TITLE: Alchemist Laboratory
NAME: Jaime Vives Piqueres
COUNTRY: Spain
EMAIL: jaime@ignorancia.org
WEBPAGE: http://www.ignorancia.org/
TOPIC: Fantasy & Mystic
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: alchlab.jpg
ZIPFILE: alchlab.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POVMan 0.7 (own Athlon optimized compile).

TOOLS USED: 

- Red Hat Linux 6.2, kernel 2.2.19.
- KDE 1.1.2, as window manager. 
- Kwrite, to write POV scripts. 
- The Gimp, to convert PNG output. 
- Netscape, to search reference pics.

RENDER TIME: 
    about 8h.

HARDWARE USED: 
    AMD Athlon 1,2Ghz/256MB.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


  This is a classical view of the "Alchemist's Laboratory". Is something I
wanted to do some time ago, and this round topic was the perfect excuse. 

  Alchemy is, basically, a research for good and truth. But perhaps it's the 
only "mysticism" that uses empirical methods, and that
often confuses people
about his objectives. Also, the "fantasy" component is clear, because at least
officially, home-made transmutation is not posible (any chemist here?:).


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


  Some reference pictures where found on the net: seems that classical
painters often chosen that subject. The most prolific in that topic seems 
to
be David Teniers, and I mainly used his paintings as reference, but also
looked at others, like Karl Friedrich, Thomas Wyck or Cornelis Pietersz.
 

  The most curious of this "theme" is about composition. All painters seems 
to
have the same fantastic vision of the alchemist laboratory, making very
similar compositions. The little window with indirect sunlight is practically
"obligatory", as many of the tools and some of the "apparently" strange or
innocent objects, which are many times allegories or hidden messages.

  In fact my own composition, sketched roughly before seeing the paintings 
from 
Teniers, was exactly as in one of his pictures. So I used this picture
as main
 reference, and thus you can find many similarities.
Unfortunately,
the image isn't yet finished... as always, I needed one more week (or perhaps
I need to work harder).

  For the techniques, as always look at the code at your own risk. I've been
tempted to write an "hermetic" explanation of the techniques used, but my
english is not good enough for that. And, well, as my code is cryptic enough,
I really don't need to hide it with strange symbolism... ;)

  Finally, some words about lighting. I wanted the room lighted by the
sunlight, but not directly. I assumed as first fact that radiosity will not
work. At least not within what I consider a
"reasonable time". So I faked 
the sunlight using some big area lights in front of the window hole, blocked
with a no_image object to not permit it to go backwards. So, exterior and
interior lights are independent. The effect is not bad at all, and obviously
much faster than the radiosity settings needed for such situation. Anyhow,
radiosity was still used, but with default settings,
only to help a bit the
overall effect.
 
   

--
Jaime Vives Piqueres
 
 

La Persistencia de la Ignorancia
http://www.ignorancia.org/ 


