Hi,

For those that are interested I have attached the final version of my Rock The
Boat image.

Although I worked on damage macros for several days over a period of weeks, I
did not use them in the end. After I gave the rock rounded edges as the first
step before applying localized damage, I decided the image is actually fine
without the damage. Given that the stickmen are abstract and that overall the
modeling is fairly basic, I think the added realism associated with the damage
to the rock structure would look out of place.

There are two more parts of the scene where I spent far more effort than one
would guess by just looking at the image. There are a couple of hunderd lines
(mostly functions) used to generate the wake waves. The challenge there was
that the wake had to be assymetrical in order to look okay, given the different
location of the ship's center at the front and at the rear. Despite its
assymetry, the wake waves should of course still match up behind the ship.
Well, they do, however, this is not visible due to the foam trail that I added
later, and also because for aesthetic reasons, the amplitude of the waves die
out quickly away from the main wake shape. Ah well....

The second modelling effort that's not really visible is the texture of the
rock. It meets up at the center of the boat, adding weight to the suggestion
that there's a corner there. It is a bit of a hidden gem in the scene, which I
don't regret spending time on it. But then again, I also enjoyed the other
modelling excercises, even though they were mostly in vain if you only judge
by the final image.

Anyway, I doubt that I'm the only one who spent a lot of time on a particular
aspect of a scene, only to find out that in the end it barely improves the end
result... But that's all part of the fun, right? :-)

Thanks again to Chris Barlett for making the rope macro available. Without it,
the rope definitely would not have looked as good. Other than that, I have
modelled everything pretty much from scratch for this scene.

Cheers,
Erwin

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Attachments:
Download 'rocktheboat.jpg' (198 KB)

Preview of image 'rocktheboat.jpg'

> Hi,
> 
> For those that are interested I have attached the final version of my Rock The
> Boat image.
> 
> Although I worked on damage macros for several days over a period of weeks, I
> did not use them in the end. After I gave the rock rounded edges as the first
> step before applying localized damage, I decided the image is actually fine
> without the damage. Given that the stickmen are abstract and that overall the
> modeling is fairly basic, I think the added realism associated with the damage
> to the rock structure would look out of place.
> 
> There are two more parts of the scene where I spent far more effort than one
> would guess by just looking at the image. There are a couple of hunderd lines
> (mostly functions) used to generate the wake waves. The challenge there was
> that the wake had to be assymetrical in order to look okay, given the different
> location of the ship's center at the front and at the rear. Despite its
> assymetry, the wake waves should of course still match up behind the ship.
> Well, they do, however, this is not visible due to the foam trail that I added
> later, and also because for aesthetic reasons, the amplitude of the waves die
> out quickly away from the main wake shape. Ah well....
> 
> The second modelling effort that's not really visible is the texture of the
> rock. It meets up at the center of the boat, adding weight to the suggestion
> that there's a corner there. It is a bit of a hidden gem in the scene, which I
> don't regret spending time on it. But then again, I also enjoyed the other
> modelling excercises, even though they were mostly in vain if you only judge
> by the final image.
> 
> Anyway, I doubt that I'm the only one who spent a lot of time on a particular
> aspect of a scene, only to find out that in the end it barely improves the end
> result... But that's all part of the fun, right? :-)
> 
> Thanks again to Chris Barlett for making the rope macro available. Without it,
> the rope definitely would not have looked as good. Other than that, I have
> modelled everything pretty much from scratch for this scene.
> 
> Cheers,
> Erwin
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
Good and very interesting :)
It's those small details that you've worked so hard on that make it so 
good. Things like the continuous textures across parts are not obvious, 
but adds a LOT.


Alain

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Very cool illusion :)


-- 
Dan
GoofyGraffix.com

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I love this image, which is very well composed and fools completely the 
eyes. Very well done indeed.

I am working on some wake problems, through a different approach with image 
maps which is not very convincing presently, So, I am particularly 
interested in your functions. Any chance you make them public? I would much 
appreciate this!

Thomas

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"Thomas de Groot" <tDOTdegroot@interDOTnlANOTHERDOTnet> wrote:
> I love this image, which is very well composed and fools completely the
> eyes. Very well done indeed.

