TITLE: Fire Flake
NAME: Michael Chelmecki
COUNTRY: United States
EMAIL: zerozerozerozero@wyan.org
WEBPAGE: Private
TOPIC: FIRE AND ICE
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: fireflak.jpg
ZIPFILE: fireflak.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POVray 3.6

TOOLS USED: 
    IrfanView - convert to JPEG, gamma correct

RENDER TIME: 
    47 min, 23 sec

HARDWARE USED: 
    AMD K6


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

I'm afraid there's no deep symbolism this time, just an attempt to combine the
topic elements into what I hope is an aesthetically pleasing image.  After
trying out several different variations with respect to backgrounds and
arrangements of large and small numbers of  different "fireflakes", I came to a
firm conclusion that, in the case of this particular image, less really was
more.  All of the non-black backgrounds made the image seem far less dramatic. 
Large numbers of  "flakes" made the image seem busy and cluttered.  Just a
handful seemed to beg the question, "Where are the rest?"  In the end, I just
decided that a tight close-up of my favorite design brought the basic idea home
with the most elegance and intensity.  In order to keep the black background
that I grew attached to, yet avoid having the main element exist in a visual
environment totally devoid of depth or context, I added a rippled surface below
that is visible only inasmuch as it reflects the "fireflake".  The ripples
emanate from the point at which the "flake" touches the surface so that the
interaction will make the deliberately sparse elements both seem more
substantial.  Although I did take some time to study real snowflakes and the
principles that govern their formation, in the end I kept the characteristics
that I found visually pleasing and disregarded the rest.  I experimented with
deliberately imperfect symmetry for added realism, but decided that I simply
didn_t care for the result.  "Realistic" fire has very little surface
definition and, thus, seemed inadequate for the purpose of modeling a surface
that conveyed the intrinsic beauty of the snowflake. Instead, I tried to
represent the idea of fire in a more impressionistic manner using color,
pattern and form, taking inspiration from some of my favorite painters,
particularly Hieronymus Bosch and William Blake.  I hope that in combining the
aspects of fire and ice that I find most visually pleasing into a single
construct, I have created image that others will enjoy as well.



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

The "flake" itself is a collection of  icosahedrons stretched, flattened,
flipped, clipped and rotated.  The surface below is a height field function
based on the sine of the distance from <.5,.5>.  The fire pattern is a
"leopard" pattern with the turbulence,  omega and  lambda values tweaked to
produce the desired result.

