EMAIL: Steve.Thorn@dial.pipex.com
NAME: Steve Thorn
TOPIC: Elements
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Laboratory Preparation of Hydrogen
COUNTRY: UK
WEBPAGE: none yet
RENDERER USED: POV-Ray for Windows 3.02
TOOLS USED: Paint Shop Pro 5
RENDER TIME: 46 hours 15 minutes
HARDWARE USED: Pentium-166 MMX

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

The first time we learn that everything around us is composed of the elements is probably in the chemistry classroom. This image shows a typical chemistry laboratory experiment: the preparation of the first element of the Periodic Table, hydrogen. Sulphuric acid reacts with zinc in the flask to liberate hydrogen gas, which is collected over water in upturned jars.

This is my first complete scene since I started using Povray about 3 months ago. My background is scientific so the 'elements' topic conjured up many possibilities. The final inspiration for this image came from some old (1900-1910) chemistry textbooks.

Also, the combination of lots of glass and water shows off the power of ray-tracing nicely.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

All objects were modelled by hand, working the occasional evening and weekend for about 3 weeks. 

The flask, thistle funnel and jar are all differences of two blob objects, the inside one being a scaled down copy of the outside to hollow them out. The texture is a standard glass texture with an average of bump and gradient y normals to give the rippled slightly non-uniform appearance.

The water pan is a difference of two superquadratic ellipsoids. The plane that defines the top has a granite normal applied to the glass to make it look as if it has been ground flat. 

The zinc and spilt water are both height field objects. The water is from a bozo texture with a small amount of Paint Shop Pro editing to remove extra drops. The zinc is from a layered wood and granite texture to give a roughly conical heap of lumpy zinc. Zinc texture is a standard chrome one.

The bench is a plane with a four-layer texture to try to achieve a worn, chemically damaged appearance.

The delivery tube is a CSG of cylinder and torus sections, hollowed out by removing smaller copies.

The beehive cell is again a CSG of cylinders with some inverted to cut out the holes. The porcelain texture is a simple off white, shiny finish with bump normals.

The water in the pan and jar and the acid in the flask are all CSG intersections of large cylinders and the objects that define the insides of the pan, jar and flask. The water texture is a simple, slightly blue refracting texture with 30% reflection. The water in the pan has a rippled normal. 

The cork is a cone frustum with two holes for the glass tubes. The texture is the standard cork one. 

The bubbles in the jar are not very obvious, probably because the diffuse component of the water is too high (default 0.6).