So, just today I've decided that I won't enter the POV-COMP, mainly because
I cannot come up with a decent idea for an image and because it's way too
late to just start fumbling about and hoping to get something worthwhile.
Instead, I've decided that I'll enter the IRTC instead. And, just for fun,
I've decided to give the animations a try, although I haven't rendered any
proper animations so far (just example scenes showcasing some effects).

So, for "Duel", the description says: "[...]anything pitting two individuals
against one another." Immediately, a dog-fight between two planes came into
mind. And that's what I'm planning to do: an UFO versus a
plane/helicopter-hybrid. Instead of going for 100% realism, I'm going for
some rather simplified style, focussing much more on the animation than on
the modelling. So, since the standard black backdrop won't do, and a simple
horizontal plane won't do either, I've created this heightfield to get a
nice mountain range, but an even main "fighting area". Crackle is just a
texture used only in the center with a radius of about 20 units, in case I
want to position something close to the ground, but it quickly fades into a
uniform brown/orange to avoid aliasing due to texturing.

All in all, it's a *real simple* backdrop, but it provides a visual
reference and that's what counts. The objects are just for "niceness of
presentation" here, they won't appear in the final animation of course. Next
step is to create a few fast rendering clouds for the sky, I'll probably be
using a few stacked-planes.

Anyways, any comments on the product so far would be appreciated! :-)

Regards,
Tim
-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>

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Attachments:
Download 'desert.jpg' (33 KB)

Preview of image 'desert.jpg'

I love this image. The kind of image I'd gladly use as wallpaper for months.

I'm looking forward to your final image, but I'd like to know more about the
material/textures for the objects you put there.

Great job.

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> I love this image. The kind of image I'd gladly use as wallpaper for
months.

Thanks for the praise! :-)

> I'm looking forward to your final image, but I'd like to know more about
the
> material/textures for the objects you put there.

There probably won't be much of a final image. The scenery you see in the
image will be used as the background for the animation of a dog-fight
between two planes, as mentioned in my original post. But once the clouds
are added and the last details are included, I might make the scene
available for others to use, although probably after I've submitted the
animation.

As for the materials, they're rather straightforward and simple, I'll just
post'em here:

#declare Metal=texture{
pigment{rgb .15}
finish{
specular .6 roughness .01
brilliance 6
reflection{.5,1 falloff 2}
}}

#declare Glass=material{
interior{ior 1.45
fade_power 2 fade_distance 1}
texture{
pigment{rgbt 1}
finish{specular 1 roughness .001 brilliance 4 reflection{0,1 fresnel}}
}}

Regards,
Tim

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>

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Looks really great Tim! I love the landscape and
am looking forward to seeing some clouds. Sounds
like a good idea to focus on the animation.
=Bob=

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> Looks really great Tim! I love the landscape and
> am looking forward to seeing some clouds.

Thanks! I hope I succeed in creating some decent, fast rendering clouds
which won't make problems when compressing them for the animation. Much like
the crackle texture is only for close-ups, I want to try to avoid common
aliasing pitfalls with too detailed and swirly clouds...

>Sounds like a good idea to focus on the animation.

I hope that it will also prove to be a good choice. Normally, I spend a lot
of time on details, but given the deadline and the task of creating a
worthwhile animation, I'd rather have some nice but simplistic planes which
move with grace instead of highly detailed, awesome looking ones which do a
clumsy job of avoiding each other... ;-)

Regards,
Tim

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>

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"Tim Nikias" <JUSTTHELOWERCASE:timISNOTnikias(at)gmx.netWARE> wrote in message
news:4140ce97@news.povray.org...
[deletions]
: I'd rather have some nice but simplistic planes which
: move with grace instead of highly detailed, awesome looking ones which do a
: clumsy job of avoiding each other... ;-)

Or do like me and don't enter anything because it doesn't
get finished until a year after the deadline. I just finished
"Frozen Moment" last week. IRTC stills, December 2002.
=Bob=

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> Or do like me and don't enter anything because it doesn't
> get finished until a year after the deadline. I just finished
> "Frozen Moment" last week. IRTC stills, December 2002.

Nah, that's no fun. :-) The idea of the competition is to enter something,
not to tweak it till perfection and miss the deadline by a couple of days
(or years, in your case... ;-) But where is the image? Have I missed it
somewhere on p.b.i?

Tim

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>

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"Tim Nikias" <JUSTTHELOWERCASE:timISNOTnikias(at)gmx.netWARE> wrote in message
news:4140d94a@news.povray.org...
: > Or do like me and don't enter anything because it doesn't
: > get finished until a year after the deadline. I just finished
: > "Frozen Moment" last week. IRTC stills, December 2002.
:
: Nah, that's no fun. :-) The idea of the competition is to enter something,
: not to tweak it till perfection and miss the deadline by a couple of days
: (or years, in your case... ;-) But where is the image? Have I missed it
: somewhere on p.b.i?

Title is "Blind Lemon Jefferson" link posted in p.b.i. I
started it right away for the contest, but got too busy
with work and home. Then I let it sit for a while, then I
built a new, fast machine this year and decided to try
and finish.
=Bob=

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"=Bob=" <robertUNDERSCOREdobbinsATmailDOTtdsDOTnet> wrote in message
news:4140dbc4$1@news.povray.org...
: Title is "Blind Lemon Jefferson" link posted in p.b.i.

Article is gone now. Here it is again, 1Mb, change the
extension to bmp for the original 3Mb file.

This is 1280x1024, uses method 2, depth 4 with a
threshold of 0.01, took about 10 days to render, but
there's still jaggies:

http://sdg.ag.uidaho.edu/Images/BlindLemon.png

=Bob=

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> This is 1280x1024, uses method 2, depth 4 with a
> threshold of 0.01, took about 10 days to render, but
> there's still jaggies:
>
> http://sdg.ag.uidaho.edu/Images/BlindLemon.png

Ah, okay. "Frozen Moment", yeah, I see how a recording fits the topic. I
like the soft colors. :-)

-- 
"Tim Nikias v2.0"
Homepage: <http://www.nolights.de>

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