Addenda

A COLLECTION of science fiction related-offerings that cannot be presented in any regular department or feature of the magazine. They are likely to appear only once or very infrequently. We didn't know exactly what to do with them, but they were too good to pass up. Here, then, are a few addenda for your enjoyment.

Hugo Awards Crossword

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Larry Niven's Ringworld, drawn by Eric M. Jones

The correct-scale wireframe was made in DesignCad 3D. This was then exported to PaintShop Pro-9 where the details of daylight and dark areas were filled in, along with shadow-square shading. This was then layered on top of a retouched Hubble shot of the Sombrero Galaxy (but I actually removed the galaxy). The dark shadows were added by darkening selected masked areas. I might have simply added the light areas instead, but chose that approach for now. Then some PSP illumination effects were added—which was entirely responsible for the central star, light rays and “lens flare.”

The DesignCad 3D wireframe is perfectly capable of obtaining any view from any perspective and any direction at all. This makes for some astonishing views ... of which this one might be the least amazing. I took some time to detail the land in the lighted areas ... clouds, rivers, lakes, etc., but this was certainly overdoing it for this longer view. This is a lot dustier universe than any other Ringworld drawing I've seen, but I like the effect. I might add the double-shadow from the ring itself later (i.e. the shadow-square shadow and the ring-shadow combo).

Click on the image above to see it full-size.