TITLE: The Highwheeler
NAME: Hildur Kolbrun Andresdottir
COUNTRY: Iceland
EMAIL: hildurka@simnet.is
WEBPAGE: n/a
TOPIC: Old Technology
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: hi_wheel.jpg
ZIPFILE: hi_wheel.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    PovRay 3.5

TOOLS USED: 
    Moray 3.3, Photoshop 7

RENDER TIME: 
    4h 11m 21s

HARDWARE USED: 
    Amd Athlon 1200 mHz, 256 mb RAM

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 
    Well, my guess is that the proud owner of this brand new
Highwheeler has deliberately left it there in plain sight, right across from
the town square, probably just to seek some attention, while having a trim at
the barber shop on the corner. Besides, back then in the 1870_s, nobody would
dare to steal it anyway.

I wanted to make something which was really old but the technology still useful.
I came to think about bicycles and decided to look into their history. 
I discovered the Highwheeler, also known as the  Penny Farthing. I though the
form was fascinating so I decided to try to build a 3D model as close to the
original as possible. I don_t have an actual Highwheeler lying around, so I
used photos to determine the form and some imagination to guess what was not
visible on the photos. I think I_ve got it almost right, given or taken some
minor details.

Short history of the highwheeler:
The highwheeler was the first all metal machine (earlier bicyles were made of
wood as well). It appeared in 1870 (or 1871?) when metallurgy became advanced
enough to provide metal which was strong enough to make small, light parts out
of. It is said to be first invented by Englishman James Starley.
The pedals were attached directly to the front wheel, but with no freewheeling
mecanism. Solid rubber tires and the front wheel became larger and larger as
makers realized that the larger the wheel, the farther you could travel with
one rotation of the pedals.(The longer your legs, the faster you could
ride).This machine was the first to be called bicycle (two wheel). The seat was
mounted onto springs to make it more comfortable and it had a so called spoon
brake on top of the big wheel.
The bike required lots of skill and practice to ride. It was actually pretty
dangerous, the rider wearing a hat instead of helmet, which is the reason that
a new bike, (more stable, chain driven, with two equally sized wheels), called
the Safety bike, soon (10-15 years later) became the most popular.
The original design of the Highwheeler is still clearly discernible in the
modern bike, but it_s beauty is lost, in favor of more safety, speed and
comfort.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 
    The construction of the bike was
somewhat complex, especially where the photos didn_t reveal all details, and
not all brands were made exactly the same way. This one is probably a mixture
of 3-4 different types (seen from different angels on the photos). 
The backbone, seat, and the forks are bezier patches, the rest are CSG_s and
primitives.
I read that some of the richer ovners had they_s brass plated instead of
painted, which explains the color I chose on the bike. It took me about 3 weeks
to get everything right and assembled.
I made the walls and pavements using the wall plugin (thanks to Philippe Gibone
and Andr_ de Leiradella). Lot of time went on texturing the environment and
getting the scene right. All textures are procedural except for the poster in
the alley. 
Originally I intended to make a much bigger scene, but later I realized that the
Highwheeler would be lost in everything. I dropped lot of things and made a
more narrow view, focusing on the bike.
I couldn_t get rid of the streaky patterns appearing on the shiny parts of the
bike (like the the back springs), if anyone knows how to eliminate them, please
let me know. I tried higher anti-aliasing settings but all the same.

I do not include the full scene in the source files in this submission, the
scene is big and requires plugins (Lua Full Moon). However I include the source
files to the Highwheeler model only in plain surroundings in case of anyone
interested in using the model for their scenes.
Enjoy.