Thanks, that's nice to hear :-).

> I am working on some wake problems, through a different approach with image
> maps which is not very convincing presently, So, I am particularly
> interested in your functions. Any chance you make them public? I would much
> appreciate this!

I just posted the wake-wave making code to p.b.s-f. It can generate the image
maps attached to this message, which are used respectively as image_map in a
height_field and as pattern for a texture_map. In red the ship is shown, which
illustrates why the wake needs to be assymetrical. And if you look closely, you
can see that the waves nicely meet up in the middle :-).

Cheers,
Erwin

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Attachments:
Download 'wakeimagemaps.png' (73 KB)

Preview of image 'wakeimagemaps.png'

I like this image too. It's got a very 'clean' look to it that usually detracts
from an image, but somehow works really well here. It all looks very solid and
real. I especially like the wake - very effective with a simple mirrored
surface.

"Eriban" <pov### [at] spamgourmetcom> wrote:
> Although I worked on damage macros for several days over a period of weeks, I
> did not use them in the end.

Not to worry, good practice!

> Anyway, I doubt that I'm the only one who spent a lot of time on a particular
> aspect of a scene, only to find out that in the end it barely improves the end
> result... But that's all part of the fun, right? :-)

Absolutely. :-)

Bill

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"Eriban" <pov### [at] spamgourmetcom> schreef in bericht 
news:web.4a5a147acf72cd1781475b100@news.povray.org...
>
> I just posted the wake-wave making code to p.b.s-f. It can generate the 
> image
> maps attached to this message, which are used respectively as image_map in 
> a
> height_field and as pattern for a texture_map. In red the ship is shown, 
> which
> illustrates why the wake needs to be assymetrical. And if you look 
> closely, you
> can see that the waves nicely meet up in the middle :-).
>
Excellent! Thank you very much indeed. I am going to study your code 
seriously. It seems to exactly cover my needs. I shall report back in due 
time.

Thomas

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"Bill Pragnell" <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> I like this image too. It's got a very 'clean' look to it that usually detracts
> from an image, but somehow works really well here. It all looks very solid and
> real. I especially like the wake - very effective with a simple mirrored
> surface.

Thanks. That mirrors my thoughts pretty closely. I also thought the clean look
worked surprisingly well, which is why I refrained from using my damage macros
in the end. Also I ended up keeping the wake fairly subtle. It doesn't really
show off the modelling effort that went into it, but I think it improved the
final picture, which is what counts in the end.

Cheers,
Erwin

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"Thomas de Groot" <tDOTdegroot@interDOTnlANOTHERDOTnet> wrote:
> >
> > I just posted the wake-wave making code to p.b.s-f.
>
> Excellent! Thank you very much indeed. I am going to study your code
> seriously. It seems to exactly cover my needs. I shall report back in due
> time.

I hope it is all sufficiently self-explanatory. One thing to keep in mind is
that although I looked at several images of wakes, read written material about
it and closely watched ducks swim before creating this code, in the end the
formulas are not based on real-world physics. They're just functions that can
produce something that is visually close to actual wake waves. Functions that
can be tweaked to produce an assymetrical wake as well. If you dive into the
code, you'll probably see that the waves are constructed in a bottom-up
fashion, which hopefully helps you to understand what is happening.

Cheers,
Erwin

Post a reply to this message

"Eriban" <pov### [at] spamgourmetcom> schreef in bericht 
news:web.4a5b76fdcf72cd1781475b100@news.povray.org...
> I hope it is all sufficiently self-explanatory. One thing to keep in mind 
> is
> that although I looked at several images of wakes, read written material 
> about
> it and closely watched ducks swim before creating this code, in the end 
> the
> formulas are not based on real-world physics. They're just functions that 
> can
> produce something that is visually close to actual wake waves. Functions 
> that
> can be tweaked to produce an assymetrical wake as well. If you dive into 
> the
> code, you'll probably see that the waves are constructed in a bottom-up
> fashion, which hopefully helps you to understand what is happening.
>
Ok. Thanks for your additional explanations. I don't need exact replication, 
make-believe is enough and I think that your code is doing that very well.

Swimming ducks indeed. I have been watching them too in that context :-)

Thomas

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