it looks neat anyway Did you use HDR lighting? It looks like you might have in the reflection in the power button.

It was a straight Ray traced render. No radiosity, no special lighting. I just love Lightwaves render engine.

cool, never used lightwave. tried to get a mental ray render once but maya was too damn confusing

forgive my ignorance, but what is a "render"?

I mean it is obviously a depiction, but how does it work?

The image you see was created in the computer by build 3d wireframe models, then texturing those models to look like the real thing. Once that's done you set the lighting, and final camera angle. I modeled this completely by eye, and textured it using fractal noise. Even to lettering was created by laying down points, and connecting them with curves.

Nice job. I myself happen to a professional animator (which NC, can include modeling, and rendering). My work is on my website below my sig.

I haven't seen any "DIY" 3D projects around here- do you own the amp BTW, or are just dreaming of it? If I may offer one bit of advice, your piece might be better served by a more realistic pedestal and room (or studio) environment. It seems to take away from the realism of the amp. Otherwise great work.

OK, starting to catch on here.

That's not a picture of your amp, it's a 'cartoon?' (Pardon that word, would 'virtual' picture be more apt?)

It's amazing!

Do you start with a blank screen and an idea and then 'build' it?

Fascinating.

Cartoon doesn't exactly work to describe most CG images- and if done right, you usually don't know it at all. ANY action movies for the last 15 years has used a lot of CG, along with real stuff of course. The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park for instance, but half the sets in movies today are full or partial CG renderings.

But as to how it gets made, it's complicated, not like traditional illustration at all. Below are two stages. The first is the final "model" after it was built. Then, after setting camera, lighting and textural parameters (also very technical and time consuming) you get the next image. For most images, it's quite a bit of work to do it, but what you get is often like reality right from your imagination, and you can then view it from any angle and do may other things a painter could only dream of. And for products or architecture, you can view them before spending all the money to actually build something. For my work (largely medical) it's ideal for showing biology and processes not easily or even impossible to film.

There needs to be a sign in the Pool Area: "Guests are reminded that 12G Magnum slug shotgun rounds and associated hardware are not allowed in the Pool area. Thank you." signed, "The Management"

Explosive decompression combined with being wrapped in freezing/boiling water is probably not what we might call 'having a great day'.

Oh. I see it is in the desert. I thought it was in space.
Shotguns by the pool are fine, then. Bizarre, but not all that extra threatening.

I'd prefer to have that pool in space. Much cooler. Maybe it's just me.

BTW- if it wasn't clear, I didn't do the posted images, they were just a good example of the process.