Boiler Pump Environment
The sequence of images below show the creation of a room, styled to appear like that of a cellar in a large house or industrial building. The intial construction of the room began with four walls, a celing and floor. From here objects were created to fill the environment. consisting of the following:
- Hot water tank (basic cylinder then modelled, rusted metal texture bitmap)
- Toolbox (two chamfer boxes, with extruded sections for form the handle and lock, bitmap applied)
- Spanner (modelled from a basic box with a reflective metal texture applied)
- Shelf unit (box shapes, with applied bitmaps and textures)
- Copper pipes (created as individual assemblies consisting of cylinders with extruded sections to form the flanges and bolts. A coppery texture was created using a yellow based phong material with a smoke map. Bolts used a silver metal texture)
- air cooler box (basic chamfer box with a plastic coloured white material, fan blades created as extruded ellipses and grouped together. vents are flat sections with a rusted metal texture)
- shovel (modelled box and cylinders with applied textures)
- Stairs (standard stair shape from 3dsmax with applied bitmap)
Lighting was created using mental ray omni lights. two directed through the windows into the cellar and a further light located above the stairs. The foreground of the room was left clear to enable space for the boiler pump and to allow it to form the focal point of the room.

Boiler room further updated to allow the boiler pump to locate well within the environment

This Render shows the boiler room nearly complete

It is just awaiting the addition and animation of the boiler pump. There are a number of small articles within the room itself that can be animated. namely the fan box, where the blades could rotate and the vents flap.

Further development on the cellar

Some further items have been added to the scene, windows in some of the walls to cast light into the room. a toolbox, shovel, spanner, book and a few more pipes. the pipes were all created using cylinders and the flanges and bolts were extruded polygons from the basic shape. the others items were prominently modelled using basic box shapes and extruding out.

A start has been made on the lighting of the scene using omni lights to cast fairly realistic lighting effects. the main sorce of light comes in through the windows, and a secondaray light source takes the shape of the omni light and a light bulb hanging from the ceiling (still yet to be modelled)

The Cellar under development

Initial Layout

The initial construction of the boiler room consisted of makinf the room itself and copper pipes to connect various items of heating equipment together. Namely a boiler, and the pipes, bolts and flanges used for the construction of the pipe wotk. a set of shelves have also been created. a flight of stairs with a door at the top, (currently a bitmap, i intend to create and actual model for this however to allow the door to animate)

The cellar will also be filled with various items you would typically find including tools and appliances. Lighting in this form of environment is ABSOLUTELY crucial, as it will make or break the feel of the room on completion.

The Task

I was tasked with creating an environment for the animated pump to sit in. Looking at the images provided a suitable home could be any of the following:





- naval engine room


- maintenence workshop


- boiler room (cellar)


- situated within a side room within the rail network





I chose to initially set out to create a boiler room, the likes of which you typically see in the cellars of large homes. I searched the internet to find comparative images for this purpose and looked at video footage in some films. The original 'home alone' film was a good example of this

Boiler pump animation

The following photographs were taken of the boiler pump at the museum display.