EMAIL: kniazfam@ohio.net

NAME: Benjamin Kniaz

TOPIC: First Encounter

COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.

TITLE: Benjamin Franklin Meets Lightning

COUNTRY: USA

RENDERER USED: POV-Ray 3.02

TOOLS USED: Moray, sPatch, Paint Shop Pro

RENDER TIME:  about 35 hours

HARDWARE USED: Intel Pentium 166MMX


IMAGE DESCRIPTION:


It was a dark and stormy night in June of 1752...
Although the rain pelted down, and the clouds
billowed threateningly, Benjamin Franklin could be
found outside.  His reason for braving the weather
would seem like lunacy to anyone now -- he wanted
lightning to strike him!  And surely this was a good
night for lightning.  "But why?" you ask, "Why
would this intelligent man put himself in this
situation?"  Ben Franklin wanted to find out
whether lightning was an electrical discharge.
He performed this very dangerous experiment using
a kite and a key.  The lightning bolt would hit the
kite and travel down the kite string to the key.
What Ben probably didn't quite know was the real danger
he had put himself in.  So history was made that night.
Ben survived, and proved that lightning is really a
stream of electrified air.  And in the process, he made
one of America's most exciting tales.  


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:


Kite: I created the kite in sPatch.  It is a very
simple shape, but creating it so it will fit together
and look realistic proved (to my inexperience) quite
a challenge.  Also, getting the kite string and kite tail
to look like they are moving, and in the correct place
took awhile.

Ben Franklin:  Also created in sPatch, Ben proved fairly
easy to make.  Although there was a lot of him to create,
I really enjoyed it and like the results.  I tried to
replicate the type of clothing used back then.  The three
cornered hat, the jacket, shirt and pants, etc...

Lantern:  I created a glass cube and put "metal" sides on
it.  Inside, I made a candle, and flame.  There is a light
source right in the flame.  To create the effect of light
rays pouring our from the lantern, I used the dust halo.
This took me a lot of time to learn about and use.
Getting the right settings for the light source in
relation to the dust halo was hard.  I also learned how 
long it takes to render when you get an atmospheric
halo in the scene!...

Rain:  I did some research for the rain, and found out
some of the ways other people do it.  I worked with
getting what I wanted quite a bit -- trying to get the
color, transparency, size, and direction right.  It's
just a plane with a spotted texture.  Most of the
texture is completely transparent, except for the small
part that is the "rain".  I just set the plane up in
front of the camera at the angle I wanted.

Lightning:  This proved to be one of the most difficult
parts of this image.  After trying some things myself, I
resorted to the IRTC mailing list for help.  My inquiry
on how to make lightning got many, many very good
responses on how to do it.  I was able to take the ideas
and create my own lightning from them.  The lightning
is actually another plane.  It has a marble texture with
only a small part non-transparent.  I then created a second
texture for the "plasma" around the bolt.  I had to use a
bounding box to get only one lightning bolt of the texture
in the scene.  Although this is not "real" lightning 
(it's only a plane), I am very pleased with its appearance.

Clouds:  At first I thought the clouds would be one of the
easiest parts of the scene.  I was wrong.  Getting the
clouds the way I wanted them may have taken the most
render time.  I'm still not completely satisfied with them.
They are spheres with attenuating halos as the texture.

Hill:  The hill is VERY simple.  It is just a slanted plane
with a grassy texture on it.


This is my very first complete POV-Ray scene!  I have played
around with POV before, but never worked on something as
seriously as I worked on this scene.

	Hope you like it!

		:-) Ben