TITLE: 79 AD NAME: Dave Merchant COUNTRY: USA EMAIL: kosh@nesys.com WEBPAGE: www.nesys.com TOPIC: Ruins COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. JPGFILE: ad79.jpg RENDERER USED: povray 3.1a Watcom TOOLS USED: Photoshop for JPEG conversion and image map creation RENDER TIME: 1 hour 56 min 13 secs HARDWARE USED: P200, 64 mb RAM, w98 IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The creation of ruins, Rome, 79 AD. The Emperor takes the first swing at a 400 year old temple, being torn down to build a chariot parking lot for the new Colosseum. The ruins of the temple were then dumped in a landfill, to be discovered and reconstructed by archaeologists 20 centuries later. IMAGE CONCEPT I had originally planned to show the temple partially destroyed, with fractured columns laying on the ground, but decided instead to show the instant before the first blow, and let the shadows tell the story. Of course, the Emperor would show up for this party, since he was using the Colosseum project to garner political popularity. It is not clear whether this is Vespasian or his son, as the elder died in mid-79 AD. This picture was inspired by what happened to the Colosseum in over 1900 years. It was used and modified for many purposes over the years, including serving as a fortress, and was damaged in an earthquake. In the late Middle Ages, much of the outer ring and interior were taken for use as building material. BTW, Many wonder how ancient people built great buildings. Here is the answer...or perhaps it was ancient astronauts? Some say the Romans never had machines like these, but how can we be sure? DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: Colosseum: The Colosseum ("Flavian Ampitheatre") is shown in the state its ruins exist now, but without the modern era structural reinforcements. Note that about half of the outer 2 rings are now gone, much of what remains is actually the inner rings, of interior stone, originally meant to be hidden. It is difficult to be sure what parts are original, due to the large amount of modifications and restoration work done over the years. At present, it's a jumble of brick and various types of stone and marble. I suspect the colors used here are darker than the original condition of the stone. I may try a lighter version and post it on my website. A single stone arch heightfield was created via POV, and used repeatedly for both the outer and inner rings, with columns added on the outer ring. Various textures were used to represent the different types of stone and brick used in the building. The upper level is CSG. Note that the column capitals on the Colosseum should be 3 different orders, but I ran out of time. The Colosseum could seat 55,000 people, more than most modern baseball stadiums. Pavement: Stone paving blocks represented by a brick pattern heightfield, created in POV. People: My blobs guy again, this time I had to add feet, which was almost as difficult as the hands were. The emperor's toga is sPatch, applied 3 times. Rough Sawn Timbers: Intersection of a box and a random radius cylinder. Bark is a gray wood I developed, yellow pine is a 3rd transparent grubby layer over the standard 2-layer T_Wood7. Then the timbers were placed and rotated randomly. Unfortunately, in randomizing everything, the growth rings are no longer centered in the logs! Sky: One of the standard POV skies, selected to be ominous, since the general lighting is similar to that seen before or after a storm. Temple: Entirely CSG, including the capitals. Cranes and other details: All CSG. I created a macro to make the sagging treads and drive chain. The drive chain has some sag, and the treads on the bottom have a bit of "squirm", as they never lie quite flat in real life. The phone number on the crane should be familiar to US residents. I created everything in this scene, nothing is downloaded. My Latin is sort of rusty, corrections are welcome. Among other ideas considered were, a modern explosive building demolition, London ruins during the Blitz, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa finally falling down.