TITLE: "Reese & Son Glassworks"
NAME: Glenn McCarter
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: gmccarter@hotmail.com
WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/2006/
TOPIC: Contrast
COPYRIGHT: I submit to the standard raytracing competition copyright.
JPGFILE: glaswork.jpg
ZIPFILE: glaswork.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    WinMegaPOV 0.6a

TOOLS USED: 

  Poser ( people )
  Pose2Pov (convert to POV-Ray meshes )
  hamaPatch ( clothing, various patch objects )
  ColorPicker ( define texture colors )
  SpilinEditor (glassware splines)
  Paint Shop Pro ( heightfields, convert image to JPEG, add copyright )

RENDER MUSIC: k.d.lang, "Black Coffee"

RENDER TIME: 
    7h 20m

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium III - 800 mhz


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

Edward J. Reese started his glass shop nearly a century ago.  His business
thrived as he built a reputation for fine quality glassblowing.  But it was his
son James who, after learning the craft, turned the shop into a factory.  And
the factory into a corporation.  By the mid 1970's, Reese Glass Inc. employed
over 4,800 people worldwide.

Here, we pay a visit during the old days at workshop, while craftsman and
apprentice ply their trade.  The clean showroom and snowy day contrasts with
the sweat and heat in the workshop.  A small visitor observes the action.




DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


There are many contrasts in the scene, but the ones I tried to emphasize are:
 - the tough glassblowers and their delicate glass creations
 - temperature, from the hot fire to the cool snow
 - cleanliness, from the bright display area, to the dirt and disorder of the
workshop

I created everything in the scene, specifically for this IRTC image.
Everything is "hand coded" in POV-Ray, except for the people which were imported
from Poser.
The interplay of architecture, interior-, and exterior-lighting is crucial to
the scene.  The image uses a mix of radiosity, area lights, and ambient
textures to get the exact intensities I wanted throughout, from the sparkling
brightness of the snow to the deep ambience of the workshop.

This is my first image using WinMegaPOV and Poser.  I am just learning MegaPOV,
and have used a number of its special features in this scene: sphere sweeps,
splines, mesh2, blurred reflections, UV coordinates, text alignment, Blinn
highlights, and the new crackle texture which makes a pretty good galvanized
bucket!

Macros are used many places in the scene.  For example, all the windows are made
with macros.
I made a separate POV-Ray scene to produce the brick wall.  The file
individually textures, positions, and randomizes each brick.  This produces
both a height_field and image_map which are recombined in the final POV-Ray
scene files.

I made the image in a non-stardard aspect ratio because, well, I just couldn't
contain it all in 800x600!  Does you find the image size pleasing or annoying? 
If you want to re-render the scene, email me to get the big Poser export
meshes.  Everything else is in the zip file.

Credits
--------
http://www.pilchuck.com, Pilchuck Glass School, a teaching center for the glass
arts -- for studio photos
http://www.steinertindustries.com and http://www.glasscolor.com, equipment
suppliers -- for descriptions of esoteric glassworking tools.  Like crimps and
prunts.  Puffers and paddles.  Parchoffi and copa.
http://www.glazzman.com -- for a few good lessons on Bohemian-style
glassblowing. I learned terms such as "marvering", "turning the pipe", "how to
jack with the block".
http://www.ebay.com -- photo reference for several items modeled in the scene.
John McCarter -- for use of his PC during development and rendering.

