EMAIL: sbaker@tiac.net
NAME: Stephen Baker
TOPIC: Reflections in Time
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
RENDERER USED: Winpov 3.0 beta
TOOLS USED: Povcad, Font3d, Frgen and Texture Magic
RENDER TIME: 4 hours 50 minutes
HARDWARE USED: Pentium-133 16meg Mem.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
	This is an images of most if not all timing methods used, reflecting into the latest
and most accurate time mechanism developed so far, the Atomic Clock.  The sundial
represents using astronomical timing, in this case the sun.  The hourglass represents
all gravity clocks, including water clocks.  The candle represents energy timing, in
this case flame.  The grandfather clock represents mechanical clocks. The Digital clock
represents electrical timing. And last, the atomic clock represents clocks using atomic
power.  The atomic clock is a direct descendent of all the earlier attempts to accurately
measure time.  Hence, all other timing systems are reflected into its large chrome cylinder.

All images used the standard Povray 3.0 supplied textures and pigment except where noted.
All object were modeled freehand except where I stated a tool was used.

Note:  This image was begun with Povray 2.2 then later with Povray 3.0 beta.  That is why
some of the modeling techniques were made with Povray 2.2, the sundial numerals, and others
with Povray 3.0, then grandfather clock face numerals.  I used Povray 3.0 in the end because
it has the halo object, the candlelight and radiosity.  This image was rendered with quality
set to 11 and anti-alaising set to zero.


		DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

			The Atomic Clock   

	(see atomic.inc, fpanel.inc, nits8c.inc and dwatch.inc for details)

	The Atomic clock is a stylized representation of the NITS-7 atomic clock at the
University of Colorado.  The actual clock was far too complicated to model, so this version
models only some of the essential parts: the chassis, chrome cylinder and the interconnects.
Since it is a stylized version I added the plaque calling the clock the NITS-8c. Since it was
not a real atomic clock I dedicated it to the University of Massachusetts since that is where
I went to college.  I expect UMass will be suprised to find out someone gave them an atomic
clock.  The plaque, central LED display and the radiation symbol were added by me, since it was
not obvious that the object is an atomic clock.
	The atomic clock was the most complicated but not the hardest object to model. It
started off as a square frame made of four thin cylinders with a sphere of equal diameter at
each corner. A four sided polygon was added to one side so that I ended up with a square plane
with rounded edges and corners.  Then this plain was copied, translated and rotated until I had
a box with rounded edges.  Three of these boxes, with the middle one scaled by 0.8 make up the
chassis. The chrome cylinder on top is another CSG object.  It is a simple cylinder with two 
discs recessed at each end as covers.  The 'electrical' connection is the only place I used 
a tool.  The elbow connections, five in all were modeled using Povcad.  The  four 'physical' 
supports are simple CSG cylinders.  The plaque was made with the rounded corner box
( see dwatch.inc ) and Povray's text feature.  The central display (see fpanel.inc) used the
seven segment LED objects on a black box covered with the Thin_Glass texture.  The radiation
symbol is simply a disc with a radial black and yellow pigment.

						The Sundial

	(see sdial.inc, tms73.inc, tms86.inc and tms88.inc for details)

	The sundial was made with simple CSG using discs, cylinders, boxes, a cone, and a
triangle. The radial projections at every 30 degrees are translated and scaled boxes.  The
circular extrusions are made from cylinders and discs.  The sundial pointer is a tilting cone
with a triangle filling in the space between it and the sundial face. For the numerals on the
sundial I used font3d.exe to create the 3D Roman Numerals I, V, and X.  With these I created all
the numbers from 1 to 12.  Then incrementally and with many, many renderings, I translated the
numeral at centered 30 degree angles around the sundial face.  To finish off the sundial I used
an 'old copper' texture I created using my evaluation copy of Texture Magic.

