TITLE: The Magic of Raytracing
NAME: N.B.
COUNTRY: Finland
EMAIL: beliaev@utu.fi
TOPIC: Magic
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: nbmagic.jpg
ZIPFILE: nbmagic.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.01

TOOLS USED: 


RENDER TIME: 
    1d 14h 52m 12s

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium 166

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

My interpretation of the topic is a mixture of  the following simple ideas:

1. Raytracing has always been some sort of magic to me. I've been amazed how a
plain text (a magic
spell?) can be converted into extremely realistic images.
2. When looking at some images I start feeling that the objects really exist in
3d, beyond the limits of
the screen.
3. Raytracing of a complex scene may last very long, seizing control over the
computer (as well as over
the raytracer him/herself) for a couple of days.
4. Certain individuals become raytracing addicts.

All the above can also be summarized as something like: "a raytracing wizard
fell prey to his
creation...."

One night (it's actually 2:25:42 am on my picture) when raytracing a new IRTC
entry strange things
start to happen, or is it just a dream?



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

Created in POV-Ray 3.01 for Windows95.
All objects are written in text editor as separate include files.
Most of the objects were made especially for this IRTC round, except for the
female figure on the
background, which is a modified and improved version of my older object, and the
chair.

Most of the objects CSG of boxes, spheres, cylinders and prisms.
Human figures are made of blobs.

The male figure utilizes a hip joint suggested by Warwick Allison
<warwick@troll.no>.

Picture on the wall is an image_map of an image raytraced with  POV-Ray
("t001.pov").
Image on the shirt was generated with FRACTINT.
Image on the computer screen is an actual screanshot of POV-Ray text editor with
"t001.pov" open.

There are 4 light sources in the scene: 1. foreground, 2. background, 3. table
lamp, 4. computer screen
(imitation).
Originally I planned to make the tentacles out of blobs and put a light source
into each element, without
using any other external light sources. But because it would have taken ages to
raytrace the picture
then, I dropped the idea. Though I would still like to try it one day.

All objects are included in the zip file. Please feel free to modify or use them
as they are.


MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION  in "nb_desc.txt" (included in zip file.)