Rishi wrote:
> The name suggests this is the right group. But is it?
> 
> I am a complete newbie to POV-Ray...as in, have been at it for a couple 
> of weeks now (and haven't been doing much else).
> 
> Need some hand-holding from the pros. I've been through most of the 
> documentation with POV...where do I look next? How do I go further? 
> Also, I do not have a programming background...does that restrict me in 
> using POV, or can I hope to pick up all that's needed on the way?
> 
> ANY help would be welcome!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Rishi

Welcome.

Have you looked at and run the example scenes included with the 
installation?
Great place to start.

Another good place to look is the IRTC
www.irtc.org

In later years the practice fell off because files got
quite large, but in earlier years people included their source
code.  You can learn a lot of good stuff from there
Also look in p.b.scene-files for example code

Probably best to move from objective to objective

There are four basic concerns:
scene building.
modelling
texturing
lighting

Most people are distracted early on by modelling, but the real action is 
in the texturing, lighting, and scene building. Try to cycle through and 
improve each of these areas in gradations. Try especially to learn as 
much about texturing as soon as possible.

Ask questions here.

You need to know or learn something of the mechanics of programming 
because POV does rely on a scripting interface.  But in no way do you 
need to be a hardcore programmer to use POV-Ray.  Many of us come from 
an arts background and we take great delight in referring to our SDL 
(Scene Description Language) script as "code", just to annoy the real 
programmers here ;)

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