			The Hourglass

	(see hrglass.inc for details)

	The hourglass I feel is the most inventive object of the scene.  Its shape came from a
quartic formula, Lemniscate in Povray's shapesq.inc.  I 'borrowed' a glass texture from
Povray 2.2 glass.inc.  All the glass textures there made the hourglass appear as a solid chunk.
I modified one until I came up with my 'Thin_Glass' texture.  It turned out that the IOR was the
culprit.  Thin_Glass has a very small IOR.  The sand in the hourglass is also made up from the 
Lemniscate equation with a 'Sand' texture.  In this case the Lemniscates  are clipped by planes.
A shallow cone is placed at the open ends of the clipped Lemniscates to simulate sand falling
from from the top, leaving a depression and sand falling on the bottom, leaving a peak.  A thin
cone with 'Falling_Sand' texture connects the two open Lemniscate objects.  The overall effect is
a very realistic looking sand in the hourglass.  This sand object occupies the exact same space
as the hourglass object, except that it is scaled along x by 0.95, along y by 1.0 and
along z by 0.95.  We now have an hourglass with falling sand.  The hourglass case is simple CSG
using toruses, cylinders and discs.  The Sand and Falling_Sand textures were made with my
evaluation copy of Texture Magic.

			The Digital Clock

	(see dwatch.inc for details)

	The digital clock was rather simple to make.  I first made am LED segment which was a 6 
sided polygon.  This polygon or LED segment was arranged to create the number eight.  All
numbers in seven segment LEDs can be made from the number eight.  I used this to create the
time 10:45 38  with 38 scaled by 0.8.  I made the numbers with a red pigment using an ambiance
of 1.0.  The clock body was made using CSG by first clipping the corners off a box, then
replacing the corners with cylinders.  This gives a box with rounded corners.  This shape, with
slight modifications, was used to create the various frames.  The glass over the clock face is a
scaled superellipsoid with the Thin_Glass texture.

			The Timing Candle

	(see candle.inc and canmarks.pov for details)

	The candle is a long open-ended cone with a image map, canmarks.tga.  The tga file for
the image map was made of Povray's 3.0 text objects.  At the top of the candle is Povray's 3.0
halo object. Inside the halo is an elongated sphere, pigment yellow with ambiance 1.0.  This
gives a good impression of candlelight and flame.  The candle holder is simple CSG with a
torus, and two cones.  

			The Grandfather Clock

	(see gface.inc and gfclock.inc for details)

	The grandfather clock was a very good challenge.  Its basic shape, top, body and stand
were made from CSG using all boxes, subtracting two elongated cones from the bottom for the
base and subtracting a box from the body to create the cavity for the clockworks.  The numbers
for the clockface were made from Povary's 3.0 text object (see cface.inc).  They were
incrementally rotated and translated with many renderings to get them to their final 30 degree
positions.  Toruses with brass texture and an elongated thin sphere with the Thin_Glass texture
make up the top of the clock.  The clockworks are made from scaled and translated cylinders and
a sphere, and were given the same brass texture as the brass on the clock face.  The clockworks
were placed inside the cavity on the clock body.  A glass door, complete with a door knob and
hinges complete the clock.  (You can see the atomic clock being reflected on the glass door of
the grandfather clock.)


			The Pedestal

	(see pillar.inc for details)

	The pillar was made using Povcad as a modeling tool.  It is a cylinder with 12 smaller
cylinders subtracted from it: this gives it the Roman look.  A box object was added at each
end for a base and a platform.


			The Mountains in the Background

	The background mountains were made using frgen.exe and the hill map.  Once I got a
pattern that I liked I scaled the object then rotated it so that it appears coming out of the 
infinite plain in the background.  For both the plain and the mountains I used Povray's
T_Stone13 texture,scales by a factor of about 20.

			The Sky

	The sky texture came from Texture Magic.  It is one of the canned textures in version
0.94.  The texture was placed in a sphere and scaled by 3400