Reflective Face of the Goddess

1999 © Tobin James Mueller
collaborative artwork for The Power of 10, a VisionForge MultiMedia Project

A close up image of the Altar Statue in the Temple of Portals,
representing the Goddess of Communion between the Dimensions.
Activated by the harmonies and vibrations of magical music
the Portal this statue holds aloft is able to transport individuals and communicate among the many dimensions.

This image was rendered in Bryce 4.
It's complexity made Tobin's G3 266 Mac struggle for 6 days...
and on the seventh it rested, letting Tobin get back to work.
(Actually, the rendering included the statue's entire body, of which this .jpg is merely a cropped portion.)
The original model for this image was created in Poser 3.0.1
then enhanced with many alterations in Bryce 3 (before version 4's release).
The texture used for the face and skin is a scanned version of ambient copper, smoothed in Bryce's texture editor;
then a refractive glass was placed over the copper model to create more translucence.
(This is especially noticeable around the lips. Note how the teeth and inner mouth are also quite ambient.)
The hair is a reflective silver using mauve highlights.
The eyes are actually a standard Bryce texture, not taken from Poser, and made very ambient
so as to shine and show up from farther away in other images of the Temple (see below).

Further changes were made to the image in Photoshop 4
especially around the eyes, since the reflective glass there made the original rendering look like a raccoon.
Quit a but of pixel-by-pixel painting was needed to make the image come to life.
Most skin tones are reflections the mauce sky,
the several warm gold lights that shine from the Temple's ceiling,
plus all the other items in the Temple scene; other colors come from
the mauve highlights and the refractions the greens of the crusty copper beneath,
The many colors create an image
on the bridge of her nose that resembles a terrible oriental god...

This statues was supposed to be feminine and power, fierce and joyful.
Please take a moment to contemplate the myriad emotions captured in her purposefully asymmetrical expression.

Other views of ther Temple can be seen from Tobin's Gallery:
The Portal of the Power of 10
Singing Forth the Image (640x800 - 141k version)
Singing Forth the Image (460x600 - fits screen)
The Helmet of War Wakes (a Bryce Select winner)
Gathering Strength (800x640 - 248k version)
Gathering Strength (600 pixels - 114k version)
Dido's Oath (800 pixels - 288k version)
Dido's Oath (640 pixels - 134k version)
The Hand of Perspective (800 pixels - 268k version)
The Hand of Perspective (600 pixels - 116k version)
The Portal Lens (early draft)
Reflective Face of the Goddess
more to come...

The Power of 10 is an Online Collaborative Picture Book project
in its formative stages. As the initial illustrations are completed,
writers are sketching out the first chapters and musicians are composing theme music.
See "Contents".

ArtsForge Main Page
Tobin Mueller's Gallery | Other ArtsForge Art Galleries | Digital Artists
VisionForge | WordForge | MusicForge
CyberCards