Now using Chris Colefax's most excellent lense flare dealy.

These images have a wonderfully sharp, crisp, clear quality [which the 
JPEG things you're seeing quite fail to convery].

So folks... which do you prefer? "Star" (first image) or "Sparkle" 
(second image)? I did try the others - most of them look rather silly. 
As you'd expect, really; after all, a tiny fairy light is nowhere near 
as bright as a "sun"! ;-)

I might even get into building a custom version... but I think next I'll 
probably try to work out how to turn on area lights.

Andrew.

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Attachments:
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Preview of image 'ctree6a-f.jpg'

Preview of image 'ctree6b-f.jpg'

I like "Star" - looking good Andrew :)

Lance.

thezone - thezone.firewave.com.au
thehandle - www.thehandle.com

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Andrew the Orchid wrote:
> Now using Chris Colefax's most excellent lense flare dealy.
> 
> These images have a wonderfully sharp, crisp, clear quality [which the 
> JPEG things you're seeing quite fail to convery].
> 
> So folks... which do you prefer? "Star" (first image) or "Sparkle" 
> (second image)? I did try the others - most of them look rather silly. 
> As you'd expect, really; after all, a tiny fairy light is nowhere near 
> as bright as a "sun"! ;-)
> 
> I might even get into building a custom version... but I think next I'll 
> probably try to work out how to turn on area lights.
> 
> Andrew.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
As long as you are doing this,...it is true is it not that the needles 
on conifers such as this do not stick out evenly around the branch? 
Rather there is a flat part at the bottom because they seek the light.

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Andrew the Orchid wrote:
> Now using Chris Colefax's most excellent lense flare dealy.
> 
> These images have a wonderfully sharp, crisp, clear quality [which the 
> JPEG things you're seeing quite fail to convery].
> 
> So folks... which do you prefer? "Star" (first image) or "Sparkle" 
> (second image)? I did try the others - most of them look rather silly. 
> As you'd expect, really; after all, a tiny fairy light is nowhere near 
> as bright as a "sun"! ;-)
> 
> I might even get into building a custom version... but I think next I'll 
> probably try to work out how to turn on area lights.
> 
> Andrew.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

I would say that Sparkley is more realistic, I think its prettier too.

nice tree.

G.

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> As long as you are doing this,...it is true is it not that the needles 
> on conifers such as this do not stick out evenly around the branch? 
> Rather there is a flat part at the bottom because they seek the light.

Yes, you're probably right. (I suspect you'll find that real needles are 
actually spaced round the thickness of the branch according to the 
fibonacci numbers or something too.)

You'll also find that fake trees have neither of these features. ;-)

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> I would say that Sparkley is more realistic, I think its prettier too.

Yeah, I think you're probably right about realism. The other one looks 
nice, but it kinda distracts from the rest of the image. Heh.

> nice tree.

Thanks!

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> I like "Star" - looking good Andrew :)

It certainly does take some otherwise lame-looking flat disks and 
transform them into something that looks like it's actually glowing. :-D

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"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote in message
news:41bc5b44$1@news.povray.org
> Andrew the Orchid wrote:
>> Now using Chris Colefax's most excellent lense flare dealy.
>>
>> These images have a wonderfully sharp, crisp, clear quality [which
>> the JPEG things you're seeing quite fail to convery].
>>
>> So folks... which do you prefer? "Star" (first image) or "Sparkle"
>> (second image)? I did try the others - most of them look rather
>> silly. As you'd expect, really; after all, a tiny fairy light is
>> nowhere near as bright as a "sun"! ;-)
>>
>> I might even get into building a custom version... but I think
>> next I'll probably try to work out how to turn on area lights.
>>
>> Andrew.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
> As long as you are doing this,...it is true is it not that the
> needles on conifers such as this do not stick out evenly around the
> branch? Rather there is a flat part at the bottom because they seek
> the light.

I guess you could fire a ray from each needle towards the sun and only keep 
it if it can see the sun.

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Hi Andrew!

One vote for "Stars" :)

Do you plan to keep that black background? A brighter one probably make 
the image look more friendly and the needles easier to see. Just my 2 
cents ;)


Florian (who hasn't found the time to do a x-mas render this year)
-- 
camera{look_at-y*10location<8,-3,-8>*10}#local a=0;#while(a<999)sphere{
#local _=.01*a-4.99;#local p=a*.01-5;#local c=.01*a-4.995;<sin(p*pi)*5p
*10pow(p,5)*.01>sin(c*c*c*.1)+1pigment{rgb 3}}#local a=a+1;#end
/******** http://www.torfbold.com ******** http://www.imp.org ********/

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> So folks... which do you prefer? "Star" (first image) or "Sparkle"
> (second image)?

Definitely go with the 6-sided ("star") one. The other one doesn't look like
it could be created by a real camera.

I think a lot could be gained by actually turning those spheres into real
tree lights, maybe even with the cord going from one to another. On top of
that, work on the texture of the branches that have the needles sticking out
of them so that they don't look so flat, and I think it will significantly
improve the realism. If you haven't done so yet, this is definitely a case
where having the real thing right next to you can help a lot, so if you have
a christmas tree then break off a piece and have it nearby for reference as
you model.

 - Slime
 [ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

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