TITLE: Mesozoic NAME: Ewan Grant COUNTRY: UK EMAIL: ewgr@abaddon.globalnet.co.uk WEBPAGE: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~abaddon TOPIC: Nature COPYRIGHT: I submit to the standard raytracing competition copyright. JPGFILE: mesozoic.jpg ZIPFILE: mesozoic.zip RENDERER USED: Povray 3.02 TOOLS USED: Paint Shop Pro 5.0 ; sPatch 1.5 RENDER TIME: Parse 4 mins 36 secs; Render 2 hrs 27 mins HARDWARE USED: Pentium P-120 48Mb IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The Mesozoic era. Nature is in its infancy. As the sun sets storm clouds gather on the horizon. Centre stage sits the giant Squillion Mollusc, who, alarmed by the presence of the Emerald Swamp Serpent, releases a cloud of noxious gas. (It is conceivable that this creature abandoned its shell altogether and became what we know today as the Giant Squid.) The IceCream Crab is also aware of the Serpents progress and is in the process of deciding wether to scuttle away or retreat within its shell. The reality is however that the Serpent has espied the eggs of the Great Shore Lizard who is temporarily away from the nest feeding on the rich seaweed bed just offshore. Fungi too abounds in many forms and the two varieties seen here are particularly rare. In the distance sits a far more verdant land and finally, in the foreground, a Rock PineBerry Bush clings to a precarious outcrop in its struggle for existence. DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: I had to give considerable thought to this image. As a relative newcomer to Pov, (5 months now), I knew many regular Nature topics would be beyond me as yet. But with the encouragement I gained from comments made on my first entry last April I kept thinking till I came up with shells, or more accurately, molluscs; the beach was a logical step after that and 5,000 years was a brainwave which allowed me free reign in modelling as no-one really knows what anything looked like then. Lastly how the weather is part of nature too. After creating my beach and main shell I took it step by step and slowly it took shape. Without the useful sPatch it would have been a struggle, that program made my snake and the fungi which sets off the scene, also "dino" who would not look out of place in a Hanna Barbera production. ;-) The bed of seaweed is a height field placed below a filtered plane which, of course, is the surface of the water. I played about with the sky so much I have created my own INC file for future images. I chose a wide-angled lens after I realised how cramped everything looked, this resulted in many more translations but I think the effect is worth it. I had a lot of fun playing with the figures in Sonya Roberts "TREES.INC" to produce the squat hardy looking bush I wanted. One of the last things I did was change my light source to an area_light, quite a large array too, which doubled the render time but I loved the new shadows so it was worth it. I am keeping my fingers crossed I have succeeded in a novel approach to the subject matter and overall I am really pleased with this image.