Black Death

Member : Michael_H

Image description
This is a moment in the history of epidemiology (the study of epidemics) where 15 million died in Europe of the bubonic plague from 1347 through 1351. All attempts were made to minimize the damage with no or little affect. The cause were thought to be both religious and physical; God's punishment of the sinful and an alignment of the planets that produced a lack of balance in the body's humors, or fluids. In a world where many cities lost 50% to 70% of their population, including the king of England's daughter Joan, flagellants beat themselves in public to appease God, Jews - thought to have poison the air - were tortured, gangs looted homes of the dead - these were indeed the dark ages. The reduction of population gave way to economic progress, ended the feudal system, produced an industrial revolution with devices such as Gutenberg's printing press to fill the labor shortage, and ultimately the birth of the Renaissance. I hope my image conveys the feeling of the times without being to bloody. The architecture is inspired by paintings of the 14th century. Those paintings have such odd use of perspective I've always found disturbing but intriguing. Doctors of the day wore a type of HazMat suit (Hazardous Materials Suit) that featured a gas mask that looked like a bird's head. I started to model this but felt uneasy about it. I didn't want anything silly looking in an image about such mortality. I made the doctor bird an actual bird which is presiding over the devastation like a conductor over an orchestra he can not control. The candles at the bottom of the image represent the population. Some of the candles are younger than others but whether young and old some of them have been extinguished. Seven out of twenty one, the same percentage as those who died in Europe. There is one butterfly for each extinguished candle. Other symbols are more obvious such as the biohazard symbols in the arch across the top and the tear drop crystals on either side (tears of the suffering).

Description of how this image was created
Probably the most helpful bit of experience I can pass on to you is rendering in layers. The "sky" and architecture was rendered first. Before I was even sure about other things that might be in the image. Then it was used as a background image and other items such as the plants were rendered on top of it. This gave me great flexibility. I could judge test renderings in the context of the overall environment and it allowed me to render a much more complex image than I could otherwise. My final rendering is 3750 x 6031 16 bit (or about 23 megapixels). In total there are 371 thousand faces and 43 lights. I didn't record the rendering times for each file but my guess is around 3.5 hours. Also I was better able to control the lighting of each section as it was added to the rendering. You really should try this approach. I believe it will work in POV-Ray - or any program where you can specify a bitmap as a background. You don't need PhotoShop or any other tool. PhotoShop was helpful to me in several ways. All of my textures were created or modified in PhotoShop, I often draw on renderings to try out ideas, and the inky blue that is melting out of the bird was done in PhotoShop (there are just some things that are better done 2D). LINKS List of sciences: http://phrontistery.info/sciences.html Read about the plague here: HazMat Suit of 1350: http://www.rcep7.org/~orient/history/hist05.htm http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/plague.html http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/Medbelprac.html http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Bloodletting http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/history/highmiddle/plague.htm http://encarta.msn.com/media_461539805/Effects_of_the_Black_Death.html http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761588279/Black_Death.html#461539805 http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761588279_2/Black_Death.html http://www.deathreference.com/Bl-Ce/Black-Death.html The Pope has his men: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_VI And the History Channel's The Plague DVD Medieval Art: MOMA - the Cloisters: http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewHigh.asp?dep=7&viewmode=0&set=01 http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?dep=7&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=0&item=1970%2E324%2E7a%2C+b http://www.buy-original-art.com/images/styles/medieval.jpg Big one: http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/~sonechka/isleducitte.JPG Beautiful Page: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/themes/euromanuscripts/lindisfarnelge.html

General statistics
No of ratings	:	3
Min. overall rating	:	36 (13 / 10 / 13)
Max. overall rating	:	48 (17 / 16 / 15)
Sum of rating	:	125 / 180
Date uploaded	:	2007-08-31 06:35:57

Specific details Note: The maximum value below is misleading as the voting system has changed. If the member votes for all the entries and has created one him/herself, there is an automatic 20/20/20 score added to the value (This encourages all members who enter to vote).
Rating type	:	Min : Max : Sum : Out of
Artistic	:	13 : 17 : 43 : 60
Concept	:	10 : 16 : 40 : 60
Technical	:	13 : 15 : 42 : 60
Overall	:	36 : 48 : 125 : 180

Comments by members when rating this image

1.   31-08-2007 I like the whole symbolic setting of this scene. It was not immediatly obvious to me what the realtion witht the topic was, but the more I look at the scene, the more I like the concept. The asymmetrical architecture is also very meaningful. Well done.