EMAIL: brendthess@aol.com
NAME: Brendt Hess
TOPIC: Unbelievable
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Solar Temple
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE:
RENDERER USED: Pov-Ray 3.1e
TOOLS USED: None
RENDER TIME: 25 Hours, 13 Minutes
HARDWARE USED: K6-2 350
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: After seeing a co-worker working with POV, I got 
interested in seeing what I could do.  This was the result.

A temple with fiery columns and 'sunbeam' spires, floating in space 
above an ancient but still living planet.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

I decided that I was going to create this using only what I could work
out in POV-Ray itself (including the great assistance of the Help
file!) - no outside aids.  So, I started playing, created a simple
column generator, started playing with glass and media, and ended up
developing this simple image.

The columns and sunbeams use the same media statement - each sunbeams
are two irregular hollow conical prisms in the same location (an
experiment with serendipitous results).

The glowing rooftop, and the bases to the sunbeams, were an attempt at
another flame pattern media that didn't work as well (if anyone can 
explain why the color is mainly blue-green when the color map for the 
media is red to yellow, I would appreciate the help).

The planet is a modification of the simple planet in the POV help 
file, with a slightly larger sphere with media for the atmosphere to
get a scattering effect).

The starfield is a sky-sphere with a very turbulent bozo pattern, with 
almost all of the pattern solid black.

The steps include small overhanging curved lips, similar to those
seen on some monumental construction.

The sinusoidal pattern on the roof of the temple is simple glass
spheres, clipped with a flat front, embedded into reflective silver
depressions CSG'd into the roof.

The platform was an experiment in hexagonal tiling using more than the
three textures allowed by the hexagon pattern.