EMAIL: pierre.damas@damas.be
NAME: Pierre A. Damas
TOPIC: Architecture
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Lightning rod
COUNTRY: Belgium
WEBPAGE: 
RENDERER USED: Povray 3.5
TOOLS USED: Hamapatch 2.9
RENDER TIME: 1 minute 38 (98 secs)
HARDWARE USED: Pentium 1.2 Ghz

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

On my house, there was this nice piece of forged metal, build in 1911, that felt from the roof one night due 
to too strong wind.
It is now completely broken, but from the metal pieces I have, I drawed it and reconstituted it in 3D.
Sorry to submit a "simple" object. It is my first 3D drawing, except 5 years ago a series of boxes to represent
cupboards in a future kitchen, to have an idea of the volumes.
I have no true notions, and I "played" with Hamapatch.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

I first drawed a front and profile view of the object (see para2.bmp).
From there, I created in Hamapatch the different parts, that I assembled on a mast following the Y axis.
I duplicated (Copy -> Vector with rotation) the different parts.
Note that the conceptors of the rod wanted that the viewer never sees the whole thing from front or profile, and they turn the upper part of the mast with a 45° angle so that when the bottom part is in front, the upper part is not.
There are some errors in rounded or peaked curves, but when you check with the reality of what felt from the roof, these errors express correctly the state of some pieces...

I just used the rust from POV-Ray includes, and I wanted to create a stone from the T_Grnt11a texture, but it was always translucid, so I finished to copy/paste a definition and play with error and trial to get the current stone, which is too white.

I took the picture slightly from the bottom, which is more usual for this kind of object, and which allows me not to model the whole house...

I had a good time doing this, thanks to the people providing the community with such great tools.
 
When I'll be more experienced, I will add the bolts and maybe create a scene with a storm and lightning.