"robinmckenzie" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> I'm trying to recreate this awesome scene:
>
> http://darkaan.deviantart.com/art/Light-Balls-v-2-1680x1050-67946500
>
> Any ideas on how to reproduce the blurred light relections / (phongs?) without
> taking years to render would be appreciated.

As already said, it's radiosity.  In the case of this scene, radiosity is not
really the main CPU cruncher -- it calculates just fine and in a few minutes,
even in a modest machine as mine.  It's the reflections and focal blur that
really bring it to a crawl.  I wonder which software did the guy use and how
much time it took to render at that size with that quality... it's certainly
raytraced spheres...

Very nice scene.  It inspired me to try to reproduce it, though not quite there
yet -- I should probably better adjust the aperture and blur_samples as well as
trying perhaps some fresnel reflection and a better sphere distribution scheme.
If anyone is feeling courageous to try to match the scene, here's a start,
though I suggest you turn FOCAL_BLUR off first -- took 13 minutes a subpar
640x480 rendering on a P4 2.66:

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5341/blackspheresel2.png


code:


#local GI = on;
#local FOCAL_BLUR = on;
#local REFLECTIONS = on;

union {
plane { y, -1 pigment { rgb <.8,.8,1>/3 } finish { diffuse .56 ambient 0 } }

#local sph =
sphere { 0 1
 texture {
  pigment { rgb <.8,.8,1> }
  finish { diffuse 0 ambient 3 }
 } texture {
  pigment { marble rotate z*90
   color_map { [0 rgb z/2][.7 rgb z/2][.75 rgbt 1][1 rgbt 1]} }
  finish { diffuse .6 ambient 0
   #if (REFLECTIONS) reflection .9 metallic .2 #end
  }
 }
}

//object { sph }
#local much = 17;
#local i = much; #while (i>-much)
object { sph rotate <30*i*i,40*i> translate 3*x*i+15*z*cos(30+i*30) }
#declare i = i-1; #end

 rotate -y*65
 rotate -x*3.5
 //translate z*12-x*2
 translate z*28-x*0
}

#if (!GI)
light_source { -z*5 1 }
#end

global_settings {
 #if (GI)
 radiosity {
  brightness 2
  count 180
  gray_threshold .5
  error_bound .28
  pretrace_end .006
 }
 #end
}

camera { angle 30
#if (FOCAL_BLUR)
 focal_point z*8.5-y*1+x aperture .06 blur_samples 50*5 confidence .98
#end
}

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