Main | Images | Difficulties

For the Southern Alberta landmark to be rendered in 3D, I initially chose the Pengrowth Saddledome with the downtown Calgary skyline in the background. Due to the difficulty in rendering the Saddledome reasonably well (as shown here), I decided that it would be easier if I just completed a rendering of the Calgary downtown core, with, of course the Calgary tower visible.

Even though the photo is a panoramic shot of the downtown core, I made the perspective closer so that there wouldn't be such an "empty" look to the foreground of the rendering.

As stated before, the image is nowhere near that of a photo-realistic image, but considering that it can be incorporated into Adobe Flash, I am generally pleased with how this rendering turned out.

The toughest aspect of this rendering was the amount of work that was actually required for the buildings surrounding the Calgary Tower. The Calgary Tower itself was simple enough to make as it just utilized several cylinders and a cone for the top of the tower. Each of the buildings consisted of many rectangles to make the overall structure and windows of the building. Of all the buildings (not including the Calgary Tower) within the image, 8 of them are distinct from one another. Several of them were then scaled and rotated in a different position and then placed in the image.

The textures that Swift3D contained are quite limited and many of them do not fit well for this particular image. Some of the windows of the buildings contain a reflective surface texture that help in giving that extra touch to the scene.

Overall, I am pleased with how this image turned out, especially considering the version of Swift3D that I used is several years old. Next time I would prefer to try my hand at 3D Studio Max or Maya, so that I could have an opportunity to render a more photo-realistic image.

Please be sure to check the "Difficulties" page to see my initial rendering.