ABSTRACT
You can model, build, or create whatever you can visualize if that visualization is based on careful, complete observations of what you see in the real world. Look around your desktop. What are the qualities of the three closest objects? What basic form do they remind you of most-a sphere, a box, or a cylinder? Where do the highlights and shadows fall? What does the space around the object look like? Take a look at the basic prim (primitive forms) in Figure 6.1. Note how they bend space around themselves by showing changes in the lighting on their surfaces. Each one has its own signature pattern. The sphere has a small round highlight, while the shadows hug the opposite side like a dark band. The ring has a streak of highlight, and the shadow on the back side starts with a straight-edged gradient. The box has no such gradients; each face is shaded in a solid color, a highlight on the top face, deep shadow color on the back-facing side, and a somewhat middle tone on the other visible side. You can never see more than three sides of a solid box from a single point of view. Rez a few of these basic prims inworld and take a few minutes to observe the light and shadow qualities of the cylinder, the torus, and the tube as well.
