TITLE: The Basilica of Fatima
NAME: Antoine Valentim
COUNTRY: Canada
EMAIL: bumblebee@globalserve.net
WEBPAGE: http://web.globalserve.net/~bumblebee/ecclesia/ecclesia.htm
TOPIC: Architecture
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: fatima.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.5

TOOLS USED: 
    The GIMP (making heightfields and image maps), IrfanView and
Microsoft Paint (taking measurements on source images, etc.), Wings3d, some of
my own software

RENDER TIME: 
    4h 12m 01s

HARDWARE USED: 
    Celeron 433

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

In 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to some children in Fatima, Portugal.  In
honor of this event, construction of a basilica began in 1928 near the spot
where the apparitions took place.  This building was consecrated by Pope Pius
XII in 1954.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

First, I tried to find as many pictures of the basilica as possible.  Using
these, I took measurements in order to help me produce a somewhat accurate
model.

I noticed that some parts of the building were "squarish", and some were
"rounded".  The round parts I modelled in Wings3d.  This was actually the first
time I used Wings3d; it's quite easy to use once you get used to it.  I also
used it to make the sculptures of Mary and the angels, although these didn't
turn out all that great... 

The squarish parts I made partly through CSG, and partly through a program I
wrote.  This program takes the outlines of a building and other data and
produces a POV-Ray file containing a series of prisms which make up a building
or a part of a building.  This program was used to quickly produce the
horizontal "layered" architectural details you can see in the basilica.

Some of the details were drawn in GIMP and used as image maps.  The GIMP was
also used to make the height_fields for the reliefs.

Anyway, it's not a perfect reproduction of the original basilica, but it's
similar in many ways.  If you want to see the original building, here's the
Fatima website: http://www.santuario-fatima.pt/