1. Load up the Modeler, we will use both the Modeler and the Layout in this tutorial. Create a 'Ball' with a radius of 500mm in each axis. Press 'n' on the keyboard to get the 'Numeric panel' up. Change the 'Type' to 'Tesselation' and the 'Segments' to 5. Should look like Figure 1.

2. Apply the 'Jitter' tool (Modify->Deform->Jitter) to the whole thing. The settings for the 'Jitter' tool can wary depending on what kind of look you want. But for a good "Starbursty" effect, the 'Radial' type works pretty good. So set the 'Type' to 'Radial' and the range to '1 m'. You should see how the points in your ball has flown around now in random directions. Apply the 'Jitter' again, but this time, set the 'Type' to 'Scaling' and leave everything else at its default. You should end up with something like Figure 2.

3. Save this object giving it a fitting name like 'whee.lwo' or something informative of your choice. Now you can close the Modeler and fire up the Layout. When you have it open, load in your shape.
We're gonna adjust the camera a little. So select the 'Camera' and go into its 'Item Properties' (Bottom bar->Item Properties) in the properties, change the 'Zoom Factor' to '0.5' so we get a nice fisheyeish effect to the camera. Set the 'Antialiasing' to 'Low' too Then move the camera into position wherever you want it, like in Figure 3.

4. Now we are gonna set up some textureproperties for our shape. Go into the 'Surface Editor'. Add a little color to our shape by pressing the little grey square in the 'Color' channel part. Select any colour you want. I chose a warm orange color. We can give it a little 'Luminosity' too, give it 20%. Give it 20% 'Transparency' too. Click on the 'Advanced' tab and set the 'Additive Transparency' to 25%. That should be enough for this simple thing. You can add reflection and whatnot too, but be aware that transparency AND raytraced reflections give much longer rendertimes. Figure 4.

5. Now just go in to the 'Render Options' (Rendering->Render Options). Activate the 'Image Viewer' under 'Render Display'. Press F9 on your keyboard. Watch the shapes build and then become antialiased, then displayed in the Image Viewer. Save it out from there, take it into Photoshop, add some crap and become 1337! Figure 5.




Here Christopher @ www.melanchology.com shows what he can churn out using this tutorial.