Members of our Team

The CAST "Project 2005" started in April 2005 with four people.

They are (standing left to right):
Rommel Esparcia — University of Cebu
Cesar Omayan Jr. — University of the Visayas
Gary Forbes — Director and Mentor

Seated:
Dhina Rose Teehera — Cebu Normal University
Mary Gay Paro-an — University of the Philippines

Magellan's Cross at City Hall Park

This rendered picture is the Magellan's Cross Monument. This building houses the remains of the first cross used by Ferdinand Magellan. The cross was used to conduct the first baptism in Asia. This is why Cebu is considered to be the birth place and the center of Christianity in Asia.

This rendered picture represents the most time consuming model we did. Render time approached five minutes per frame. The time was spent in rendering the texture on the building that houses Magellan's Cross. The grass and sidewalks use a procedural texturing.

Procedural textures use a math algorithm to calculate the color for each pixel or dot on the screen. The scene was ray traced so this means that the computer bounce a ray of light to each one of the pixels. The color was then mathematically determined. This had to be done for each light in the scene. The final color was then the sum all.

This is the second version that we made a full rendering. The second version added more trees and flowers to give it a more realistic look.

Approaching Fuente Osmeña

The Center of "The Universe"

This rendered picture represents some of our most detailed scene. We have a lot more cars,jeepneys, trees, flowers and water falls. The sky walk tested our ability to texture chrome post and railings, cement stairways and tin roofs.

This scene has about 20 cars and jeepneys running around the circle at various times. We were like traffic police in getting the vehicle's to not run into each other. We solved this problem by using a visibility parameter. If the vehicle was not on camera, we just made it invisible.

We also are well aware of comparative size. The sky walk has to be two and a half times taller than a jeepney. The road has to be four lanes wide in each direction. These things forced us to make a standard unit of size for 3 dimensional objects. We chose the jeepney as our 3D ruler.

Cebu Provincial Capitol — Daytime

This rendered picture represents our most ambitious model. It was modeled as several separate buildings and then added into one. We only had to model the right half of the buildings and garden. A 3d modeling tool called "mirror" created the left side. The two sides are then placed side by side to create the whole.

This was our first attempt to use the tool "Tree Creator". This was a very mathematical procedure and required a background in physics and math. It was a bunch of spirals decorating other spirals in a random way. We ended up being very good in making the trees and flowers that you see in the Capitol grounds and garden.

The problem was solved by getting a bigger and better computer. We bought and assembled our first 64 bit computer. This used and AMD Opteron processor. We chose this processor because it can be clustered. This means that 2 or 4 processors can be connected together in such a way to act as one computer. Our new computer ended up with a total of 4 gigabytes of memory.

Cebu Provincial Capitol — Nighttime

This rendered picture represents our first attempt to turn the lights on in Cebu. Three D modeling and animation is very dependent on lighting your scene to present the best view. Lights create shadows and these are part of the illusion the viewer sees as reality.

Another interesting feature is our rendering of the two Capitol water pools and squirting water fountain (one is shown in the lower right of the picture). This was very challenging because we had to make the water move up in the center of the fountain and down on the out side. Again this was a mathematical model that used time dependent random numbers. The pool is complete with circular water waves in the pool of water.

This model still could use some lights to show the two statues of President Sergio Osmeña and local hero LapuLapu. Also missing are three statues on the capitol building.