25ct wrote:

>      What is the purpose of POV-ray?

To have fun making 3D pictures, or programming a complex rendering application,
or programming POV scripts.

> Is it to get the best 3d image that you can?

You can try this if you want. It's a hobby tool so you're free to do what
pleases you  with it. Many people don't try to get "real" images done and are
just happy doodling and experimenting with it, often discovering interesting
images, effects or techniques doing so.

> Can you animate with POV-ray?

Yes. It's possible to do fairly complex animations with POV-Ray. Note that this
requires first a good knowledge of POV.

> How long would a typical picture take to produce?

There's no such thing as a "typical picture". Depending on your mileage, your
free time and how fast is your computer, a "good" (meaning something you're
proud of) image can take only a few hours or several months to create (and some
additional hours, days or weeks to render). The Internet Raytracing Competition
(www.irtc.org) allows 2 months per round.

> Does it take long to learn the coding?

Some people have become proficient in a few months. Having some prior knowledge
of programming (BASIC level I'd say) surely helps. Mastering POV takes longer,
but that's true of every software, and you don't need to master everything to
use POV.

>      I run win 98, so can I do it on my machine?   Where do I start?

First go to www.povray.org, download the Windows version, read and re-read the
manual, run the demo files. Be sure to read the Very Frequently Asked Questions
(maintained by Warp) :
http://www.students.tut.fi/~warp/povVFAQ/

Have fun.

G.

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