TITLE: Winter Games

NAME: James Edward Gray II and Christina Nordloh
COUNTRY: USA
RENDERED USED: POV-Ray 3.5 (UNIX build - optimized compile)

EMAIL: raytracing@grayproductions.net
TOPIC: Frozen Moment
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: cn_games.jpg
ZIPFILE: cn_games.zip
TOOLS USED: 


Mac OS X, and Windows version of Pov-Ray 3.5, as well as Photoshop 7.0 for the
JPEG version. We found that working with both versions was possible, but adding
code as we went caused complications due to added spaces and glitches via email
bugs. Using a Macro's was pretty much mandatory so we wouldn't go insane trying
to find the extra space or odd character that wouldn't allow the render.


RENDER TIME: 


4 minutes 34 seconds


HARDWARE USED: 


Dual 533 G4 running Mac OS X and
Duron 750 running Windows XP Professional


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


Winter Games is an attempt to freeze a scene in total motion, while adding some
wonderful humor. We used snowmen because they were simple shapes that were easy
to manipulate, and a snowball fight because we found it a fun concept There is
the green team, and the red team; both about to be creamed by a round of
snowballs, cannon balls, and icicle swords. Humor was our main goal in this
picture, we wanted something we could be proud of and laugh at in the same
stroke. The mountains and snow lake are mainly eye candy to break up the great
expanse that became our world, and were a lot of fun to create.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


This image was created by James Gray and Christina Nordloh, a dual and equal
partnership that consisted of a teacher (James), and an artist that had never
toyed with a ray tracer before (Christina - the one writing this). In short two
very good friends. This will be the first picture to enter into a competition
for either of us, an adventure of sorts for certain. It began with James asking
me if I was interested in doing a joint project in Ray Tracing, and turned into
a sprint for the competition deadline. I spent the first week after I agreed to
do this, doing the Demos that come with the download - at that point I was
certain I was in way over my head, but was willing to give it a go. James had
fiddled with POV-Ray for a couple of years so was in the driver's keyboard when
we were doing something I didn't understand fully (i.e. macro's, and complex
textures such as glass for the swords) We chose simple shapes we could easily
manipulate so I could get a handle on what I was doing, and stuck with pure
POV-Ray for the entire scene to keep it simple and not have to learn a new
renderer or modeler due to our time limitations. It was accomplished with both
of us doing parts on our own time and then a weekly meeting to get things
finalized and decide what to do next. A lot of the meeting time was spent in
laughter as we made mistakes, or found something more to add in the humor
department - that had to be my favorite part of this project. It was awesome to
see a simple concept come to life at our fingertips, and the paratroopers have
remained our combined favorites. We started with a simple snow texture, put a
wall, two snow forts, and one snowman, then went from there. We quickly
realized that the simple snow texture had no end so the mountains and snow lake
were born - they make for wonderful eye candy. The tricky part came when we
started trading files and found that Mac OS X and Windows emails don't transfer
files as well as we had hoped so we made a macro for the snowmen, and a few
other things to eliminate the down time it took to find that extra space or
character that had been added. Overall we kept the scene simple, something we
could both handle and still have fun doing. I admit I'm hooked - I look forward
to my next entry - whether it be with James or solo. It was an honor to work
along side James, and it's awesome to have a finished piece to show for it.
Enjoy!

