TITLE: Seance
NAME: Ruy Flavio de Olivera
COUNTRY: Brazil
EMAIL: ruy@hipernet.com.br
TOPIC: Spirit of Asia
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: seance.jpg
ZIPFILE: seance.zip
RENDERER USED: 

    POV-Ray 3.5 b7-9


TOOLS USED: 

    hamaPatch
    SpilinEditor


RENDER TIME: 

    4h36m23s


HARDWARE USED: 

    Celeron 600MHz 128MB RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 



(Four mighty land bodies gather around a table in a dimly lit room. They
open their hands and concentrate, trying to channel with the afterlife

Europe:   "Oh, Great Deity of all Tectonic Plates! We gather here tonight
           seeking news of the spirit of our sibling continent, Asia The
           Ancient and Wise."

(Out of nowhere a chilling breeze fills the small room. Continentally speaking,
of course. Suddenly a shape starts to materialize over the table.)

Asia:     "Who disturbs my eternal slumber? Can't the spirit of a mighty
          continent rest in peace?"
Africa:   "Asia, my dear Asia! We miss you so much! So, how's it hanging in the
          afterlife?"
Asia:     "Not too bad, bro, not too bad at all. Actually I miss you guys. But
          what can I do for you?"
America:  "Actually we seek news from continetal afterlife. What's it like?
Asia:     "Well, I kinda miss my topography, but either than that, it's pretty
          good.And it's nice not to have to worry about those damn volcanoes.
          As you recall, no ammount of acne cream could get me rid off them.
Ah,
          and that people infestation is totally gone as well. So, I guess I
          can't complain."
Europe:   "And aren't you lonely over there?"
Asia:     "Nope, not at all. Actually I have plenty company. For instance, in
          about 10 minutes I have a badmington game with Atlantis."
Africa:   "REally? How is dear good old Atlantis?"
Asia:     "Oh fine, I guess. That poor sod never quite recovered from that sad
          deep sea diving accident. We were never that close, but now that I'm
          here I'll try to take care of the old gal. Well, I must be off now.
          But feel free to summon me whenever you guys feel like. I can use
          the chat. Bye now."
All:      "Bye..."



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


From the moment I learned that the theme was "Spirit of Asia", it took me less
than 10 minutes to realize I would have to find and approach totally out of the
ordinary. Instead of focusing on the obvious (Asia), I decided to focus on what
I believe everybody will overlook: Spirit. On the spot I envisioned this scene:
a seance of the decesed spirit of Asia.

Of course this is a humouristic way to approach the subject, and I don't mean
any disrespect towards the continent. I just didn't feel that a picture could
capture all of asia, lest it depicted the whole country.

Technical Aspects
========= =======

The continents and white-gloved hands were designed from scratch using
hamaPatch. They were my first attempts to learn this nice little tool, and I'm
quite pleased with the outcome. I used the olympic colours to, well, colour
them because I didn't have time to learn how uv mapping works.

The tables and vases are lathes created with SpilinEditor, another very useful
tool.

The picture on the wall is Rembrandt's "Abraham and Isaac", it's an oil on
canvas, painted in 1634 and is part of the Hermitage museum, in St. Petersburg.

The chairs, door and picture frame are simply CSG.

The candle is a modification and adaptaion of JRG's excellent candle. Thanks
Jonathan!


