Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> I made this simple tutorial. Perhaps it may be useful to someone:
>
> http://warp.povusers.org/povtips/
>
> --
>                                                           - Warp

I wish you had written this when I started Poving. I picked up a few
pointers as it is. (Well 4 actually :-)

Stephen

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nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Truly excellent, warp!  I love the simplistic approach, the iterative build
> process and the very high quality result.  The planks look really
> wonderful, specially using nothing more than normals!

  Thanks.

  I think people too often dismiss normal perturbation tricks because they
can't get them look good, and the reason is that they don't know how to
use slope maps.

  I have actually written a small slope map tutorial which will probably
be included in the pov3.7 documentation. Look forward to it.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
>   I have actually written a small slope map tutorial which will probably
> be included in the pov3.7 documentation. Look forward to it.

This is excellent news!  slope_maps are tricky to get right indeed!

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Hi Warp,

very nice and understandable.

I like the idea of the backlight. And making it
green makes it look as if there is a window where
you would see the woods and so green light
causes the radiosity like effect in a much simpler
way.


As these are 4 independant enhancements, addi-
tional to the path of applying all 4 enhancements
one after another, I'd like to see any of the 16
result images one would get, when applying an
combination  of those 4 tips.

That would be cool to determine which effects
one wants for an own scene.

At least you could show the same path of enhance-
ments with the simple shiny monocolored floor, as
you say it's a matter of taste what to use here.

I have some additional: If objects look far to streched
or skewed you might be too close with the (pinhole)
camera. Choosing a more realisitic camera model or
just putting the camera farer and shortening the left and
right vectors can also make the image look more
realistic.

Changing the position or angles of objects slightly
might  also lead to a better scenery. When rendering a
series of  pictures (eg by using the clock), you might
find the ideal angle for a certain highlight, reflection,
refraction or even photon mapping.

It's good to do this with a simpler setup, perhaps just
after having applied the finish to the objects, as this of
course takes it's time. Don't take too little steps,
start with a rough change of angles, then take the
best result and modify it's angles in smaller steps.
That helps finding the right angle without too much
renderings.

Bye, Olaf.

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> schreef in bericht 
news:457548a9@news.povray.org...
>
>  I think people too often dismiss normal perturbation tricks because they
> can't get them look good, and the reason is that they don't know how to
> use slope maps.
>
>  I have actually written a small slope map tutorial which will probably
> be included in the pov3.7 documentation. Look forward to it.
>

Excellent tutorial, Warp.
With every scene, one should ask oneself the question: "Have I followed 
Warp's 4 tips?", and if no, "Why?"  :-)
Slope_map is indeed tricky. Looking forward to that one!!

Thomas

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:457548a9@news.povray.org...
> nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> > Truly excellent, warp!  I love the simplistic approach, the iterative
build
> > process and the very high quality result.  The planks look really
> > wonderful, specially using nothing more than normals!
>
>   Thanks.
>
>   I think people too often dismiss normal perturbation tricks because they
> can't get them look good, and the reason is that they don't know how to
> use slope maps.
>
>   I have actually written a small slope map tutorial which will probably
> be included in the pov3.7 documentation. Look forward to it.
>
> -- 
>                                                           - Warp

I have to say I have never tried slope maps. I look forward to your
tutorial, and might just try some things out before then.

nice 4 tips page too.

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Hi Warp!

>   I made this simple tutorial. 

Excellent! I had such a thing in mind for a long time, but you've beaten
me to it -- and to be honest, you've done a better job than I could've
ever done :)


Regards,
Florian

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message 
news:45752fd1@news.povray.org...
>  I made this simple tutorial. Perhaps it may be useful to someone:


I have to add my voice here, too, Warp.  Nicely done.  Simple techniques 
that don't get used often enough.

- How

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I will add my praise to all of the others.  Very well written, simple tricks
for enhancing the image (great job on the wooden floor texture, BTW).  The
sort of thing that I would have written, had I written it :)

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Dan Farmer <dmf### [at] msncom> wrote:
> I will add my praise to all of the others.  Very well written, simple tricks
> for enhancing the image

  Thanks. Getting praise from a celebrity is very flattering.

> (great job on the wooden floor texture, BTW)

  That type of wood texture is actually one of my best developed "tricks"
with POV-Ray's procedural textures I have developed over the years. The
idea is quite simple, yet effective:

- Create a wood-patterned pigment with at least 2 colors (as seen in the
  image, 2 colors is actually often enough, even though using a more
  elaborated color map can increase the visual quality of the texture).
- Apply some turbulence to it.
- Scale it unevenly so that it's very stretched on one direction.

  All the above are actually not my ideas. They have been blatantly copied
from the wood textures included with POV-Ray itself. However, the following
is more original (I'm probably not the *first* person to invent it, but it's
something I didn't see anywhere but developed myself):

- Crate a wood-patterned normal and smooth it out with a slope map.
- Apply the same turbulence and transformations as the pigment so that the
  normal matches perfectly the pigment.
- If you want to create wooden planks, average the above normal definition
  with a gradient-patterned normal which uses a proper slope map.

  Add a nice finish, and that's it: A stunning wooden texture. Simple but
effective.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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