EMAIL:Ewen.Tony@cabs.com.au
NAME:Tony Ewen
TOPIC:Childhold
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE:Toddler's Toybox
COUNTRY:Australia
RENDERER USED:POV-Ray 3.0
TOOLS USED:POV, Corel PhotoPaint 5 (JPG conversion and image map for the scrapbook)
, graph paper and associated tools for modelling
RENDER TIME:4.5 days
HARDWARE USED:Pentium 100 notebook
IMAGE DESCRIPTION:A Toddler's eye view of several of his toys.  I got
some funny looks from my son when I grabbed his toys and started
measuring!
DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:
This collection of childhood objects belongs to my eldest son, which
made the modelling somewhat easier.  As I did all the modelling using
graph paper and a tape measure, I was able to get the scaling done
right - important considering that the camera was positioned at the 
same height as Joshua's eyes (yes, I did measure that too).  The 
modelling and texturing was done using the traditional POV inductive
approach - type it in, render a sample, check the results, repeat
to taste.  If you look at the source code, you'll notice that I put a
switch in the toy crate to turn the holes on and off.  With the holes
off the image rendered at full size with anti-aliasing on in about an
hour.  With the holes off it took over 4 days (those shadows took a
while).
The observer will note that the texturing for most of these objects is
very simple.  This is deliberate.  I wanted to capture the simplicity of
view that I imagine a child has.  In addition - most of the objects are
made of a flat plastic.  I also simplified the modelling in some cases -
particularly the castors on the crate.  Modelling the castors completely
accurately would have worked, but would not have added to the image as
most of the details would not have been visible.  I did the same for the
spade.
I've done some stuff in TrueSpace as well and had some concerns about
how POV would handle a "real" image (this is my first significant
rendering in POV) with no modeller.  Some of the things that proved easy
to do in POV (like the hole switch, for example) would have been
impossible in TS.  Other things, like texturing and the scrapbook pages,
proved also to be quite easy to do - easier that TS.  I didn't even
miss the modeller that much.  Why didn't I use a modeller for this one?
Two reasons - the first reason was that I wanted this to be as much as
possible "pure" POV.  It's as much a learning exercise as anything.  The
other was that I'm yet to find a POV modeller that I like.
There you have it, nothing spectacularly technical, just patience and a
little forethought.  Hope you like it.