EMAIL: ejnmare@quicksilver.net.nz
NAME: Elwin Way
TOPIC: Surrealism
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Ice On Fire
COUNTRY: New Zealand
WEBPAGE: http://www.mystuff.orcon.net.nz
RENDERER USED: Scanline
TOOLS USED: 3DS Max 5.1, Pheonix
RENDER TIME: 2 hours 18 minutes
HARDWARE USED: 1300Duron 256 ddr

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

To me, surrealism is a subject which exists in our minds. It describes what is impossible in such fine detail that we believe it to be, even though we know it really isn't. 

Ice On Fire is an image that describes an impossible situation. I had friends try various methods and all failed to actually set an ice cube on fire! (Kids - don't try this at home).

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

I started off by creating the ice cube - its isnt just a simple transparent block. THe mesh is a chamfer box with a little amount of noise added. It was then turned into an editable poly, and the bottom vertices pulled out to create the melt.

The material is a raytrace material, with a fog added in the advanced setting to create the 'semi transparent' look. This took me a week to get it to look 'right'.

The fire is from Pheonix - I tried various other methods, including modelling a flame and setting various transparency / diffuse maps, but nothing would look right. I only used Pheonix as a last resort, and even then that took me the best part of a day to tweak!

The only light in the scene is a Pheonix light wich simulates light given off by the fire.

The ground plane is a stock standard box with a rusty metal texture map applied.