5. circuitman The theme for this cover was "Forging the Future of Defense through Technology." My first concept sketch concentrated of the "forging" concept by showing a man pounding a sword of metal on an anvil. I also included a sample image from an online tutorial to show my intent to make the man look at though he were covered in circuitry. The committee selecting the cover decided that the blacksmith angle was too archaic and that it needed a more modern, high-tech look. Once the modified sketch was approved, I began work by creating the figure in Poser and then exporting it to a 3D Studio file. I was able to find 3D models for the helmet (I had to add the Sgt stripes), the conveyor belt and I pieced together the "laser" from several other models I found online. I then assembled and textured everything in Bryce. The final render took many hours (10?). I had to let it render overnight. The background, the glowing laser, logos, etc. were then added in Adobe Photoshop to complete the final image. An extra cover was created especially for attendees of the Software Techology Conference. It was a very meticulous process to create that many different variations on the faces, as I didn't just change camera angles in the software, but I used faces with different expressions and modified the placement of the circuitry on each face.