It's been ages since I posted my last image. Here is my latest work, based
on an illustration by Tim White.

The scene has a huge number of objects. In order to fit into a reasonable
amount of memory the majority of them are meshes, mostly free 3ds and obj
converted to mesh2{} with PoseRay. Exceptions are the potatoe shaped things
which are isosurfaces with some "tentacles" which are blobs. The cone
shaped things on the hill are isosurfaces too. Bushes made with POVTree.
Character from Poser.

Please excuse the filesize, all the details would have been lost at smaller
sizes or higher jpg compression rates.

Regards, Christoph

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Attachments:
Download 'strange.jpg' (370 KB)

Preview of image 'strange.jpg'

Hey, that's really neat!

I bet the render time was huge tho...

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Render time was about 5.5 h at 2000x1500 pixels on a 3.6 GHz P4 running
under Win XP. No radiosity and no area_lights though, just the sun and one
shadowless fill light. The slowest thing was the sky (media clouds).

Christoph

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> Render time was about 5.5 h at 2000x1500 pixels on a 3.6 GHz P4 running
> under Win XP. No radiosity and no area_lights though, just the sun and one
> shadowless fill light. The slowest thing was the sky (media clouds).

Hey, that's actually not a bad render time.

I'm supposed that the sky was the slow part - I would have expected all 
that "grassy stuff" to take longer...

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"gerberc" <ni.### [at] bluewinch> wrote in message 
news:web.4367c7f9eaacc993e249c31f0@news.povray.org...
> Render time was about 5.5 h at 2000x1500 pixels on a 3.6 GHz P4 
running
> under Win XP. No radiosity and no area_lights though, just the sun and 
one
> shadowless fill light. The slowest thing was the sky (media clouds).

Hmmm, strange, the clouds aren't the most impressive part of the image 
(although that's because the rest is *very* impressive).

Maybe my fastclouds might help here.  They're not really 3D, so they're 
not 100% accurate, but they look good enough and render fast (see image, 
rendered at 640*480 on an Athlon XP 2500+ under Windows XP, while typing 
this message, in 8 seconds)

--- code: ---

#macro fastclouds(LS,Cast,Fluffyness,Translate,Scale,Scale2,MinT)
 #ifndef (CloudForm)
  #declare CloudForm=
  pigment {
   bumps
   warp {turbulence .75 lambda 3}
   scale 10
   warp {turbulence .5 lambda 3}
   scale 1/10
   scale 100
   warp {turbulence 1 lambda 2}
   scale 1/100
   rotate 45
  }
 #end
 #declare Clouds=
 pigment {
  pigment_pattern{CloudForm}
  color_map {
   [(1-Cast) rgb 0]
   [(1-Cast)+Fluffyness rgb 1]
  }
  translate Translate
  scale Scale2 
 }
 #declare Clouds3=
 pigment {
  pigment_pattern{CloudForm}
  color_map {
   [(1-Cast)-Fluffyness/5 rgb 0]
   [(1-Cast)+Fluffyness*1.5 rgb 1]
  }
  translate Translate
  scale Scale2 
 }
 #local Clouds2=
 pigment {
  pigment_pattern{CloudForm}
  color_map {
   [(1-Cast)/1 rgb 0]
   [1+Fluffyness rgb 1]
  }
  translate Translate
  translate -vnormalize(LS)*.25*Cast
  scale Scale2 
 }
 #declare Cloudsphere=
 sphere {
  0,1
  pigment {
   pigment_pattern {Clouds}
   pigment_map {
    [0 
     pigment_pattern {Clouds2}
     color_map {
      [0 rgb 1 transmit 1]
      [1 rgb .5 transmit 1]
     }
    ]
    [1 
     pigment_pattern {Clouds2}
     pigment_map {
      [0 rgb (1*MinT)+LColor*(1-MinT) transmit .5+MinT/2]
      [1 rgb MinT filter 1]
     }
    ]
   }
  }
  finish {ambient 1 diffuse 0}
  scale 500
  translate -y*450
  scale Scale
  hollow
 }
 object {Cloudsphere}
#end

--- end code ---

--- usage: ---

// usage for this demo-image
#declare CloudForm= // the shapes of the clouds
pigment {
 bumps
 warp {turbulence .75 lambda 3}
 scale 10
 warp {turbulence .5 lambda 3}
 scale 1/10
 scale 100
 warp {turbulence 1 lambda 2}
 scale 1/100
 rotate 45
}
#declare LS=<-50000,35000,50000>*1000; //Sun light_source location
#declare Cast=.4; // 0: no clouds, 1: fully overcast, can be higher 
than 1
#declare Fluffyness=.3; // 0: very hard-edged clouds, 1: very soft 
clouds
#declare Translate=15; // translation of the cloud-pattern
#declare Scale = 100; // scale of the cloud-pattern
#declare Scale2=.045; //uhm, I forgot :)
#declare MinT=.025; // minimum transparency of the clouds (can be seen 
as the inverse of the "thickness" of the cloud-layer)
fastclouds(LS,Cast,Fluffyness,Translate,Scale,Scale2,MinT)

