TITLE: The crystal museum
NAME: Frank Rennemann
COUNTRY: Germany
EMAIL: f.ren@gmx.de
WEBPAGE: http://www.uni-mainz.de/~renneman/
TOPIC: Elements
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: crystal.jpg
ZIPFILE: crystal.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    PoV-Ray for Windows 3.02

TOOLS USED: 
    Paint Shop Pro 5

RENDER TIME: 
    02h 56m 14s

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium Pro 200MHz, 64 mb, WinNT4

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


I came in touch with PoV-Ray using the crystal structure display program
StruVir, a StruPlo derivate that produces VRML- and POV-files. Because
the generated POV-scene does not fit my expectations, I had do come more
familiar with it to create a real good image from the main object of my
Ph.D. thesis, a hydrotalcite. This hydrotalcite picture is now in my
thesis with some close looks on the interlayers. PoV-Ray made a very
good job displaying the structure, better than some other commercial
programs I've tested. 

When I first visited the IRTC homepage I saw a picture with a molecule
structure in a show case. This inspirated me to create my own show case
with a little bit environment around it. And now with the topic
"elements" I think it is time to open my "crystal museum", looking the
old fashioned way with stone walls and classic stone piles.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


The whole scene was edited with the internal PoV-Ray-editor. The
hydrotalcite crystal structure was calculated with StruVir. The exit
sign on the wall was designed in Paint Shop Pro. All textures are
shipped with PoV-Ray or came out of PoV-Ray samples.

As you can see I love the stone textures that come with PoV-Ray. The
textures of the crystal structure is high reflective to make it look
very expensive. The ebony show case has a polished finish to show
maximum reflections.