CTM Image Gallery

Many years ago, when I was in grad school in geology, my thesis field area was in the Big Horn Basin of north-central Wyoming. Looming over the Basin to the east were the majestic Big Horn Mountains. Cloud Peak is the monarch of the range and appears in the center of the image below:

(Click for high res version)

You'll need to click through to read the text. Summits are labeled with coordinates from the USGS GNIS database, briefly described in this post.

This higher perspective helps to separate the peaks and gives a good feel for the rugged topography in the range:

(Click for high res version)

Low sun from the south helps to highlight the E-W trending ridgelines in the foreground. Clear air keeps things crisp up to the summit crest; attenuation gracefully subdues the background.

I've been playing around with a web-based tool for adding 3D primitives for rendering in edWare 3D. In an HTML form, the user can enter values for transparency and color; location can be entered or selected from a map view. By default, elevation is set to DEM elevation at the selected location, although the user can enter whatever elevation they'd like. I'm particularly fond of spheres:

(Click for higher res version)

So you can see some different locations, color and transparencies. A bit ho hum...

Then I thought it might be nice to form a line in "string of pearls" fashion: Continue reading "Our Versatile Friend, the Sphere" »

I've posted previously on using lighting and attenuation to simulate weather conditions in landscape rendering. This post expands on that topic.

By varying atmospheric conditions, we can convey different "moods" in the resulting images. Here's a side-by-side example:

(Click each image for a higher res version.)

The left image - Crested Butte Sunrise - utilizes low (in the sky) red-hued lighting out of the East (viewer's right) and a dark blue sky. The diffuse reflection component is set high, while ambient (background) light is low. Attenuation is non-existent. It gives me the feel of being out at dawn on a crystal clear summer morning.

The right image - Whiteout! - takes a slightly different viewing perspective with much different atmospherics. Extreme attenuation causes very limited visibility. Ambient light dominates. Saturation of the color bands is near zero. This one reminds me of some "white knuckle" winter driving days in the mountains!

Peakfinders show near ground views of an area's mountain backdrop with prominent landforms labeled. Peakfinders help residents and visitors learn about their geography and have been one of our most popular and requested products from customers. These can be generated from photographs, artist renditions or - in our case - computer renderings.

In the late 1980s, CTM produced our first peakfinder, which combined computer & artistic rendering - View to the West. Since that time, we've created peakfinders for outdoor kiosks (see, for example, this link) and a number of open space and trails maps (see, for example, the Missoula map.)

Here's one that I created of the skyline from the Silverton, Colorado, area:

(Click image for higher res version.)

This was a partially successful attempt at automating the entire process. The computer rendering was created with edWare 3d. Summit text labels within the image area were taken from the USGS GNIS (Geographic Names Information System) dataset and projected into the image space, then automatically placed over the Silverton image using HTML5 and javascript. This second pass provides an opportunity to style text and other features utilizing the full HTML5 / CSS3 suite, rather than entirely through edWare 3d software. Shortcomings in styling are entirely my fault, not HTML5 /CSS3!

The Sandia Mountains tower over Albuquerque - New Mexico's largest city. The range offers outstanding rock climbing, hiking and the memorable Sandia Crest National Scenic Byway. Although it's been many years since I've visited the crest, the view over Albuquerque remains etched in my mind.

This rendering is part of a virtual edWare tour of rugged landscapes of America's west:

(Click image for high res version - ~16 Mb)

Stark orange-hued lighting illuminates the range and the City in the foreground. It gives way in the distance to a deep blue attenuation designed to help highlight the Ortiz and San Pedro Mountains, and other landforms to the east. I really like the way this lighting / attenuation combination highlights the ridge crest, which otherwise could easily be lost in the background terrain.

The 1m resolution NAIP imagery provides nice detail of Albuquerque's urban landscape.

When it comes to rugged mountain beauty, few places in America can compare with Telluride, Colorado. It's located along the All-American San Juan Skyway (see, for example, this link.)

Here's my shot at a computer rendering showing the Town and the surrounding San Juan Mountains.

(Click the image for the high res version: ~21 Mb)

This image has a great rendition of the "valley haze" effect, described here and here. Telluride sits in the foreground valley. The Telluride Ski Area lies on the mountainside to the S (right on the image.) Mountain Village is the development on the hillside in the immediate foreground.

Here's hoping for a great ski season this winter!