Graphics & Animations

Between 1998 and 2008 (at age 15-25) one of my hobbies was to create graphics and animations. I tried out a lot of different styles, such as abstract, fantasy, realistic, and visual illusions, but a lot of what I did could also just be described as technical and visual experiments, for example in procedural animation and scripted visual effects.

Except where otherwise noted, the 3D images and animations are made with the free raytracer POV-Ray. I wrote them in POV-Ray code without use of any modeling tools. You can download the source code for some of them. The non-3D works were made in Paint Shop Pro.

Metal & Flowers

Metal and Flowers - Overview	Metal and Flowers - Part I	Metal and Flowers - Part II
Metal and Flowers - Part III	Metal and Flowers - Part IV	Metal and Flowers - Part V
Metal and Flowers - Part VI	Metal and Flowers - Installation

Metal & Flowers is a series of six images, Part I to VI, which form a larger motive when combined. It's an exercise in playful ironic contrasts, both visually and thematically. Furthermore it is the craftiest graphical artwork I have made to date, with extreme attention to detail derived from a study of countless close-up reference images of lilies and welded metal. The largest of the images is targeted at 60x90 cm in print and have been rendered at 7087x4724 pixels.

The overall theme is the artificial versus the organic. The metal structures represent man's hard inventions, yet they seem to grow in an organic fashion. The flowers are nature's beauty, yet on closer inspection they are a bit too flawless and correspond to no actual real-world flowers, combining the flower of a lily with the stem of a vine.

On the technical side, the welded metal girder structures are programmed to follow splines I have plotted by hand, while the flower stems have been created using an inverse growing algorithm that grows from the flower positions and down, clinging onto the girders.

While the graphics were completed in 2008, I didn't get them printed until 2013. Now they're decorating my wall as a cross between normal posters and an installation piece.

ArachnoBot

I've finished my first real animation with 3ds Max, after having used the program for a few months. The animation was for a class at the university, and it took me one week to make where I worked on it practically all the time. It's a 40 seconds long visualization of a robot pet called ArachnoBot, and the form of the animation is supposed to resemble a commercial for the fictional robot pet. As such, it's the second animation I've made that has some sort of "story line", or at least is more than a mere technical experiment.

The sound bit if from the track "Technologic" by Daft Punk on their album "Human After All".

Fractal Structure And Some Red

Gee, has it really been 6 years since my last image my 3d gallery? Well, I've been busy with making animations instead, studying and Real Life. But yesterday I just spontaneously felt like doing a simple 3d image again, and whipped up this one in a couple of hours. It takes up only few lines of code. It took 13 minutes to render with area_lights and focal blur.

The Funny UFO Animation

"The Funny UFO Animation" aka "3D Sound Test" aka "Rune's first animation that actually has a story line".

More information will be available later.

pyro13

I never draw - almost. A shame really, because once I do, I enjoy it, and sometimes the results even look decent. Well here's one drawing. I started it long ago but only just finished it now.

I drew a lot when I was a kid actually. Hmm, perhaps I should upload some of my old drawings sometime...

Through The Wormhole Portal

In March 2002 I was tinkering with a cool wormhole portal effect that I planned to use in some great animation I'd supposedly be making (with a storyline and everything). But somehow it never happened. Well, recently I got reminded of it, and I decided to make a few adjustments and then post an animation showcasing the effect, since it is pretty cool after all - storyline or not.

A wormhole is often explained with a diagram showing two parallel planes that are blobbed together. I tried to envision in what way light rays passing through the wormhole would be bended, and it occurred to me that the effect would be somewhat similar to a reflective sphere, only that it reflected the other world instead of the one you're in, and then there would also be some distortion at the rim, which, for technical reasons, I could unfortunately only use in the wormhole opening part of the animation. Enough talk, now have a nice journey!

Hologram Projector

I bought a hologram projector recently. So far I have only loaded into it a simple model of the earth (which is in the default package), but once I get to know better the software that came with it, I might load some of my own 3d models into it. :)

I filmed it with my digital camera. Unfortunately the quality is very poor, but you get the idea...

Where can I get one, and what does it cost?

The Tentacle Dance

I originally created this animation back in February 2003, but never got it up on my website. I'm quite fond of it though, so here in March 2004 I decided to improve it and then put it up online. I have now made the movement more interesting and added a visual overlay-effect and the animation is also twice and long as the first version.

Viewing recommendations: Wait till it's night, turn off all lights around you, turn up the volume and view the animation in fullscreen... :)

Tunnel Ride

It started when I was bored and just thought I'd make a tunnel animation with a minimum amount of work. I didn't want to model anything (as usual) so instead I created everything through scripting. Every twist and turn in the tunnel are randomly generated. I added glows (at random positions) and rails, then crystals at the glows, made the camera shake, created a couple of mine carts, and there you go... This animation is also loopable, so you can watch it for a looong time, preferably in fullscreen mode...

