TITLE: H2O Creation
NAME: Peter Dolan
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: pdolan@jps.net
WEBPAGE: http://www.jps.net/bdolan/
TOPIC: Water
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT
JPGFILE: h2ocreat.jpg
ZIPFILE: h2ocreat.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POVRay 3.1

TOOLS USED: 
    POVRay editor

RENDER TIME: 
    26 hrs

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium 200, 32MB RAM

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


My picture shows the creation of a sphere of solid H2O, the large sphere in the
center of the electric arcs.
At the same time, the picture shows a H2O molecule - the center (and larger)
Oxygen atom in the center of the electric arcs (electrical bonds), and the two
peripheral Hydrogen atoms at both ends of the electrical bonds.
I think, from what I know from my current chemistry class, that this is an
accurate representation of the H2O molecule - it is formed by covalent bonds
(sharing the ionic charges of the individual atoms), which if blown up (as
shown here) would appear as the electrical arcs.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


Simple modeling within POVRay - just spheres, cylinders, and a spiral from an
include file I've made (see zip file) for the jacob-laddery spirals. 
Electrical arcs and glowing effect were done with Media (this is my first
experimentation with media, I think it turned out pretty good), as well as the
haze around the bases.
I assisted the radiosity with a few shadowless lights - because the electrical
arcs aren't actually giving off light - and a gradient increase of ambient
light on the two jacoby-laddery-type-stands/hydrogen-atoms.