Happy Holidays!!

An image to cheer up (??) those holiday blues.

I had to figure out a way to 're-purpose' my Halloween '08 image--which I never
finished in time to post :-|   It needed something; a Christmas tree? Of
course!

Ken W.

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'greetings_2008.jpg' (208 KB)

Preview of image 'greetings_2008.jpg'

"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] earthlinknet> schreef in bericht 
news:web.49530ce1d997ffe178dcad930@news.povray.org...
> Happy Holidays!!
>
> An image to cheer up (??) those holiday blues.
>
> I had to figure out a way to 're-purpose' my Halloween '08 image--which I 
> never
> finished in time to post :-|   It needed something; a Christmas tree? Of
> course!
>
> Ken W.
>

Nice. Interesting place :-)

Happy holidays too!

Thomas

Post a reply to this message

"Thomas de Groot" <tDOTdegroot@interDOTnlANOTHERDOTnet> wrote:

> Nice. Interesting place :-)
>

Thanks.  I probably spent the most time with the torch flames, getting them to
look right--then rigging them for animation. (*Every* time I render this scene,
I change their look slightly; can't resist the temptation.) Oh, I just
discovered that this particular torch is directly underneath a wooden beam.
Hmm, whoever built this dungeon did a bad job. :-p  It hasn't burned down yet,
though.

Each flame has four randomly 'dancing' areas_lights to cast shadows; looks quite
natural during animation. The flame 'container' is an isosurface, the shape of
which also undulates during animation.

Something interesting: Despite this scene's complexity, it renders faster
(almost fifteen times faster!) with Bounding=off. Probably due to an
area_light/looks_like object/bounding problem (in v3.6.1c), which I posted
something about in advanced-users. But that may not be the entire reason for
the slow-down; don't know for sure. A useful discovery, in any case.

KW

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'chalice_n_flame.jpg' (177 KB)

Preview of image 'chalice_n_flame.jpg'

Okay, I'm really liking that flame.

I'm assuming emitting media? What sort of pattern?

-- 
William Tracy
afi### [at] gmailcom -- wtr### [at] calpolyedu

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right 
to say it.
     -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall, frequently mis-attributed to Voltaire

Post a reply to this message

William Tracy <wtr### [at] calpolyedu> wrote:
> Okay, I'm really liking that flame.
>
> I'm assuming emitting media? What sort of pattern?
>

My first try at animated flames! It's actually four different medias--two
emission and two absorption (which absorb only gray values, giving it a nice
opague density without altering the colors.) There are two 'different' flames
at work--the main one, plus a smaller stationary one at the base. Two things
give them 'life'--phase for the moving color_maps, and translate for the
turbulences.  (I discovered that phase doesn't affect turbulence; never knew
that before.) Basically, the repeated color_map moves upward, while turbulance
moves through it in a different direction. It looks OK as-is, but I continue to
experiment. The 'licking' of the flames is a hard nut to crack! I'm sure it can
all be improved.

Even though the color_maps are gradient y--which extend all the way 'across' the
isosurface and stop abruptly at the edges--the undulating, bumpy isosurface
shape and the flame turbulence make that less apparent. (It could probably
benefit from an additional all-encompassing faded-out pigment_map, using
a spherical pattern perhaps.)

Rather than describe the method in detail--difficult in any case!-- I'll just
post the code over in text.scene-files, including the isosurface container.
It's made for a 96-frame animation (at 24fps) with the clock going from 0 to 1.
Try commenting out sections to see what they do. (BTW, for my own torch flame, I
chopped off the lower/darker section of the isosurface.)

The code is actually somewhat forgiving, as far as exact 'movement' values are
concerned. Whatever looks visually appealing. If you're not using it in
animation, all of that code can be eliminated.

Ken W.

Post a reply to this message