TITLE: 5 Elements (5lmnts.jpg)
NAME: Jens Dengler (-- jd --)
COUNTRY: Germany
EMAIL: jd@surveyor.in-berlin.de
WEBPAGE: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~history1/bs/jensd/16xx/index.htm               (in german, see also .../1609.html .../1620.htm .../ps.htm)

TOPIC: Elements
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: 5lmnts.jpg
ZIPFILE: 5lmnts.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.01.Linux.gcc

TOOLS USED: 
    The GIMP 1.0 (Heightfield Creation) XV3.10a (TGA-JPEG)

RENDER TIME: 
    5 hours 49 minutes

HARDWARE USED: 
    i586/133

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


The 5 Elements over the Island at the End of the World
======================================================
In mysticism, there are 5 basic elements:

Element|Platonic body|Color |Card  |Relation         |Animal|Keplerian orbit
-------+-------------+------+------+-----------------+------+---------------
fire   |tetrahedron  |red   |clubs |energy, force    |lion  |Jupiter
water  |icosahedron  |blue  |cups  |feelings, love   |fish  |Venus
earth  |cube         |green |coins |physics, monetary|bull  |Saturn
air    |octahedron   |yellow|swords|intelligence     |eagle |Mercury
spirit |dodecahedron |black |arcana|metaphysics      |human |Earth

The fifth element is special, because besides of the spirit it may also
represent the universe, the bridge between the earthen and the godlike
or the physics and the metaphysics. Its also called Triax. Besides of
the black color it may be also represented by violet, starry, or invisible.

On the image the representation of the elements is doubled. For fire
you'll also see the sun, for water you'll see the ocean, for earth you'll
see the island, for air you'll see the steam and clouds. The spirit is
on you, the viewer, the camera, the eye.

IMAGE HISTORY:
The original idea of the image was an animation of the Platonic bodies - the
only 5 three dimensional bodies that are made of equal angled equal sided
two dimensional planes - as a visualization of them for an astronomical
essay, because of the use in "Mysterium Cosmographicum" and "Harmonices Mundi"
by Johannes Kepler.  Therefore the base of the image is very simple. It uses
the definitions in the shape2 include. It was made in spring 1997 already.

For some experiments and for the possibility of more complexity in a
still image I added halos, transparancy, a height map and a sky to it.
The image is still simple. Its submitted only for the Olympic idea.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

Creation of the island:
gimp -> Xtns -> Script-Fu -> Flatland...
     onImage -> Filter -> Noise -> Noisify...
     onImage -> Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur...
     onImage -> Image -> Greyscale
     onImage -> Script-Fu -> Decor -> FuzzyBorder...(!)
     onImage -> Image -> Colors -> Auto-Stretch Contrast
     onImage -> Image -> Colors -> Curves...
     onImage -> Save As 5elements-island.png

Creation of the scene:
vim...
The funny thing is the sun *under* the sky. It must be near enough because
of the fog: if the sun is too far away and/or the halo of the sun ends up
in total transparancy, you will see the clear base sphere of the halo as a
dark area, cutting out the fog. Its still visible, but I think its acceptable
as it is in the picture. The glow on the ocean surface is made with a reverse
spotlight.  I have tested many lights, many surface attributes to the waved
plane and many angles on this one, but the problem is the steam halo of the
island, which will be illuminated if the additional light hits it. The island
itself was easy with GIMP. First I had a GIF surface with a plateau, on which
the height steps were visible, but now with PNG its real smooth only with
small hints of triangles here and there.  I like it that black (although I
don't know if its really meant that way). It should remind to (polished) lava.

Creation of the image:
povray -i 5lmnts.pov +w800 +h600 +a0.2
xv 5lmnts.tga
     Save As JPEG 5lmnts.jpg

               -- jd --