TITLE: Weighing of the Heart
NAME: Ron Gow
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: rgow@lanset.com
TOPIC: Mythology
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: heart_rg.jpg
RENDERER USED: 

    PovRay 3.5


TOOLS USED: 

    Wings3d
    Terragen
    Paintshop Pro 7 used for conversion to .jpg


RENDER TIME: 

    PovRay: 16 min 


HARDWARE USED: 

    Pentium IV 1.8gz
    512 mg RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

    The mythology of ancient Egypt is intertwined with the 
    funerary rites.  This scene depicts the rite known as The
    Weighing of the Heart.

    Here, the god Anubis, embalmer and protector of the dead, 
    has prepared the body, and delivered the deceased to the 
    Hall of Two Truths. The vital organs are contained in the
    jars. The scroll is the Book of the Dead, an instruction
    manual for the afterlife. Next to it is an offering of
    incense for Osiris.

    Now the heart of the deceased, which contains all of the 
    sins of life, will be placed on one of the scales and the 
    feather of truth, from the headband of the goddess of truth, 
    Ma'at, on the other. Should the heart be light as the feather, 
    the soul will be lead by Anubis to be presented to Osiris.
    Should the heart be heavy, it is fed to the waiting demon 
    Ammit, and the soul is destroyed.  

    Recording the result is Thoth, the god of wisdom and the 
    patron of scribes.

    


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

    Anubis, Ma'at, Ammit, Thoth and the casket were all modeled
    in Wings3d.  
        
    Background is a Terragen render with some Pov fog.

    Heart is a prism. 
    Heiroglyphs on the walls are height_fields.
    Scale made with sphere_sweeps.
    Everything else made with basic CSG.

    Lighting was intended to accent the shadows around the gods
    to help the sideways "walk like an egyptian" look, so I
    used a lot of light groups to get the effect.

    No source, I only finished the scene with 1 hr left, so the
    code is a mess. Most of the interesting stuff is the Wings
    meshes anyway. If anyone wants any of it they can e-mail me.

    Good luck to all the entrants!