EMAIL: schmij3@rpi.edu
NAME: James Schmitz
TOPIC: Glass
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Space Park
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE: http://www.rpi.edu/~schmij3/
RENDERER USED: Povray 3.00e
TOOLS USED: lparser from Povray website
RENDER TIME: Two Hours
HARDWARE USED: Aptiva/Pentium 166
IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
When I made this picture, I wanted to experiment with the new features of Povray 3.0,
the features of Povray 2.2 I had not used, and lparsers.  This picture is my first scene
with Povray 3.0, and it takes advantage of many of the new features.  Many renderings 
can be made from different angles and cameras to give unique perspectives of the scene.

The glass wall of the park is reflective.  If you look at the right side of the image,
you can clearly see the reflection of the rose bush, swing set, short bushes and the 
pyramid structure.  In the left side of the image, you can see the reflection of the 
rose bush.  The stars are reflected in the glass as well.  You can also see objects
in the glass that have been reflected two or three times.

If you look at the stars closely, you can see individual stars as well as scattered
galexies.  The flowers on the rose bush are facing the light source ( to the right ), 
but you can see the flowers in the glass.  Also, the blue shadow of the glass can be 
seen on the ground to the left of the park.  

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:
To create this image, I first played around with the lparser to experiment with the
different objects I could make.  The pyramid, trees, swing set and bench were made
with the lparser.  I experimented with many different things and kept the objects
I thought were interesting.  I also made many test images to see what these objects
looked like under different conditions.

The technique I used most is trial and error.  It took some time to get everything
to line up correctly.  I tried many glass effects, and I ultimately decided to make it 
tinted blue and 35% reflective.

The rest of the picture contains other Povray features I experimented with.  The planet 
is a height field.  The comet is a halo.  The planet uses two texture maps.
The UFO is a sor.  I learned a lot making this picture because I got away from my usual
method of creating objects with just boxes and CSG.