EMAIL: StephenF@whoever.com
NAME: Stephen M. Farrell
TOPIC: Spirit of Asia
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Twin Pagodas
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE: n/a
RENDERER USED: POV-Ray for Windows 3.5 beta
TOOLS USED: POV-Ray for Windows 3.5 beta; Paint Shop Pro 6.02 (for signature and jpg compression only)
RENDER TIME: Approx. 2 hr 15 min
HARDWARE USED: 1.4 GHz Thunderbird; 512 MB RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

  A simple, tranquil depiction of the real-world structures known as the Twin Pagodas.  (Please note that while I did attempt to make the pagodas look close to the originals, I was not trying for exact replicas.  Also note that the surroundings are not the same as in real life.)  


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

  Whenever I look at it, this scene breaks down into three distinct parts, and I think I achieved varying levels of success with each part.  The foreground consists of the pagodas and their base, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  The mountainous background doesn't look especially realistic, unfortunately, but I think it at least looks decent considering the lack of experience I've had with the technique used.  The middle ground (the ground, river, huts, and trees)... well, to put it kindly, I think it leaves a lot to be desired.

  The pagodas are pure CSG (except for the spires on top, which are lathe objects).  Lots of while loops used to place the various design touches, with a final loop used to place the top seven layers, scaling each layer down slightly on two axes as it goes up.  The white "curved" parts are simply boxes with cylinders cut out of them, rotated around the structure, with each box rotated slightly upward as they ascend.  The fencing is just two separate while loops placing rotated boxes in a criss-cross pattern, with more boxes used for the edges.  The tiles are placed using a double while loop, with randomness used to vary the shading of the white tiles, and to intersperse a number of colored tiles, to create a mosaic-type pattern.

  The mountain range was created using a pigment function to create a height field, with a simple gradient texture map applied.  The sky is a modified version of one I have used before (consisting of multi-layered textures), but I had to tweak it a lot to get it to work well with radiosity this time around.

  The huts are overly simple CSG objects, placed using a while loop and randomness to vary the roof color.  The ground consists of two prism objects, using randomness to plot a series of points along the riverbank to give it some irregularity.  (The texture could use some work, definitely!)  The water is a textured box.  The trees use a simple mesh object for the leaves, rotated over and over again, with cones for the trunk and branches (obviously).  The bridge is CSG... I originally planned to give it more complexity, but the more I worked with the simple version, the better I felt it suited the tranquility of the scene.  And there is one lone isosurface rock next to the foremost tree on the left, more of an experiment than anything else.

  That's it for this go-round.  This entry marks the end of my second year of competition, and I'd just like to say that I'm enjoying it immensely.  The comments I've received have been very thoughtful and helpful... I feel I've improved as an artist since I started entering, and I'd just like to thank everyone for making this such a valuable experience for me.  As usual, any comments/criticisms are definitely appreciated! Good luck to everyone this round, and a happy and peaceful new year to all.