TITLE: Mars Conquest
NAME: Neil Alexander
COUNTRY: Canada
EMAIL: stoker@echo-on.net
WEBPAGE: none
TOPIC: Gadgets and Odd Devices
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
MPGFILE: mars.mpg
ZIPFILE: mars.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray for Windows 3.1

TOOLS USED: 
    Terrain Maker and CMPEG

CREATION TIME: 
    3 months

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium II 233 MHz

ANIMATION DESCRIPTION: 
    In the year 2004, the United States launches
a new mission to Mars.  The goal: claim the Red Planet!
  I hope no Americans will take offense at my gentle poke at American
nationalism in the space program.  I realize that things have changed
since the "space race" of the 50's and 60's, but I thought it would
still be funny to see the next century's equivalent to the flag on
the moon of 1969.


VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS: 
    The new MS Media Player works well


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED: 
    Most of the objects in
my animation are fairly straightforward CSG.  If you wish to see the 
details, I suggest you download the zip file, which contains all the
files needed to render this animation.
  I experimented with some media objects which I think worked well for
gas effects such as the capsule's thrusters.  I moved multiple
densities through the object to achieve the desired texture and flow.
The dust when the capsule lands uses the same technique, but the effect
doesn't look quite as convincing as I would have liked.
  The Martian landscape seen earlier in the animation was created using
a technique I developed for my entry in last year's "Elements" stills
contest.  I rendered a textured grayscale image for the height field,
and rendered a colored image using the same texture and transformations
for the image map so that the colors match the shapes of the height
field.  For the close-up rocks, I created a loop to generate random
blobs.
  The background hills seen after the capsule lands are a height field
created with Terrain Maker.
  The Rovot walking algorithm is based on the same routine I developed
for the mite's legs in my previous entry (Microcosms).  I added some
additional code to control the hydraulic cylinders and make the Rovot
sway slightly as it walks.
  I enjoyed making this animation, and I feel it is my best work to 
date.  I almost didn't finish it due to outside circumstances that kept
me otherwise occupied from mid-March until this week, but I managed to
find the time in the last few days before the deadline. (I'm typing
this on the evening of April 14th as my final scene renders.)