TITLE: The Desert-Dessert
NAME: Andreas Grates
COUNTRY: Germany
EMAIL: Andreas.Grates@public.uni-hamburg.de
WEBPAGE: -
TOPIC: Desert
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: ag_des2.jpg
ZIPFILE: ag_des2.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray for Windows 3.6

TOOLS USED: 
    IrfanView to convert to JPG

RENDER TIME: 
    14h 05m 09s

HARDWARE USED: 
    AMD Athlon 650 / 320 MB RAM

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


        A crude pun on the topic, I know. But in fact, I misunderstood the topic
first and mistook it for "dessert". Hence,
        my first thought was "Now, would a nice ice be acceptable?" Reading the
comment on the topic I realised my mistake,
        but the idea was there - but instead of icecream and cream and a wafer
on top I did stonemarbles, sand and a cactus
        on top.
        The "Desert-Dessert" stands on yellow-green checkered tablecloth
(signifying that this is my first submission
        to the IRTC, whoopee!), accompanied by a glass of water (which is there
for no other reason than to be a
        counterpoint to the "desert-dessert" - it all looked awful empty
without). The feel of vastness is picked up in the
        peculiar overbroad aspect-ratio of 2,35:1, making the to items in the
middle look lost. The dim light creates a nice
        atmosphere - there is a feel of the scene being "forgotten by
everyone".


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


        "It's all in the texture, the interior and in the lighting", is all I
can say.
        Most modelling is quite simple CSG with basic bodies like spheres,
cylinders and cones. The heap of sand in the
        "chalice" is a surface of rotation, but that's really the most fancy
part. The cactus is dimensionally inequal
        scaled spheres and cones, where the spikes of the cactus are made of
cones. There's some while-loop and some random
        numbers here.
        More interesting is the department of textures. Some are made custom
from scratch, but some are based on
        standard-include-files specifically altered to fit in.
        Grubby light does wonders for the realistic look of a scene - though the
cactus is just one pigment and the spikes
        are one other, the grubby light and the fact you for the most part see
only the shadowed side make it IMO one of
        the most realistic looking things in the composition.
        The fact that the scene is so empty calls for sophisticated techniques
for rendering. Both radiosity and
        photon-mapping are used, as well as interiors for glass and water,
causing the render to last not a half but a full
        eternity. ALWAYS be sure to have enough time for these things on a slow
computer, or make sure you know how to
        interrupt and continue a render!