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Volume 1, number 6                                                The Wedding Issue

BUTTERFLIES, BUGS, MOTHS, CATERPILLARS, AND FAIRY WINGS
If the bride's father didn't spring for real butterflies at the wedding, you can release a bevy of CG .Lepidoptera in your wedding video. Cindy Hoover provides a meticulously detailed collection of photo realistic insects. The anatomically correct models are
constructed to scale and surfaced with maps scanned from the real McCoys. Including a group of fanciful fairy wings, the CD contains 89 models. $75.00. Also check out her Botanical, Food, and Household
collections. www.trillium36.com

 I began my career as a painter. When I expanded into computer art, naturally I created all of my images. I consistently avoided clip art or clip models, obstinately resisting elements that were not my own. Some of that intransigence is about to fade. I have just discovered models that I would be delighted to use. Since many of these objects took countless hours of careful planning and work, I'm grateful l don't have to make them myself. Thank you, Cindy Hoover.

Hoover's The Botanical is a beautifully and meticulously detailed collection of 80 different plant objects containing individual image maps for each leaf, petal and stem. Most leaves have additional bump maps as well. Each flower and plant is very photo-realistically modeled and surfaced and obviously well researched.

The objects are divided into four categories: Flowers (37), Plants (22), Succulents (13) and Wild Plants (8). A Gallery of images for each plant makes it easy to choose your favorite flora. Every plant has its own clearly labeled-folder containing all of its image maps. One plant alone has 120 image and bump maps, although others have as few as two. Hoover designates the plants with either their scientific or their common names.

The objects were created for versions of LightWave 5.0 or higher. Each plant consists of a high polygon count, all of them tripled, making it easy to add bones for animation.

The only weakness I could discover is that a few of the succulents did not look realistic as their leafy cousins. While all the Botanicals are perfect in perfect shape-no rust, no chewed leaves -their pristine condition is not a problem for me. These luscious and skillfully executed objects should be a welcome and useful addition to any LightWave artist's bag of goodies, especially when accurate representation of specific plants and flowers is required. I can see many uses  for this collection: a field of California poppies, a vase of roses or wild flowers, a pot of ivy or aloe harlani cactus.

 The collection's only flaw is its flawlessness. If that bothers, you'll have to add your own imperfections.

Hoover has also released The Food Collection with 84 photo-realistic food models. nkp