TITLE: Vacation
NAME: David Heys
COUNTRY: U.S.A.
EMAIL: autumn@sinbad.net
WEBPAGE: http://www.sinbad.net/~autumn
TOPIC: Landmarks
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: vacation.jpg
ZIPFILE: vacation.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV Superpatch 3.1e

TOOLS USED: 
    HFlab, Photoshop

RENDER TIME: 
    15 hours

HARDWARE USED: 
    P166 48MB RAM

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


"Here's a shot we took out on a rock outcropping that's just sitting smack in 
the middle of the local desert. They call this The Devil's Spire. We're not 
sure why they call it that. I think it has something to do with some local
legends."


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


O.k... So this isn't my best work. There was a lot more that I could have done
with this scene, but I lacked the time. I didn't really get started on this 
until a couple of days prior to the deadline.

I began this as a basis for experimentation with the Superpatch that I'd
recently
downloaded. I wanted to play around with isosurfaces and the use of pigment
patterns as a method of purturbation in the physical definition of an 
isosurface's shape.

The ground is a heightfield created in HFlab. The "tourist" is mostly made from

blobs. The Devil's Spire and other rock formations are spherical isosurfaces
whose
surfaces have been modified with a pigment pattern. The addition of two fog
layers
and the use of a 6 by 6 area light were what added to the 15 hour render time. 
Otherwise, this scene would have rendered in about an hour or so.