TITLE: The Backside of the Moon
NAME: Joe Claunch
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: jclaunch@flash.net
WEBPAGE: none
TOPIC: Imaginary Worlds
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: defense.jpg
ZIPFILE: defense.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    Povray 3.1 for Windows

TOOLS USED: 
    Paintshop (BMP to JPG conversion)

RENDER TIME: 
    45 minutes 37 seconds

HARDWARE USED: 
    AMD K6-2 350 Mhz, 64 Meg RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


I was playing with rendering a replica of my favorite Estes rocket
(the Photon Disruptor) from my childhood model rocketry days.
Meanwhile, I went to the Povray competition page and saw that
the current topic was Imaginary Worlds, such as the Pentagon! I
thought about my rocket image and the idea hit me.

Combining UFO lore about a government document describing the UFO
cover-up (Majestic 12) and the fact that we here on Earth never see
the back side of the moon, I came up with the imaginary Alien 
Threat Defense System. Code named M.A.J.E.S.T.I.C. 12, a system of
(at least) 4798 massive missile launch complexes based in craters
on the back side of the moon. Here, advanced 20 story tall missiles
diligently defend an unsuspecting Earth population from invading
UFOs attacking from deep space. In this image it is early morning
and the sun is just peeking over the rim of this crater.

At about 11:30 PM, 5 nights before the competition deadline, Lee,
my son, suggested that 'we' add a saucer crashed into the lunar
mountains on the right. I said something like, "Yea right!"
Then I sat up until 2:00 AM engrossed in adding his suggestion!


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


The moon crater was based on the Povray demo file 'crater.pov'.
To render the image, you must first render the height field
image file mount.tga using the file mount.pov. Then render
defense.pov to generate the final image.

I placed the camera inside the crater rim and used a wide
angle to get the sense of a mountainous crater wall. I had
to search around the crater floor to find a smooth spot
for the missile launch complex.

The Photon Disruptor rocket was modeled after the actual
plans for the 1970's Estes model rocket by the same name.
The graphic design on the model's side is a bitmap from a
scanned image of the decal sheet from the original model.

The UFO was modeled after another childhood favorite of mine,
the movie "Earth Vs The Flying Saucers". If you render the saucer
up close you'll find a flexible arm protruding from the bottom of
the saucer with a funky 'radar dish' on the end that is emitting
the green 'death ray'. Of course, the original movie was in black
and white so we'll never know the real color of the death ray.

Most of the other objects are mostly CSGs. I used MANY lights
with short fade distances to simulate the multitude of light
bulb used to light the area for the workers. Repetitive objects
such as the stairs and the railing around the launch pad were
done with macros and looping directives.

Probably the hardest part, aside from declaring the image to be
finished, was aligning the 'death ray' with the exploding rocket.
It was a trial and error operation at best.

