This structure of a ribosome is based on files from the Protein Data Bank.
The modeling was done in DS Visualizer and the rendering in POV Ray. I've
spent a number of hours optimizing the render, but I'm very new to POV Ray,
and not very good at it. I'm out of ideas. I would like the whole thing to
be a little sharper, but don't know what to try next to accomplish that.
The render quality is set at the maximum value (9).

Any comments will be appreciated.

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Attachments:
Download '70s-ribosome.3.jpg' (68 KB)

Preview of image '70s-ribosome.3.jpg'

It looks like tangled cotton... I kinda like it!

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Hi all,

if you want it sharper, why don't you just set a higher resolution?

I'm only writing this because Greg said he was very new to POVray. Instead
of heaving a 420 x 475 pixel image, impress the editors of Science by
typing
Height=2375 Width=2100
into the command line of POVray.

I don't know what you mean with a maximum render quality of 9.


Yours,
Bu.

---
pm. this newsgroup is for 80S ribosomes only. For 70s ribosomes, refer to
the BUG reports.


     ;-)     couldn't resist, sorry...

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Greg,
Your RNA is a cartoon rendition, which looks right.
Have you considered rendering your proteins as water accessible surfaces?
This would remove unnecessary detail and sharpen the image.
I like the way you've used color and isolated the structure on a white 
background.

DLM


"Greg Williams" <gre### [at] comcastnet> wrote in message 
news:web.461bc31fe5db6f7b92af9ae10@news.povray.org...
> This structure of a ribosome is based on files from the Protein Data Bank.
> The modeling was done in DS Visualizer and the rendering in POV Ray. I've
> spent a number of hours optimizing the render, but I'm very new to POV 
> Ray,
> and not very good at it. I'm out of ideas. I would like the whole thing to
> be a little sharper, but don't know what to try next to accomplish that.
> The render quality is set at the maximum value (9).
>
> Any comments will be appreciated.
>
>
>
>

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Thanks! There are several surface options in Visualizer that would enclose
the two main segments of the structure (top and bottom) within a surface:
solvent accessability, electrostatic potential, and van der Waals radii.
Instead I've chosen to show the individual protein units as space filling
models (looking like bunches of grapes) and the RNA in a ribbon structure.
That information would be lost in one of the surface views. My editor loves
this version, but I'm still looking for ways to make it better.

In the Mac version of POV ray, under Edit/Render settings there is a Quality
panel that has a slider that runs from low (1) to high (9). I read in the
manual that the Quality of the render canbe set as high as 11, but I
haven't figured out how to do it.

POV Ray is hard! I've been using Cinema 4D for a couple of years, but I have
to use a VRML export from Visualizer to get the files inot C4D, and it's not
a very good export. I've just started learning POV Ray. I have  LONG way to
goo.



"dlm" <me### [at] addressinvalid> wrote:
> Greg,
> Your RNA is a cartoon rendition, which looks right.
> Have you considered rendering your proteins as water accessible surfaces?
> This would remove unnecessary detail and sharpen the image.
> I like the way you've used color and isolated the structure on a white
> background.
>
> DLM
>
>
> "Greg Williams" <gre### [at] comcastnet> wrote in message
> news:web.461bc31fe5db6f7b92af9ae10@news.povray.org...
> > This structure of a ribosome is based on files from the Protein Data Bank.
> > The modeling was done in DS Visualizer and the rendering in POV Ray. I've
> > spent a number of hours optimizing the render, but I'm very new to POV
> > Ray,
> > and not very good at it. I'm out of ideas. I would like the whole thing to
> > be a little sharper, but don't know what to try next to accomplish that.
> > The render quality is set at the maximum value (9).
> >
> > Any comments will be appreciated.
> >
> >
> >
> >

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"Greg Williams" <gre### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
> In the Mac version of POV ray, under Edit/Render settings there is a Quality
> panel that has a slider that runs from low (1) to high (9). I read in the
> manual that the Quality of the render canbe set as high as 11, but I
> haven't figured out how to do it.

Quality settings 10 and 11 are currently reserved, and map back to level 9.
Don't worry about it.  :-)

> POV Ray is hard! I've been using Cinema 4D for a couple of years, but I have
> to use a VRML export from Visualizer to get the files inot C4D, and it's not
> a very good export. I've just started learning POV Ray. I have  LONG way to
> goo.

As a ray tracer, POV-Ray is fundamentally different from most graphics
software.  In addition, as you read in the manual, POV-Ray is created by
Unixheads who did not design it as a modeller.  Many POVers use a separate
modeller (such as Wings 3D) and then render with POV.

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"Greg Williams" <gre### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
> This structure of a ribosome is based on files from the Protein Data Bank.
> The modeling was done in DS Visualizer and the rendering in POV Ray. I've
> spent a number of hours optimizing the render, but I'm very new to POV Ray,
> and not very good at it. I'm out of ideas. I would like the whole thing to
> be a little sharper, but don't know what to try next to accomplish that.
> The render quality is set at the maximum value (9).
>
> Any comments will be appreciated.

It looks to me like your objects' textures have a (relatively) high ambient
value. This makes the image lower-key, and keeps your shadows from being
dark. You might get a 'sharper' look if you decreased the ambient value ---
I wouldn't drop it to 0 in this case, because it would make the lighting too
harsh, but cutting it down might give the image more 'snap'.

Also, did you cut your image out in a photo-editing software? The edges seem
a bit mushy. If you are currently cutting it out, you might consider
"background{rgb 1}" as a way to keep your edges as accurate as possible by
starting with a pure white background (no need to cut).

Still, I think it is really rather good looking as is. Very clean. Very
"oooooh!"

--
Sam Bleckley

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Ooh, I like it! :-)

William

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"Greg Williams" <gre### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
> ... I would like the whole thing to
> be a little sharper, but don't know what to try next to accomplish that.
> The render quality is set at the maximum value (9).

The render quality setting does not affect sharpness. It is intended to save
development time by disabling specific POV-Ray features, such as radiosity,
refraction, and shadows. Sharpness is controlled by antialias settings and
overall image resolution. Contrast and radiosity add to the illusion of
sharpness by enhancing the visibility of the objects.

Antialiasing is best with sampling method 2 (+AM2), which is *not* the
default. In scenes with simple, flat-colored objects such as yours, i find
the default antialias threshold to be inadequate, and lower it to 0.1
(+A0.1).

Contrast can be adjusted with the ambient light setting, which someone has
already addressed.  This can be done with global_settings or with #default;
i prefer #default for technical reasons.  However, the image appears (to me)
to use radiosity.  If that's the case, then the ambient should be set to
zero. Radiosity is essential for details in shadowed areas anyway, unless
you use special lighting tricks.  (See Tek's hdr post for an example.)
Ambient light enables you to see shadowed areas, but still leaves them
deadly flat, giving the whole image that cheesy "Hi, i'm computer
generated!" look.

And don't forget that JPEG compression quality can heavily compromise your
image quality.  Be sure to shut off color supersampling.

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