I don't mean to toot my own horn (pun intended) or anything, but this is
possibly the first
render I've ever had that I am happy with. Yes, there are still things that
can be tweaked (like the corners fo the lips --- those get me every time),
and yeah, the polys show --- but when I got my first glimpse, my jaw
dropped. It's what I wanted. My sketches, my vision of it, it *actually
worked!* I got the computer to do what I wanted it to. Yay!

I'm happy to hear critiques. (Though I'll say that I *am* using smooth
triangles; the edges that show show because I am also using area lights ---
it's a compunded but more subtle version of the jagged shadow effect. If you
have a way to make this less visible, I'd love to hear it.)


-
Sam Bleckley

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stm31415 wrote:
> I'm happy to hear critiques. (Though I'll say that I *am* using smooth
> triangles; the edges that show show because I am also using area lights ---
> it's a compunded but more subtle version of the jagged shadow effect. If you
> have a way to make this less visible, I'd love to hear it.)

I really like it, captured a "clean" sinister mood to begin with. :-)

As for the shadow artifacts, I don't use poly-objects that often, and 
when I do, I usually use tons of polys. However, what might help in this 
case, is to switch from using an area_light, to scripting a real array 
of lights. Area_lights still light objects from only a single point, 
it's just the shadow that gets smoother. With more lightsources, the 
lighting should become smoother as well. This is, however, somewhat more 
parsing/tracing intensive, since POV-Ray will have to calculate more 
lightsources.

Going further than just combining a few more lightsources into an array 
and using area-lights on these might be overkill, but then again the 
results may be better than using as many point-lights as you've got in 
the original area-light. I guess that's subject to experimentation.

Regards,
Tim

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

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Tim Nikias wrote:

> 
> As for the shadow artifacts, I don't use poly-objects that often, and 
> when I do, I usually use tons of polys. However, what might help in this 
> case, is to switch from using an area_light, to scripting a real array 
> of lights. Area_lights still light objects from only a single point, 
> it's just the shadow that gets smoother. With more lightsources, the 
> lighting should become smoother as well. This is, however, somewhat more 
> parsing/tracing intensive, since POV-Ray will have to calculate more 
> lightsources.
> 
There is a little program for generating a "dome" of lights to variable 
degrees of density.  The lights take their color from a surrounding
image map.  It is not so much a "natural" lighting system as it is
a way to get "artistic" control:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/49036284/

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Jim Charter <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote:
>
> There is a little program for generating a "dome" of lights to variable
> degrees of density.  The lights take their color from a surrounding
> image map.  It is not so much a "natural" lighting system as it is
> a way to get "artistic" control:
> http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/49036284/

Thanks for the link. I played with it yesterday. It's difficult for me to
control it; the balance of light fields is very tricky. I may have to write
my own analogue of it someday. More lights did, eventually, wipe the poly
problem away, but only at the cost of poor contrast. I may just have to
live with a higher-res model.

--
Sam Bleckley

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o_O

Dude, that's sinister...

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Orchid XP v3 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> o_O
>
> Dude, that's sinister...

Heh. Thanks. Glad you think so. It also makes a neato wallpaper ---
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/52233716/ . I'm trying to decide
whether a scene to go with him is in order. I haven't had much time.

-S

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