Hello,

If I had to pick a favorite super-villain, it would have to be Darth Vader. Why,
you might ask? Sure, he can wield a light saber with /some/ finesse, but not a
double-sided one. He can move objects with his mind, but he hasn't ever shocked
anyone with pure static electricity (not that I remember, anyway). Let's face
it: he's mediocre when it comes to The Force. Granted, he's more adept than any
of /us/, but he's not the *best*. So, why?

You see, Darth Vader, while all ominous and deep into the dark side, had
eventually come around. It's a shame he had caused so much trouble while alive,
but he moved over to the Light Side before it was too late. You might call this
a small concession, a last minute act of contrition, but he had discovered a way
to exist outside of death, and had indeed lived on even to encourage new Jedis!

I don't like villains (not even the super kind), but Darth changed for the
better; he showed everyone that whenever you can still breathe (if only barely),
you can change!

The sooner the better!

~~~~~~~

The Lego mesh comes from Reuben Pearse (thanks!). The scene was rendered with
focal blur and a micronormal for all surfaces (to soften the reflections). It
was given post-processing glare, chromatic aberration and noise, all in-POV.

Happy Raytracing!

~Sam

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>Samuel Benge  on date 13/04/2011 05:18 wrote:
> Hello,
>
> If I had to pick a favorite super-villain, it would have to be Darth Vader. Why,
> you might ask? Sure, he can wield a light saber with /some/ finesse, but not a
> double-sided one. He can move objects with his mind, but he hasn't ever shocked
> anyone with pure static electricity (not that I remember, anyway). Let's face
> it: he's mediocre when it comes to The Force. Granted, he's more adept than any
> of /us/, but he's not the *best*. So, why?
>
> You see, Darth Vader, while all ominous and deep into the dark side, had
> eventually come around. It's a shame he had caused so much trouble while alive,
> but he moved over to the Light Side before it was too late. You might call this
> a small concession, a last minute act of contrition, but he had discovered a way
> to exist outside of death, and had indeed lived on even to encourage new Jedis!
>
> I don't like villains (not even the super kind), but Darth changed for the
> better; he showed everyone that whenever you can still breathe (if only barely),
> you can change!
>
> The sooner the better!
>
> ~~~~~~~
>
> The Lego mesh comes from Reuben Pearse (thanks!). The scene was rendered with
> focal blur and a micronormal for all surfaces (to soften the reflections). It
> was given post-processing glare, chromatic aberration and noise, all in-POV.
>
> Happy Raytracing!
>
> ~Sam
I second your preference to Darth Vader, surely his childhood was not 
easy (nor his whole life) but at end was able to redeem himself!

Regarding the image:

Ooh.
It's too late to project it in the /Matinee/?

;-)
Paolo

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awe

Samuel Benge escreveu:
> I don't like villains

not even the Brain?  you know, Pinky's partner? :)

> (not even the super kind), but Darth changed for the
> better; he showed everyone that whenever you can still breathe (if only barely),
> you can change!

redemption.  Yes, a powerful theme.

> The Lego mesh comes from Reuben Pearse (thanks!). The scene was rendered with
> focal blur and a micronormal for all surfaces (to soften the reflections). It
> was given post-processing glare, chromatic aberration and noise, all in-POV.

the chromatic aberration causes that extra photo realism.

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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On 4/13/2011 2:15 AM, Paolo Gibellini wrote:
> I second your preference to Darth Vader, surely his childhood was not
> easy (nor his whole life) but at end was able to redeem himself!
>
> Regarding the image:
>
> Ooh.
> It's too late to project it in the /Matinee/?

Probably :)

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On 4/13/2011 12:53 PM, nemesis wrote:
> awe
>
> Samuel Benge escreveu:
>> I don't like villains
>
> not even the Brain? you know, Pinky's partner? :)

OK, I admit The Brain was pretty cool. All of his plans failed 
miserably, and one has to wonder if he actually wanted to take over the 
world at all :)

>> (not even the super kind), but Darth changed for the
>> better; he showed everyone that whenever you can still breathe (if
>> only barely),
>> you can change!
>
> redemption. Yes, a powerful theme.

Yeah, but my delivery was pretty generic :/ I should probably just stick 
to posting images without the weak discourse...

>> The Lego mesh comes from Reuben Pearse (thanks!). The scene was
>> rendered with
>> focal blur and a micronormal for all surfaces (to soften the
>> reflections). It
>> was given post-processing glare, chromatic aberration and noise, all
>> in-POV.
>
> the chromatic aberration causes that extra photo realism.

It helps...

I had originally wanted to use radiosity for the light saber, but there 
were too many artifacts. Instead I used an area_illuminating area_light 
positioned along the saber, though POV's AIALs don't work properly with 
light fading.

Sam

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On 13/04/2011 04:18, Samuel Benge wrote:
> Hello,
>
