TITLE: Grade One NAME: Gautam N. Lad COUNTRY: Canada EMAIL: gautam@interlog.com WEBPAGE: http://www.interlog.com/~gautam TOPIC: School COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. JPGFILE: gnlgrad1.jpg ZIPFILE: gnlgrad1.zip RENDERER USED: POV-Ray v3.01.msdos.wat-cwa TOOLS USED: Mid Night Modeller v2.10 (Main modeller), POV-Ray v3.01.msdos.wat-cwa (Main renderer), Microsoft Paintbrush (Alphabet blocks image maps), LView v3.1 (.TGA to .JPG Conversion, Copyright text, and Gamma correction), PictureViewer v1.61 (Various image conversion), Dyeworks v1.40 (Various image conversion), Logitech ScanMan 256 Hand-held scanner (Scanning image), ColorDesk Photo (Software used to control scanner and adjust image brightness, etc.), Texture Blender v1.0 - From POV-PAK v1.0 (Used to make the carpet, alphabet blocks, and train textures), Tracer Timer v1.0 - From POV-PAK v1.0 (To time image), My sister's crayons (For the main image)! ;) RENDER TIME: Approximately 10 hours 45 minutes 35 seconds (38735 seconds) HARDWARE USED: 486 DX2 50MHz with 8MB of RAM (Computer) Logitech ScanMan 256 Hand-held scanner (Scanning image), IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The main theme behind the image comes from the famous English proverb: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" The story behind the title: "Jack (the ficticious character who drew the image) was told by his Grade One teacher to draw a picture of himeself, as a little art project. He seems to be a very good drawer, as touted by his class-mates, but unfortunately, Jack has gotten bored of his work, and decided to spend some time by playing with Legos, the very educational alphabet blocks, and a wooden toy train. He even managed to spell out the word 'POVRAY' using the blocks!" NOTE: Although you can't see the alphabet block letter O, I'm expecting the letter O (Oh) to come out of your mouth when you see this fantastic image. I said "O" when I saw the first test render. This is a very lame JOKE, huh?!? ;) DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: Wow, this has been my biggest, and best project ever, it's also the first time I rendered an image that took more than 5 hours! ;) 1st, I drew the main image using my sister's crayons, and made it like how a (really good) grade one child would draw it. Since my mom babysits a grade one child, I (sort of) knew how one draws. I then scanned my drawing in, and lacking image editing programs, I left the image as it was (except for making it brighter). I made two drawings, and made various tests using the first, but later drew another, and that remained the final. Because my scanner isn't amazing when it comes to quality, the colour on the first were light and so I made the second drawing darker (by pressing harder with the crayons). Very first thing I modelled were the crayons, and the paper. Made a few test renders, and the decided to add more objects. I then made a Lego object using POV-Ray's programming language to simplify things (at least for me). I then spent like a week working with the Legos, and when I was satisfied, I made the entire batch of Legos into one object (AllLegos). Next came the alphabet blocks. So, I spent like another week or two making the bitmaps of the letters (specifically P O V R A Y), and the main alphabet block object. Once again, using the POV-Ray programming language to simplify things, because you can't tile an image onto all sides of a cube, so I had to make a loop that drew all the side as a thin cube. So, after getting the main block done, I created a separate scene and modelled a bunch of blocks, and then made the entire batch of blocks into one object (AllAlphabet). Finally, came the time for me to do test renders. First render I made took about 10 hours, and it used radiosity and +a0.289. This was the first time I rendered an image that took more than 5 hours. In that render, I noticed a few glitches. First, the alphabet blocks were too high off the carpet (that's what the floor is). Next, the letter V on the alphabet block was slightly slicing through the block below. Next, the crayons all looked brand new, and this was due to the tip being perfect. So, back to MNM I went and made scrap CSG cubes and manually applied to the source. The result would give the effect of the crayons being used (dull points). Another thing was there were still some jaggies, so I increased the anti-aliasing and disabled radiosity. The quality seem to look the same, and since I lowered anti-aliasing, using radiosity would possibly take even longer (to me that would be FOREVER with my 486). The train was a last minute add-on. The idea came from a toy my sister has, but that toy is like an inch in length (quite small). So, I made it big to fill up space! ;) One thing I forgot is to add a black crayon. Let's just say the child is holding it in his hand, and went away from his 'work area' for a while! ;) FINAL NOTE: The render time isn't EXACT, because MS-Windows 95 crashed like a dozen times during the final render. I guess Win95 isn't as crash protected as it was said to be (I may be wrong here). I knew I should have used OS/2, but I had little time! :( Next, I hope you try out my POV-PAK utilities bundle. It's got some neat utilities for POV-Ray, two of which were used in this project! And, it's FREEWARE! Check out my site for more information. (Submitted: April 28, 1997) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grade One -- Copyright (C) 1997, Gautam N. Lad. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: If YOU wish to use this image/file for ANY purpose, you MUST first contact me at my e-mail address to get my premission. Visit my website to find software/graphics/links, etc. at: http://www.interlog.com/~gautam -----------------------------------------------------------------------------