EMAIL: bds@myhost.com NAME: Bruce Szablak TOPIC: Magic COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. TITLE: Alchemy COUNTRY: USA RENDERER USED: PovRay 3.02 for windows TOOLS USED: moray 2.5b, LView Pro 1.6 RENDER TIME: 6 hours HARDWARE USED: AMD 586 with 12mb RAM IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The alchemist completes the final step that changes a bar of lead into gold... DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: This is my first IRTC entry and my first "complete" image. In fact, this image was my introduction to the Moray modeller (which seemed to be the most popular modeller). I started with the basic idea of a turning lead into gold and decided that the prime focus for my compostion would be a bar of lead (super-ellipsoid) turning into gold (using a gradient texture). I then added elements to the model the most difficult being the thumb and forefinger of the alchemist. Giving up on blobs, I modeled these using splines and with much trial and error got them into the correct position relative to the wand. Modelling the rest was fairly straight forward, but I should mention the use of a spline to constrain the candle and lamp flames. I also imported the raw data for the skull from a file that I obtained from www.povlab.org download site. I'm afraid I have no further information as to the origin of that file. A bumpy and rough texture removed the triangular shape artifacts of the raw image. Once the model was laid out using tentative textures, I switched to PovRay for windows to "fine-tune" the textures and light sources. This is when rendering time exploded as I used a 4x4 area light in the lamp flame to soften shadows. I also played with the ambient light composition so that the flame faded into the background and the level so that the scene was dark enough to set the mood, but still revealed all the details. The glowing wand was achieved by setting a high ambient value, while the magic "halo" was in fact a simple halo. The final result differs significantly from that produced by the modeller.