TITLE: Goodbye Bill Marrs
NAME: Michael Hunter
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: intertek@one.net
WEBPAGE: http://www.interactivetechnologies.net
TOPIC: Opposites
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: marrs.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    3D Studio Max 8.0

TOOLS USED: 
    PhotoShop for some textures

RENDER TIME: 
    5 11 m s

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium II 447 GHz 192 MB RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

This is the hardest part, describing what I was trying to do over the last two
months. Bill Marrs, an admin at the IRTC announced that he was planning on
leaving the group. The news shocked me. He's been the official voice of the
IRTC forever. I thought I should make a tribute to him and post it here in
lasting tribute to his service.

What does this have to do with the topic? Bill and I have diametrically opposing
views on the roll of technology in art. I won't go into that now because...
well I'm trying to say goodbye in a nice way not show how misdirected the man
is. It's a good thing to be in the company of like minds but without opposition
you'll never have the opportunity to test-out your opinions. Ok, it's a tenuous
connection to the topic at best but I don't really care. I just wanted to make
this picture.

I've been interested in shrines for a while - especially the humble homemade
ones. You can often find strange offerings and a mysterious, even spooky voodoo
like aura about them. I saw a wonderful one in Colombia S.A.. At the end of a
long hill the road made a sudden turn. There at the turn was a life-size statue
of the Virgin Marry. Colombia is predominately Catholic, so seeing such
monuments is not at all uncommon. But surrounding the statue and piled high on
the ground around it's pedestal were hundreds of headlights. These lights, I
learned, were plucked from trucks by the drivers in thanks for a safe trip.
(You'd think they could drive better with electric rather than spiritual light
but it's not up to the tourist to criticize.) Strange and somehow sweet, the
sight has stuck in my mind for almost 15 years.

My wife (the Colombian) explained how she had dear memories of Christmas
nativities in her home. She would embellish them with a mirror for a lake and
stuffed animals and her brother would add in his plastic dinosaurs. The more
she explained the harder it was to keep a straight face. But it wasn't an act
of sacrilege. To the kids this was making it really extra super special. But I
just think it's wonderful to have baby Jesus and a T-Rex in the same barn.

So whenever I see a little shrine, whether it's to Buddha or Elvis, I can't help
but delight in this odd thing we humans do. Now, Bill's not dead or a saint,
but he is going on to a new life and that's enough reason for me to make a
shrine for him. Bill's got a cat so I made a small cat statue. I wanted to make
it look like an idol so made the cat sit up like a person would - kind of
Egyptian. Otherwise I loaded up it up with IRTC (and POV-Ray) related
artifacts. I stole the wallpaper from the POV-Ray web site but Bill's photo I
got with prior written consent. The little Jetson-esk monitor, my wife's idea,
is there so he can look back at us from the world beyond (hey, it's Halloween,
I'm allowed to do that). 'course you've got the incense and flowers, I through
in some color coordinated butterflies too to counteract that spooky Jesus/Big
Brother look Bill's got. Seriously, I wanted to walk the line between
pop-humor, honest tribute, and something a little mysterious. It's like he's
staring you down but only until you pull out the plug. It's all electric. Pull
the plug and it's gone. Just like our computers and the work we make with
them.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

A lot of what's going on in this picture has to do with light. I used Mental Ray
with photometric lights. Also some materials are luminous (though technically
speaking not light emitting). The tip of the incense for example. This is
rendered through Max' Video Post where a glow is applied to materials with a
set material ID channel.

The smoke from the incense is a loft with a procedural opacity map. The wings of
the butterflies are actually rectangles with opacity maps.

One of the more complicated parts to do were the flowers. I wanted them to look
like they flex as they come in contact with the shelf and each other. To do
this I treated them like any soft-bodied object. I created a bone system for
the stem and pedals. This allowed me to open some flowers more than others and
bend the stems in different ways. Sure is a weird world when flowers have
bones.

PERSONAL NOTE TO BILL
Now, Bill, just because I made this thing doesn't mean that you have to give up
on us. But if you really have to, don't be stranger. Let us know how you're
doing once in a while. Maybe get some of your pictures in this thing.