EMAIL: a.v.postma@amc.uva.nl
NAME: Alex V Postma
TOPIC: Elements
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: SoupDuVie
COUNTRY: Netherlands
WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7499
RENDERER USED: Real3D V3.53
TOOLS USED: Photoshop 5
RENDER TIME: 7 hours 23 minutes
HARDWARE USED: PII-266, 64mb

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

The topic of this still images round is Elements. Well it is a fairly difficult topic to come up with an original idea for it. Not some water, fire, earth, wind thing, but a lot more original.. What you see here in this image, are in fact the very elements of Life itself. What could be more elemental than that? Well, you probably ask what has this lab setup got to do with the elements of life?
In the 1950's a very (in)famous experiment was done, which "proved" that incredibly complex biology active molecules could be formed from very simple ingredients. By combining water, glucose, methane, salts, heat and electricity, far more complex molecules were created than imaginable from the sole ingredients alone. Since these ingredients are all present in the very early stages of planet forming (thus all are originating from space), it proved that these complex biology active molecules could have existed on an early earth. Some of these molecules found in this "soup of life" were aminoacids, the very core of all proteins today, and proteins determine what and who we are for a large part. This led to the hypothesis that the evolution of life can be led back to these basic ingredients and heat and thunderbolts.... A far reaching hypothesis but nevertheless a very interesting one. Elements so basic as heat, water, methan, salts and electricity can create something as complex and different as trees, mice, birds and humans...Food for thought..

So what you see in this image is an artistic impression of this very simple and far reaching experiment. You see here the "soup of life" boiling and hit by bolts of electricity, in a lab from the 1950's.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

All objects were made with spline meshes. Most laboratory stuff, like the burner and the flasks were modeled after their real-life counterparts. The round objects were made with the rotate function. The material settings took the most time, especially the water and the fire. Several textures were made in photoshop 5. The overall impression of the image should be that of an 1950's lab setup.