Here's something I've been working on lately. The sculptures, seagulls and
cat- and dog-figures are added in Photoshop Elements, but all the rest is
POV-Ray. To get correct shadows and reflections I made some thin boxes with
the images of the figures, with the no_image keyword. No radiosity, but I
faked it with some shadowless lights around to get some ambient light and
used light_groups to control it further. Under the chairs are negative
lights to get a deeper shadow. Rendered to 45 x 30 cm at 200 dpi in a
little over 7 hours (400 MHz Mac).

Unfortunately I have trouble with my hands (from excessive use of the
mouse), so it will probably be some time before I do more with POV-Ray.

Enjoy, c&c welcome.

H

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"helge_h" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message
news:web.442d4483e572b80b1c6902970@news.povray.org...
> Here's something I've been working on lately. The sculptures, seagulls and
> cat- and dog-figures are added in Photoshop Elements, but all the rest is
> POV-Ray. To get correct shadows and reflections I made some thin boxes
with
> the images of the figures, with the no_image keyword. No radiosity, but I
> faked it with some shadowless lights around to get some ambient light and
> used light_groups to control it further. Under the chairs are negative
> lights to get a deeper shadow. Rendered to 45 x 30 cm at 200 dpi in a
> little over 7 hours (400 MHz Mac).
>
> Unfortunately I have trouble with my hands (from excessive use of the
> mouse), so it will probably be some time before I do more with POV-Ray.
>
> Enjoy, c&c welcome.
>
> H

Nice work compositing the cat and dog into the scene. The clouds are drop
dead gorgeous, everything is gorgeous, but the statues look a little flat.

With the water, I would expect to see some of the submerged rock just below
the surface. however all i see are reflections.

Still, it's great. Fantastic work!

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I am usually turned off by relaism for realism's sake, but I really love
what you have done here.  Excellent composition and theme.

"helge_h" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Unfortunately I have trouble with my hands (from excessive use of the
> mouse), so it will probably be some time before I do more with POV-Ray.
>

Now that's one thing I've never heard before. I thought the pain of povray
was that you had to do too much typing, not mouse clicking.  ;)

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Looking forward to the update. Excellent image!

  ~Steve~

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"Ross" <rli### [at] everestkcnet> wrote:
> Nice work compositing the cat and dog into the scene. The clouds are drop
> dead gorgeous, everything is gorgeous, but the statues look a little flat.
>
> With the water, I would expect to see some of the submerged rock just below
> the surface. however all i see are reflections.
>
> Still, it's great. Fantastic work!

Thanks a lot. Oops - forgot to mention: the sky is also a photograph; on the
sky sphere to make reflections, but masked off with the alpha map, then the
original photo was put back behind the scene.

The statues are drawings in Photoshop Elements, with a photo texture on
them. Just goes to show that combining different techniques is difficult
(for me, anyway).

I decided against making the sea transparent to save rendering time, it's
just a wrinkle pattern normal. Still, the reflections take some time, the
lower third takes about the same time as the rest.

gregjohn:
> I am usually turned off by relaism for realism's sake, but I really love
> what you have done here.  Excellent composition and theme.

Thanks.

It's a strange thing, 3d: you can make just about anything, but it sort of
drags you down the path of realism; all the tools and effects are coined at
imitating the real world. I try to do surrealism, but it is so tempting to
put more and more details into it, to make it more 'real'.

> Now that's one thing I've never heard before. I thought the pain of povray
> was that you had to do too much typing, not mouse clicking.  ;)

Well, typing, too, of course. But dragging with the mouse to select
something to copy is really a drag. It's very sad, because I like POV-Ray a
lot. I have tried Blender, and that was really bad, and Wings is no better.
I thought typing in POV-Ray would be a solution, but unfortunately it's
not. Well, I hope a break will make things better. "I'll be back", I hope.

Steve:
> Looking forward to the update. Excellent image!

Thanks. And sorry, no update. This is the final one.

H

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"helge_h" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.442d8abbaa4a30451c6902970@news.povray.org...

> Steve:
>> Looking forward to the update. Excellent image!
>
> Thanks. And sorry, no update. This is the final one.

  Ok, I look forward to your next final one then.  :)


   ~Steve~


>
> H
>

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"helge_h" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Here's something I've been working on lately.

A beautiful piece of work. I could imagine this being one of many
similarly-conceived "illustrations" in a children's book of some kind.  I'd
buy it!

Ken

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"helge_h" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Here's something I've been working on lately. The sculptures, seagulls and
> cat- and dog-figures are added in Photoshop Elements, but all the rest is
> POV-Ray. To get correct shadows and reflections I made some thin boxes with
> the images of the figures, with the no_image keyword. No radiosity, but I
> faked it with some shadowless lights around to get some ambient light and
> used light_groups to control it further. Under the chairs are negative
> lights to get a deeper shadow. Rendered to 45 x 30 cm at 200 dpi in a
> little over 7 hours (400 MHz Mac).
>
> Unfortunately I have trouble with my hands (from excessive use of the
> mouse), so it will probably be some time before I do more with POV-Ray.
>
> Enjoy, c&c welcome.
>
> H


Very nice work and interesting scenario:)

Hasan

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nice image!  clever compositing work...

"helge_h" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> that combining different techniques is difficult

oh, definetely!

> It's a strange thing, 3d: you can make just about anything, but it sort of
> drags you down the path of realism; all the tools and effects are coined at
> imitating the real world.

well, though raytracing is a simulation of real-world lighting phenomena, i
think it's the artist's job to bend the medium to its best intentions.
Povray provides many interesting features that let you go well beyond what
reality permits... :)

> Well, typing, too, of course. But dragging with the mouse to select
> something to copy is really a drag.

don't do it.  I believe you're talking about the GUI frontend for Povray in
Windows, right?  Use the ALT button to navigate the menus and use the
underlined characters to choose an item in the menu.  Try to decorate some
keyboard shortcuts as well:  your productivity will skyrocket.  I'm a very
anti-mouse kinda person:  even in mouse-heavy software like Photoshop or
GIMP, i use the mouse just to draw, not to select items in menus or
commands...

> I have tried Blender, and that was really bad, and Wings is no better.

well, that's rather strange coming from a Photoshop guy, but then, perhaps
2D and 3D drawing are really very different...

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Thanks again, Steve!
--
Thanks for that, Kenneth. Not very likely, though.
--
and thanks, Hasan.
--
"nemesis" <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> nice image!  clever compositing work...

Thanks!

> > It's a strange thing, 3d: you can make just about anything, but it sort of
> > drags you down the path of realism; all the tools and effects are coined at
> > imitating the real world.
>
> well, though raytracing is a simulation of real-world lighting phenomena, i
> think it's the artist's job to bend the medium to its best intentions.
> Povray provides many interesting features that let you go well beyond what
> reality permits... :)

I agree to all of that, fully.

> > Well, typing, too, of course. But dragging with the mouse to select
> > something to copy is really a drag.
>
> don't do it.  I believe you're talking about the GUI frontend for Povray in
> Windows, right?

No, Mac. Not possible to do what you suggest, as far as I know.

> > I have tried Blender, and that was really bad, and Wings is no better.
>
> well, that's rather strange coming from a Photoshop guy, but then, perhaps
> 2D and 3D drawing are really very different...

Yes, I use a Wacom tablet for most of the Photoshop work, but it's not
precise enough or convenient for text work.

H

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