If you want to render the source code it requires MegaPov.

Infinite Menger Sponge

A variation of the Menger Sponge. (What is a menger sponge? See images of classic menger sponges on Google.) In this version the iteration level is not fixed, but stops at random levels. But more interestingly, this menger sponge is infinite! That's what the animation shows - it just keeps zooming in. (Remember to make your player loop!)

Think and Feel

I wanted to make a personal front and back for my calendar. I made some graphics that sort of captures a life philosophy I follow. The idea is that if you manage to both think and feel, you will come far. Well, the image and the words in it describes it best... After having searched the net for fitting quotes with no success, I made up the text for the back myself.

Everything but the text was made in POV-Ray, but since the graphics are not 3d-like at all, I don't consider them 3d graphics, even though a 3d program was used as one of the tools. It just happens that POV-Ray is very good at creating patterns, also for 2d.

A Glimpse of A Bigger World

This concept was formed in my head in the fall of 2002, but not until now (summer 2003) have I gotten it into image form. The image is meant to illustrate the feeling of isolation and disparity between the figure inside the egg and its surroundings. The pain of knowing what you are missing, but being unable to pursue it. I attempted to create a strong contrast between the pale face hidden in the shadows of the confining grayish egg, and the bright, limitless landscape outside with a blue sky and the two birds symbolizing social life or perhaps even love.

I might add that the inspiration does come from personal experiences, but that a lot have happened in the mean time, and that there's no need to worry about me... ;)

The egg and the landscape and sky are rendered in POV-Ray, but the hole in the egg, the eye and the birds were added in post processing in Paint Shop Pro, so in my eyes this image does not count as being a 3d image (although a 3d program was used as one of the tools).

Particle System Animations

Note:
Practically all my particle system animations have moved to a new page dedicated to my particle system.

Go to Rune's Particle System page.

Drops of Rainbow

An abstract piece that emerged as I played with circles positioned and sized using sinus curves...

The pattern was made in POV-Ray and blurred slightly in Paint Shop Pro.

Particle System: Blow-up

I have used my particle system to create an explosion. In this animation I used a photo of a real building and added the explosion effect on top of that using my illusion include file to do the mapping. I made the camera shaky to make it seem more like a real video clip shot from a helicopter or similar. Besides the fire, smoke and dust I also added debris, which is also made with the particle system. I also used two images, where the one after the explosion shows some damage and soothing on the building, though it's not very visible.

All in all, I'm satisfied with the level of realism. My particle system is just not advanced enough to do hyper-realitic simulations, and keeping that in mind, I think this animation works well.

Ripples

Just a little test with water I made. It has nothing to do with my particle system, but is based on a technique described on Hugo Elias' page here, though with some additional features I implemented.

The test is coded in POV-Ray, but I never finished the code and thus never released it. In the mean time, Tim Nikias has released a system for POV-Ray that does the same thing. You can get it here:
http://www.nolights.de/download.html#LSSM

Lip Synch System

The demo animation for my Lip Synch System. Read more about it on my Include Files page.

Walking System: AL walks

While further developing my walking system I'm testing it with my character Al the Alien. One of the things that have caused me great troubles is when the character starts and stops walking. It was difficult to make the system know when to switch to a passive state and when to switch back to walking state, but finally I think I've got it working ok. :)

By the way, as per a suggestion I got, AL is chewing a gum in this animation. ;)

Sorry, source code for my walking system is not available (even by request). See spider animation below for more information.

Walking System: Spider

I'm currently working on a new project: An animation walking system! When fed with the right data, it can automatically make something walk along a specified path with no foot slippage at all, and the feet will also adapt to the terrain. My first real test of the system at its current early stage was making this spider crawl. It's not perfect, but I think it's a promising start.

See discussion of this animation at CG Talk.

Sorry, source code for my walking system is not available (even by request). But if you're interested in my walking system, you may want to have a look at these newsgroup discussions: Here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. (If it's the first time you visit the web-view of the POV-Ray newsgroups, then there's a welcome page you need to get past before you get to the discussions...)

Electric Sparks

This animation is made from one of the four sample scenes that comes with my Electricity Include File. The three sparks have been given different settings for the movement. The include file can be found on my Include Files Page.

Burn in Hell

Hell: A hot place where you burn alone to eternity... Enjoy the stay! ;)

Thanks to Peter Houston who has made Blob_Man People.

If you want to render the source code it requires MegaPov and Peter Houston's Blob Man People 4.2

No More Chrome Spheres Please

The "chrome sphere over checkered plane" is an overused raytracing cliche. The last thing we need is another of those images...

