TITLE: Mousetrap

NAME: Christopher Lund
COUNTRY: USA

EMAIL: clund@ucsd.edu
TOPIC: Games
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
MPGFILE: moustrap.mpg
ZIPFILE: moustrap.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.1

TOOLS USED: 
    Only Moray, and only for the mouse body

CREATION TIME: 
    6-12 hours per CPU

HARDWARE USED: 
    5 different Intel CPU's from a Pentium 200 to a Pentium II-350


ANIMATION DESCRIPTION: 

For kids who grew up in the 60's and 70's in America (like myself), the
Milton Bradley game Mousetrap was culture at it's finest.  Moving parts,
bright colors, and an amazing Rube-Goldberg device build before your very
eyes.  Happily, the things about Mousetrap that make it such an appealing
game for kids are the same things that make it an appealing subject for
animation.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED: 

My biggest tools were a copy of the game Mousetrap, a ruler, and AutoCAD.
I have a tendency to over-construct real objects for rendering whenever
possible to get absolute realism.  In this case, when I started constructing
the pieces, I had no idea how the camera would be positioned during the
animation.  As such, I included details which I didn't know whether or
not they would show.  At the same time, I also included detail in a few
places just out of personal pride.

For each piece, the piece was measured with a ruler every which way and
two-dimensional drawings were created in AutoCAD.  From these drawings,
the piece was hand-constructed in POV-Ray (I never have been a fan of
modeling programs).  The drawings were done partially to make coding
easier, and partially for future reference.  In doing this, I think I
used nearly every primitive POV-Ray offers, including many I had not
used before.

There are two exceptions to this.  First, the body of the mouse was done
as a Bezier patch in Moray to get the shape right.  Second, the board was
scanned and used as an image map.

For timing in the animation, the real Mousetrap in action was videotaped
and analyzed using the VCR's frame advance button.

The .zip file includes the definitions of the pieces and how they are
animated.  I have not included the spotlighted mouse at the beginning, the
scan of the board, or one utility file, although I will be happy to upon
request.  The only post-processing which was done was to add the title
information on the first few frames.

Finally, I want to thank Rick Pali for his opinions and a good dozen hours
of CPU time.