What's Wrong With This Picture?
a one-act
play/tutorial by
Nixon
(the curtain opens and we find Mike and Bob looking at the rendered picture on Bob's monitor)
Mike: "Hey Bob, I see you rendered a Star Wars image. What did you make it in?"
Bob: "Oh, I did it in 3ds Max."
Mike: "Did you make those ships? They look really good."
Bob "No, I downloaded them of the Star Wars Modeling Alliance site."
Mike "Cool. How did you make the background and the lensflare?"
Bob "I made a starfield in Photoshop, and then stuck a Photoshop lensflare on top of that...then I just made that image my background in Max."
Mike "So the lensflare isn't actually in the scene? What's the lensflare supposed to be coming from?"
Bob "I'm not sure what you mean."
Mike "A lensflare is the effect you get when you point a camera at a bright light source...so what I'm asking is what is the light source that's causing the flare?"
Bob "Well it's outer space, I guess it's supposed to be from the sun."
Mike "Uh-huh, well if that's the sun, don't you think it would be casting light on your ships? It looks like your lights are coming from a totally different direction. It really makes your scene looks inconsistent. If this was an animation, it would look terrible."
Bob "Wow, maybe I should rethink my use of lensflares Mike. After all, this isn't Babylon 5."
(Mike and Bob start laughing as the lights blackout and curtains close)
Okay, so it won't win a Tony. Just thank your lucky stars I didn't have time to add my "There's no Ambient Light in Outer Space, But I Love you Anyway" musical number.