In article <MPG.18583ccc7da89136989683@news.povray.org>,
 Graphic Designer <doc### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

> How would I give the ornament stronger highlights? It's been a while 
> since I've worked with Pov, and I don't remember all the Finish 
> settings.

Hmm, you already have specular at a reasonable value, try toning down 
metallic. IIRC, metallic takes a float parameter, try 0.5. These bulbs 
are usually glass with a metallic inner layer, some of the highlight 
comes from the glass. As someone else mentioned, variable reflection 
might improve it as well, but you'll need 3.5.

Also, drop ambient to 0 and put a dim light source at the camera 
position. It will illuminate anything directly visible from the camera, 
but will still have shading for surfaces at a steep angle to the camera, 
avoiding the "flat lighting" of ambient. The easiest way is to use:

default {finish {ambient 0}}

at the beginning of the scene and take out the ambient from the 
textures. Then you can still use a high ambient for glowing objects.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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Would you mind sharing how you made the wax part of the candle?  I'm mainly
interested in textures and interior.  How did you get a translucent candle?

JMFILLER

"Lutz-Peter Hooge" <lpv### [at] gmxde> wrote in message
news:3dee7567$1@news.povray.org...
> Graphic Designer <doc### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
>
> > I'd designing a Christmas e-card for a client, and I'm trying to get a
> > realistic looking ornament. You can take a look at my current render at:
> > http://www.docbrown.net/ornament2.jpg
>
> It needs an environment and better lighting.
>
> A scene I made last christmas:
> http://www.hoogi.de/lutz-peter/render/xmas2k1.html
>
> Lutz-Peter

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"Graphic Designer" <doc### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message
news:MPG.18583c8b84e558b989682@news.povray.org...
> >
>
> Yeah, I'm still using 3.1, mainly because I'm not going to have time to
> figure out the new features of 3.5 (I need to have this finished by Dec
> 10th).
>
> I'll try adding a background, and maybe something behind the camera to
> reflect (I'll take a digital photo of my living room, and use that).
> Thanks for the suggestions.
>

If you used 3.5, you could use a background that didn't show using no_image, but
it would still show up in reflections. This would give the ornament something to
reflect without cluttering the scene (iirc this feature is also in megapov).

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jfmiller <jfm### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:

> Would you mind sharing how you made the wax part of the candle?  I'm mainly
> interested in textures and interior.  How did you get a translucent candle?

It is partially transparent and filled with scattering media.
the relevant code is below, but it is still from MegaPOV, so the media 
might behave differently in Pov 3.5.

merge{
 cylinder{0,y*.2,.02}
 torus{.018,.002 scale <1,2,1> translate y*.2}
 double_illuminate
 pigment{color rgb 1 filter .5}
 finish{brilliance 1.5 specular .4 diffuse .6}
 normal{bozo 1 scale <.2,1,.2> scale .1}
 interior{      
  ior 1.4
  media{      
   method 1                                     
   scattering{1, color rgb 50 extinction .5}
  }
 }
}

Lutz-Peter

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In article <3def3e04@news.povray.org>, tom### [at] tomandlucouk says...
> "Graphic Designer" <doc### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message
> news:MPG.18583c8b84e558b989682@news.povray.org...
> > >
> >
> > Yeah, I'm still using 3.1, mainly because I'm not going to have time to
> > figure out the new features of 3.5 (I need to have this finished by Dec
> > 10th).
> >
> > I'll try adding a background, and maybe something behind the camera to
> > reflect (I'll take a digital photo of my living room, and use that).
> > Thanks for the suggestions.
> >
> 
> If you used 3.5, you could use a background that didn't show using no_image, but
> it would still show up in reflections. This would give the ornament something to
> reflect without cluttering the scene (iirc this feature is also in megapov).
> 

Unfortunately, I dont have time to learn the changes in 3.5, so I'm 
sticking with 3.1 for now. I've only got a few days left on this 
project, and then I can install 3.5.

The latest image is here: http://www.docbrown.net/ornament3.jpg

-Ed 

-- 
****************************
Edward Wedig
Graphic Designer - Web Designer - Gamemaster - Nice Guy
www.edtheartist.com and www.docbrown.net
****************************

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The latest image is here:
http://www.docbrown.net/ornament3.jpg

Any other suggestions?

-Ed

-- 
****************************
Edward Wedig
Graphic Designer - Web Designer - Gamemaster - Nice Guy
www.edtheartist.com and www.docbrown.net
****************************

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"Graphic Designer" <doc### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message
news:MPG.185a92e6b1bcf2b0989684@news.povray.org...
>
> Unfortunately, I dont have time to learn the changes in 3.5, so I'm
> sticking with 3.1 for now. I've only got a few days left on this
> project, and then I can install 3.5.
>
> The latest image is here: http://www.docbrown.net/ornament3.jpg

That looks decent. You also have a 'reflection_exponent' available in 3.1
which can cause more contrast between light and dark reflections if less
than 1.0; usually only good for things which are unlike perfect mirrors.
Although ornament balls like this are close to being mirror-like.

If anything, I think you ought to try a less dense pine needle twig. It
looks like a wire brush to me, I should have mentioned that before. And it
is black as seen here. So thicker individual needles but fewer of them, and
greener, might be a good idea. And then there really needs to be a tree in
that reflection. And lights and other decorations...  ;-)  Much more than
you wanted to be doing, I suppose.

Oh, and one last thing. The perspective camera is causing the ball to be
very out-of-round. It can help a lot to move the camera back and set 'angle'
to about 30 or 40 to prevent that from happening.

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