What else CAD Software can be (Ab)Used for, Explained

A short while ago I published an article (here, on LinkedIn), titled The Houdini Badge. The article explained how I created the Oa Moass video, which is available on the SST website under https://stoelzelsoftwaretech.com/products/computer graphics/mesh models/masskrug/Details.htm. However, creating a 3D mesh model of a German beer glass isn't exactly what you would call very difficult, even if filled with a transarent, bubbly liquid, with froth at the top.

Therefore, I decided to publish a 3D model which took a bit of more work and skill (titled "What else CAD Software can be (Ab)Used for"). Even though I could have chosen any of several other such models, I have created in recent years, most of which were considerably more work than the penguin, amongst them the SST H.G. Wells Time Machine, the M 1911 automatic pistol, and Harry Spider, these can already be found, in one form or another, on the SST website (https://stoelzelsoftwaretech.com).

The penguin, on the other hand, which I created around three years ago, primarily for Linux desktop backgrounds, was lying around, essentially unused, except for the tiny version in the Hot Penguin wallpaper. The reason for this being, that at the time, I couldn't come up with a satisfactory composition for a picture in which it would play a more prominent role.

However, after the Houdini Badge question, I had the idea for a picture which would show it in its natural habitat. I alreay had a suitable, rendered, version of the penguin. Creating that wasn't as easy as the beer glass, but it wasn't all too difficult, either. Like several of my other graphics, the Mesh Model icon, for example, it was created entirely from my favorite shape, ellipses, or to be more precise, their 3D equivalents, ellipsoids. The only really difficult part was the beak. I would have shown all this in my screenshot, but unfortunately the "explode" functionality of my FreeCAD version didn't seem to work and I felt disinclined to explode the model manually.

Thus the only task that remained was creating an antarctic scenery. But, I knew from experience that creating a realistic looking, artifical scenery is far harder than it sounds. This is due to the fact that inanimate shapes/forms in nature, even such things as fissures in rocks, never mind clouds and waves, are often chaotic. So, for a short while I even considered writing a Python script (FreeCAD contains a scriptiing console) which would produce natural looking, breaking waves and billowing clouds by means of fractals, but discarded the idea on several grounds,.

• I didn't have the basic, input shapes for sand dunes, waves, and clouds.

For those not acquainted with Benoit Mandelbrot and self-similarity, fractals are self-similar shapes. That is, shapes which, no matter whether you look at them as a whole or zoom in on details, they always tend to look the same. Ferns are typical examples of such shapes in nature. The branches/leaves of these plants being nothing else than larger shapes composed entirely of the same shapes in smaller versions.

• I was doubtful as to whether my FreeCAD version had already been developed to a point where the script would actually produce what I had in mind, instead of crashing/hanging the application.
• I have enough other programming projects which require completion without adding another one to the list.

Consequently, I was forced to resort to a more classic approach to create the scenery. Except for the two pebbles and the footprints, which were also rendered, this consisted of applying various filters, such as adding "noise" to color gradients, using special "brushes", and a bit of shading here and there. Finally, to complete the picture, I smoothed some color transitions, particularly on the penguin.

There can be no doubt that some artificial intelligence (AI) applications could have created a more realistic looking scenery in a far shorter time (mine took several hours) and that this is extremely useful in creating numerous complex sceneries for computer games and motion pictures, particularly when pressed for time, but what satisfaction can be derived from "telling" a computer "create me an anarctic scenery" for a single picture? So, my picture may fall short of perfection, but I would also have to point out that I'm a far better software developer than I am an artist.