...but who cares! ;)

Merry Christmas on The South Pole

A sweet naive image almost childish in style where Santa comes by the South Pole and makes Christmas just a bit happier for a lone penguin. :)   It is based on a handdrawn illustration I saw on the front of a journal. I thought it was so sweet I decided to recreate it as a 3D image. I've tried to adhere to the cute childish style but also give it my own touch. I can't find the original anywhere on the net, so I'm not able to direct you to it... Anyway, have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

If you want to render the source code it requires MegaPov

AL the Alien - Talking

Here's an animation where AL talks! It should give you just a little insight in AL's personality. As you can see, he doesn't lack self-confidence...

I know the body motion looks a bit strange; that's because I'm only just starting learning character animation. But I think the lip synch worked great!

AL the Alien - Running

Here's AL running! Making him run was in fact easier than making him walk, and funnier too.

This can still be improved (the way the feet impact on the ground should be different), but generally I'm pleased with the result.

AL the Alien - Walking

Here's one of my projects, AL the Alien, a fully IK animatable character - of course made entirely in POV-Ray (as always).

At this stage AL is no where near finished, but I was dying to try out the IK animation system I had made, so I made this cyclic animation with AL walking. The arms still jerk a bit, and the movements could be improved.

Tech Sphere

An abstract tech sphere consisting of many metal plates of which some are elevated, revealing a green glow coming from the inside. Some people have pointed out to me that it looks a little like a "borg sphere" (from a StarTrek movie I think - you can see one here). Well, I had never seen a borg sphere, so it was not intentional, but maybe interesting nonetheles... One way or the other: Enjoy!

If you want to render the source code it requires MegaPov )

Buy Tech Sphere poster at Zazzle.com

MTV Animated Logo

This animation was shown on MTV Europe September 25 2000. It was shown in the program "Top Selection".

If you want to render the source code it requires MegaPov and Chris Colefax's Object Exploder.

Fireworks

I like fireworks. These were made using the glow feature in MegaPOV.

If you want to render the source code it requires MegaPov.

Network

Another abstract. Other people have compared it to as different things as "neuronal network", "wire mess", and "sort of alien forest". Go judge by yourself! :)

Thanks to Chris Colefax who has made the Spline Macro System.

If you want to render the source code it requires Chris Colefax's Spline Macro System.

Buy Network poster at Zazzle.com

Morphing Abstract Surface

I made a little piece of code that generates a surface of smooth triangles (later I added an edge made of cylinders and spheres). Nothing special, but with its colorful and special morphing shape it looks quite interesting I think. It makes me think of a screensaver…

PushBall

I made a POV-Ray game where people could write include files that would control bots in the game, and make them compete to push a ball in the other players' goals. The output was an animation where you see how the game went. Technically it worked, but the games always turned out too boring like you can see in this animation.

You can download the source code and set up your own matches and maybe even program your own bots. If you make an interesting match I'd like to hear about it! :)

Tunnel

An abstract, bright colorful tunnel. An abstract image like this is rather quick and easy to make, so I guess I should be making more of these. The tunnel is one big blob object with randomly colored blob elements. The blob elements are automatically placed with some rotate and translate funktions inside a #while-loop.

Buy Tunnel of Colors poster at Zazzle.com

Dripstone Cave

Some tourists walking around in a dripstone cave. The cave itself is made of two heightfields only.

Special thanks to Anthony L. Bennett who has done this 28 hour long render for me on his computer! Also thanks to Peter Houston who has made Blob_Man (clothes exclusive), and to Chris Colefax who has made the Lens Effects Include file.

If you want to render the source code it requires Chris Colefax's Lens Effects Include File

Illusion

What is real and what isn't? Who knows? This image is made using my Illusion Include File. It seems like there's sitting a man on the steps but when you look at the other men you realize that it's just a kind of drawings on the steps.

Thanks to Peter Houston who has made Blob_Man (clothes exclusive).

To render the source code it requires my Illusion Include File

Impossible Triangle

A triangle which can not possible be made in reality. I've made it almost impossible to see where the "break" is. In fact, the only possible way, if any, would be to look at the shadows. The rounded edges sure made it much harder to make the magic trick. The pillow is a blob-object and the wood table surface texture is a wood pattern with various warps.

Red Dragon Flying

My red dragon, here flying. If you want to download the source code, have a look in the 3d gallery.

Red Dragon

Overview picture of a red dragon I made. The body, neck, and tail are just scaled, rotated, and translated spheres using nested unions. The head and the legs are csg objects too.

Tubes

Some colored strange tubes in flying bubbles. 100 tranparant bubbles + 100 tubes each made of 1024 spheres. Locations and colors of tubes are random. This image took 5 hours to render.

Torus Fractal

A gold torus with 20 small toruses each with 20 even smaller toruses ect... I made this when I played around with recursive macros.

Green Dragon

This is my first dragon. He has no wings... He reminds me of a dog... It is made pretty much the same way as my new dragon (the red one), but is uses a lot more objects which make it much slower to render, still it looks much more stupid.

Pens

Still life with drawing tools. My first "real" image made with POV-Ray. It was pretty difficult to rotate and translate the pens so they touched but didn't intersect with each other and the glass.