Hi Mahesh,

very much can be done with pure, handwritten SDL. (That's what I do.) The
tools most important for me are the macros and while-loops of the SDL which
allow the automated calculation and construction of complicated shapes,
textures and scenes not easily achievable with modellers. The main exception
are meshes: they are usually created with modellers, sometimes by macros,
but never by handcoding.

Even if modellers are used, a good understanding of the SDL is neccessary
to get the best results.

I don't 'think in math', I see shapes, (textures, scenes,) try to find out
the POV-Ray-objets comprising them, decide what parameters to use to
describe them and their interconnections, write down the neccessary formulas
and algorithms and let POV-Ray do the rest. Then I play with these parameters
until I've got what I want.

Aside from reading the documentation and the newsgroups, asking questions,
performing many tests and trying to create some own work, a very effective
training method to get practice is: Try to help others! I've attempted this
very often (and with increasing success!), and although I rarely post my
answers because others are usually faster and have a better solution, this
was *very* helpful for me -- not only for learning SDL, but also for its
efficient and creative usage.

My advice is: read, read, read; then try, try, try yourself, don't be
satisfied if it's almost good, but try to make it as good as you can, and
even then try to make it better as soon as you have learnt more. Then post
your picture to povray.binaries.images and discuss the technical and the
artistic aspects of POVing: light, colors, textures, composition, and much
more. (Until now I haven't posted a picture [except bug demonstrations and
demonstrations for an include file of mine], but soon I will!)

Does practice make perfect? -- My answer is "no": raytracing is by far too
complex to let one be perfect in all technical and artistic aspects. But
without trying to be perfect, it's less fun, and practice helps a lot to
get this fun.


   Sputnik

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e-mail: fr### [at] computermuseumfh-kielde
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