TITLE: Twin Pagodas
NAME: Stephen M. Farrell
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: StephenF@whoever.com
WEBPAGE: n/a
TOPIC: Spirit of Asia
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: pagoda29.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray for Windows 3.5 beta

TOOLS USED: 
    POV-Ray for Windows 3.5 beta; Paint Shop Pro 6.02 (for signature and
jpg compression only)

RENDER TIME: 
    Approx. 2 hr 15 min

HARDWARE USED: 
    1.4 GHz Thunderbird; 512 MB RAM



IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


  A simple, tranquil depiction of the real-world structures known as the Twin
Pagodas.  (Please note that while I did attempt to make the pagodas look close
to the originals, I was not trying for exact replicas.  Also note that the
surroundings are not the same as in real life.)  



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


  Whenever I look at it, this scene breaks down into three distinct parts, and I
think I achieved varying levels of success with each part.  The foreground
consists of the pagodas and their base, and I'm pretty happy with how they
turned out.  The mountainous background doesn't look especially realistic,
unfortunately, but I think it at least looks decent considering the lack of
experience I've had with the technique used.  The middle ground (the ground,
river, huts, and trees)... well, to put it kindly, I think it leaves a lot to
be desired.

  The pagodas are pure CSG (except for the spires on top, which are lathe
objects).  Lots of while loops used to place the various design touches, with a
final loop used to place the top seven layers, scaling each layer down slightly
on two axes as it goes up.  The white "curved" parts are simply boxes with
cylinders cut out of them, rotated around the structure, with each box rotated
slightly upward as they ascend.  The fencing is just two separate while loops
placing rotated boxes in a criss-cross pattern, with more boxes used for the
edges.  The tiles are placed using a double while loop, with randomness used to
vary the shading of the white tiles, and to intersperse a number of colored
tiles, to create a mosaic-type pattern.

  The mountain range was created using a pigment function to create a height
field, with a simple gradient texture map applied.  The sky is a modified
version of one I have used before (consisting of multi-layered textures), but I
had to tweak it a lot to get it to work well with radiosity this time around.

  The huts are overly simple CSG objects, placed using a while loop and
randomness to vary the roof color.  The ground consists of two prism objects,
using randomness to plot a series of points along the riverbank to give it some
irregularity.  (The texture could use some work, definitely!)  The water is a
textured box.  The trees use a simple mesh object for the leaves, rotated over
and over again, with cones for the trunk and branches (obviously).  The bridge
is CSG... I originally planned to give it more complexity, but the more I
worked with the simple version, the better I felt it suited the tranquility of
the scene.  And there is one lone isosurface rock next to the foremost tree on
the left, more of an experiment than anything else.

  That's it for this go-round.  This entry marks the end of my second year of
competition, and I'd just like to say that I'm enjoying it immensely.  The
comments I've received have been very thoughtful and helpful... I feel I've
improved as an artist since I started entering, and I'd just like to thank
everyone for making this such a valuable experience for me.  As usual, any
comments/criticisms are definitely appreciated! Good luck to everyone this
round, and a happy and peaceful new year to all. 