--- end usage ---

cu!
-- 
#macro G(b,e)b+(e-b)*C/50#end#macro _(b,e,k,l)#local C=0;#while(C<50)
sphere{G(b,e)+3*z.1pigment{rgb G(k,l)}finish{ambient 1}}#local C=C+1;
#end#end _(y-x,y,x,x+y)_(y,-x-y,x+y,y)_(-x-y,-y,y,y+z)_(-y,y,y+z,x+y)
_(0x+y.5+y/2x)_(0x-y.5+y/2x)            // ZK http://www.povplace.com

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Attachments:
Download 'fastclouds-macro.jpg' (76 KB)

Preview of image 'fastclouds-macro.jpg'

forgot a variable:
#declare LColor=<1.25,1.125,1>;

and of course you need to add a background, probably best with some 
ground_fog (so the moon will still look ok), something like this: 
fog {
  fog_type 2
  distance 1575
  color rgb <88,120,179>/128/1
  fog_offset -1
  fog_alt 580
}

(although it doesn't look as good with fog as with a sky_sphere :( )

cu!
-- 
#macro G(b,e)b+(e-b)*C/50#end#macro _(b,e,k,l)#local C=0;#while(C<50)
sphere{G(b,e)+3*z.1pigment{rgb G(k,l)}finish{ambient 1}}#local C=C+1;
#end#end _(y-x,y,x,x+y)_(y,-x-y,x+y,y)_(-x-y,-y,y,y+z)_(-y,y,y+z,x+y)
_(0x+y.5+y/2x)_(0x-y.5+y/2x)            // ZK http://www.povplace.com

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Me like :)

And I've started to use the fill light method alot too.
It's really fast, and with a bit of experience and work
it's almost as good as GI.

Very nice image..

"gerberc" <ni.### [at] bluewinch> wrote in message 
news:web.4367b7a4781b568d530fb7fc0@news.povray.org...
> It's been ages since I posted my last image. Here is my latest work, based
> on an illustration by Tim White.
>
> The scene has a huge number of objects. In order to fit into a reasonable
> amount of memory the majority of them are meshes, mostly free 3ds and obj
> converted to mesh2{} with PoseRay. Exceptions are the potatoe shaped 
> things
> which are isosurfaces with some "tentacles" which are blobs. The cone
> shaped things on the hill are isosurfaces too. Bushes made with POVTree.
> Character from Poser.
>
> Please excuse the filesize, all the details would have been lost at 
> smaller
> sizes or higher jpg compression rates.
>
> Regards, Christoph
>


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Hi Zeger

Thanks a lot for this code and the demo image! I'll try this out as soon as
I find some free time!

Best regards, Christoph

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"gerberc" <ni.### [at] bluewinch> wrote in message 
news:web.43693bf6eaacc9936f4b568f0@news.povray.org...
> Hi Zeger
> 
> Thanks a lot for this code and the demo image! I'll try this out as 
soon as
> I find some free time!

np, but after trying it myself, I noticed some limitations in my 
technique.  Even with minimum transparency of 0 the clouds are still a 
bit transparent in an unrealistic way.  It looks good with a plain 
background, but not with something like a moon behind the clouds :(

But still, it might be an interesting starting point for you :)

cu!
-- 
#macro G(b,e)b+(e-b)*C/50#end#macro _(b,e,k,l)#local C=0;#while(C<50)
sphere{G(b,e)+3*z.1pigment{rgb G(k,l)}finish{ambient 1}}#local C=C+1;
#end#end _(y-x,y,x,x+y)_(y,-x-y,x+y,y)_(-x-y,-y,y,y+z)_(-y,y,y+z,x+y)
_(0x+y.5+y/2x)_(0x-y.5+y/2x)            // ZK http://www.povplace.com

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"gerberc" <ni.### [at] bluewinch> schreef in bericht
news:web.4367b7a4781b568d530fb7fc0@news.povray.org...
> It's been ages since I posted my last image. Here is my latest work, based
> on an illustration by Tim White.
>
> The scene has a huge number of objects. In order to fit into a reasonable
> amount of memory the majority of them are meshes, mostly free 3ds and obj
> converted to mesh2{} with PoseRay. Exceptions are the potatoe shaped
things
> which are isosurfaces with some "tentacles" which are blobs. The cone
> shaped things on the hill are isosurfaces too. Bushes made with POVTree.
> Character from Poser.
>
> Please excuse the filesize, all the details would have been lost at
smaller
> sizes or higher jpg compression rates.
>
> Regards, Christoph
>
Impressive image! Really good!

Thomas

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