> If I had to pick a favorite super-villain, it would have to be Darth Vader. Why,
> you might ask? Sure, he can wield a light saber with /some/ finesse, but not a
> double-sided one. He can move objects with his mind, but he hasn't ever shocked
> anyone with pure static electricity (not that I remember, anyway). Let's face
> it: he's mediocre when it comes to The Force. Granted, he's more adept than any
> of /us/, but he's not the *best*. So, why?
>
> You see, Darth Vader, while all ominous and deep into the dark side, had
> eventually come around. It's a shame he had caused so much trouble while alive,
> but he moved over to the Light Side before it was too late. You might call this
> a small concession, a last minute act of contrition, but he had discovered a way
> to exist outside of death, and had indeed lived on even to encourage new Jedis!
>
> I don't like villains (not even the super kind), but Darth changed for the
> better; he showed everyone that whenever you can still breathe (if only barely),
> you can change!
>
> The sooner the better!
>
> ~~~~~~~
>
> The Lego mesh comes from Reuben Pearse (thanks!). The scene was rendered with
> focal blur and a micronormal for all surfaces (to soften the reflections). It
> was given post-processing glare, chromatic aberration and noise, all in-POV.
>
> Happy Raytracing!
>
> ~Sam

Great render! I was hoping someone was going to create a cool picture 
based on this model.

I think I need to learn about the micronormal technique and apply it to 
my Stormtrooper render.

I've now uploaded the POV-Ray source code for my Stormtrooper 
mini-figure (NOTE: this is in POV-Ray 3.7 RC3) - see the following link:
http://www.pearse.co.uk/lego/models/stormtrooper

Bye for now

Reuben
reu### [at] pearsecouk

=====================================
Download 3D Lego models and other resources from:
http://www.pearse.co.uk/lego
=====================================

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On 04/13/2011 12:18 AM, Samuel Benge wrote:
> The Lego mesh comes from Reuben Pearse (thanks!). The scene was rendered with
> focal blur and a micronormal for all surfaces (to soften the reflections). It
> was given post-processing glare, chromatic aberration and noise, all in-POV.

OK ... dumb question but I'm gonna ask it anyways ... micro-normals 
means micro in strength not scale correct? LOL ... with the kind of day 
I've been having I wouldn't be surprised if somehow I got it backwards 
... :-P

Darth is probably my favorite super-villain as well. I mean who else 
gets his own universally recognizable theme song ... I'd be willing to 
bet you may have even hummed it to yourself while working on the scene ;-)

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On 4/14/2011 12:08 AM, Reuben Pearse wrote:
>
> Great render! I was hoping someone was going to create a cool picture
> based on this model.

Thanks!

> I think I need to learn about the micronormal technique and apply it to
> my Stormtrooper render.

It's just a very small bumps normal:

  normal{
   bumps .03
   scale .001
  }

It only works well with focal blur.

All of the other material settings were changed too because I was going 
to try glossy reflections with the averaged texture map technique... but 
it was rendering too slowly so I ended up using a micronormal instead... 
I didn't want to change the materials back, so everything got to have 
this finish:

  finish{
   reflection{0.01, 1 falloff 2}
   brilliance 2
   phong 1
  }

> I've now uploaded the POV-Ray source code for my Stormtrooper
> mini-figure (NOTE: this is in POV-Ray 3.7 RC3) - see the following link:
> http://www.pearse.co.uk/lego/models/stormtrooper
>
> Bye for now
>
> Reuben

Cool. I'd like to get some of the other Lego libraries up-and-running 
with POV. LGEO is a bit dodgy, and I haven't yet made a serious attempt 
at using one of the Lego CAD programs.

~Sam

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On 4/14/2011 9:52 AM, Jim Holsenback wrote:
> On 04/13/2011 12:18 AM, Samuel Benge wrote:
>> The Lego mesh comes from Reuben Pearse (thanks!). The scene was
>> rendered with
>> focal blur and a micronormal for all surfaces (to soften the
>> reflections). It
>> was given post-processing glare, chromatic aberration and noise, all
>> in-POV.
>
> OK ... dumb question but I'm gonna ask it anyways ... micro-normals
> means micro in strength not scale correct? LOL ... with the kind of day
> I've been having I wouldn't be surprised if somehow I got it backwards
> ... :-P

It's a very small bumps normal with a slight bump_size:

  normal{
   bumps .03
   scale .001
  }

> Darth is probably my favorite super-villain as well. I mean who else
> gets his own universally recognizable theme song ... I'd be willing to
> bet you may have even hummed it to yourself while working on the scene ;-)

You're not far off... The song that was actually playing in my head was 
the Dark Mountain Forest theme song from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to 
the Past: 
http://66.90.118.45/soundtracks/legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past-original-soundtrack/ikkqzfoqud/13.-dark-mountain-forest.mp3

I think it was heavily influenced by Darth Vader's Imperial March...

~Sam

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He looks pissed!

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