TITLE: Fireworks
NAME: Marlo Steed
COUNTRY: Canada
EMAIL: marlo.steed@uleth.ca
WEBPAGE: http://www.edu.uleth.ca/faculty/members/steed/
TOPIC: Explosion
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
MPGFILE: firework.mpg
RENDERER USED: 
    Lightwave

TOOLS USED: 
    Lightwave for modeling and rendering

CREATION TIME: 
    Hard to estimate - worked on it off and on and then last week it
seemed like full time...

HARDWARE USED: 
    Powerbook G4

ANIMATION DESCRIPTION: 

I thought fireworks were a spectacular form of explosions.  Fireworks are
controlled explosions designed to thrill the viewer.  I also wanted to provide
some sense of location so I created a fly-over the terrain.

VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS: 

No sound - sorry.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED: 

I used Lightwave's hypervoxel system for the fireworks and smoke.  The tricky
part was getting the smoke to follow the same path as the sparkler particles
and then have the particles die out at just the right time.  I threw in some
secondary explosions for variety sake and then added a different look for the
last explosion.  I also added lights and tried to sink those to the fireworks
explosions - with mixed results - just didn't have time to render and preview
so some of the lights are out of synch (there is one obvious one towards the
end of the second to last fireworks spray).

I thought moving the camera provided a bit more of a dynamic feel to scene
rather than just have it stationary.

The terrain was just created from a plane and then used a deformation map.   The
sky was created with Lightwaves built in sky generator (Skytracer 2).  I added
a volumetric fog to give the horizon a haze (this added significantly to the
render time but hopefully it is worth it.