Project Nautilus began with a group of us getting together and watching the timeless film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Some were seeing it for the tenth time, others for their first. As we finished the film, we all seemed to agree there was vast potential for recreating the interior of the Nautilus using Newtek's Lightwave 3D.

We mulled over the idea and decided to form up some design times to work on the various portions of the ship. Scouring the internet for reference, we broke up the ship into five major areas. Five areas, five teams.. each with their respective team lead.

Now some of us were asked to do modeling, others to do texturing. Some were asked to do lighting, while still others would actually put the room shells together. The team leads did their best to direct the workflow and direction of the project.

But there were challenges ahead. While we wrestled with very typical hurdles, like scale, reference of objects in the background shots, and overall texturing, lighting proved to be the biggest challenge. The reason being is that for each shot of the movie, as the camera cut to a different shot in the same scene, the lighting would change. This is done on a film set and creates very even lighting for each shot. Lighting the Nautilus in Lightwave for the room as a whole was a tedious process, but we completed it. As we neared completion of this website to show the world what we had spent two weeks creating, there was talk of doing a side-cutaway shot. The original cutaway diagram shot of the ship is classic, but to give it a fresh look and personalized feel, we inserted "side renders" of each teams area or areas and pieced together a rendered cutaway using each teams final side renders. Click here to view the starboard cross section cutaway.

Two weeks time.. That's how long it took for our teams to recreate the Nautilus in all of its glory. To meet the design teams and view the gallery of Captain Nemo's famed submarine in 3D, please click here.

If you have any other questions about the project please feel free to send us a line at info@theprojectnautilus.com. Thank you for visiting Project Nautilus. Godspeed!