TITLE: "First Strike at Pearl"COUNTRIES: Finland and USA

NAME: N.B. (beliaev@utu.fi) and Glenn McCarter (gmccarter@hotmail.com)
EMAIL: gmccarter@hotmail.com
WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/2006/          http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/7241/

TOPIC: First Encounter
COPYRIGHT: I submit to the standard raytracing competition copyright.
JPGFILE: strike.jpg
ZIPFILE: strike.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.1

TOOLS USED: 

  3Dem (convert DEMs to bitmaps)
  Rhino (airplane models; ship hulls)
  ColorPicker (precision color selections)
  Photoshop (image maps; convert image to JPEG)
  Paint Shop Pro (image maps)
  GeoCities (share files)


RENDER TIME: 
    15h (200) + 16h (166) + 8h (233) + 16h (166) +
4h (166) = 59 hours total

HARDWARE USED: 
    1 x Pentium 200 + 1 x Pentium 233 + 3 x Pentium 166



IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


The time -- December 7, 1941, 8:08 am
The place -- United States Naval Base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

On "a date which will live in infamy", the Japanese fleet launch a surprise
attack against American forces.  Over 2,300 lives are lost during the air raid.
 The Japanese commander radios his fleet with the code words: "Tora Tora Tora",
meaning the attack was a complete success, maximum strategic surprise was
achieved.  Shortly after this first encounter the U.S. Congress voted to
declare war, bringing America into the conflict.



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


After N.B. and G.M. decided to cooperate on an image, they tossed around a
variety of possible theme ideas.  They developed a couple of ideas to the point
of making concept sketches and simple POV-Ray scenes.  "Pearl Harbor" emerged
as their favorite.

To evaluate potential viewpoints and compositions, they used a novel technique:
a detailed and accurate map of the Pearl Harbor area (including the ships) was
used as a height_field in a POV-Ray scene.  This allowed them to quickly trial
camera positions around the harbor, without doing any modelling at all.  When
the ideal perspective was found, true modelling and development began.

They split responsibilities at this point:  N.B. modelled certain objects, while
G.M. concentrated on other areas.  A variety of tools were used, but all
objects were created specifically for this scene.  Terrain was adapted from
USGS DEM (Digital Elevation Models), satellite and aerial imagery.  Ships and
aircraft were modelled from plans and photographs of the actual types involved
in the attack.  Ships logs and eyewitness accounts were consulted to verify the
sequence of events.  Even the sunlight, wind, and aircraft directions are as
correct as possible.

The artists hope that the end result is an accurate re-creation of the events
that Sunday morning.


SPECIAL TECHNIQUES:
- Ships are welded triangle mesh hulls, and armored with solid CSG steel.
- Airplanes are skinned with tough Rhino aluminum.
- Sea water flows from textured planes and height_fields.
- Buildings and docks are constructed of #macro concrete.
- Smoke and fire are our burning secret.  Ok, they use interior/media :-)

For much more information on the techniques used, including a visual tour of the
image as it was being developed, please visit the website for this image:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9193/index.html


CREDITS:
The artists wish to thank the following for their valuable help and inspiration
in creating this image --
 - Astroboy, J.P.Augustynowicz, K.Kato, and Ikuya Tomo, for warship and aircraft
details
 - Magellan Geographix, the United States Geological Service, and Virtually
Hawaii for topographical information and maps
 - The POV-Ray Team for providing the best freeware renderer on the planet
 - Timo Kattelus, S.McCarter, and V. Tsygankov for image rendering and graphics
assistance
 - NavSource, The United States Navy Archives, and the United States Surface
Warship Photo Archives for history of the Pearl Harbor attack