Bob Hughes wrote:

> Well guess you may as well forget about trying to randomize those books
> in the bookcases.

        Definitely.  They were made from a "drop-in"  inc file I got from a web
page.


> That chandelier is upside-down isn't it? Or at least looks it to me.

    Don't know.  I thought it was supposed to look that way.
Not sure.... looks terrible regardless.

> I like the desk texture.

    Yeah,  the wood on the desk I was happy with.  VERY happy with to be truthful.

> Not so sure what "realism" you were after,
> could it be needing fade_distance in lights and objects? Maybe area
> lights too.

        Well,  the "realism"  I was wanting....  something that did NOT appear to
be almost cartoonish.
I wanted PHOTO Realism.  I failed to achieve that.  I mean,  not to toot my own
horn.  The picture I
made aint too SHABBY if I say so myself.  But it wasn't what I wanted.  I have
seen traced images
that made me look twice cause I really wasn't sure it WASN'T a photo.  Know what I
mean?
THAT is what I find impressive.
There IS one area light to the scene.  And that is emminating from the desk lamp.
I initially tried using a SPOTLIGHT area light.  But it always ended up looking
wrong.
No explanation,  just WRONG.  I couldn't get the falloff right.  And I was trying
to achieve
a tight spotlight around the base of the lamp,  then beyond that in 360 degrees,
a slow falloff.
I ended up doing something (I thought)  ingenious.  I placed a point light inside
the lampshade.
Made the lampshade glass with almost complete transparency.  (almost)  Made the
glass a slight orange-ish
color,  and then made the light into an area light.  I ended up with almost
EXACTLY what I was after.
I tight spotlight coming through the base of the lampshade,  and the light that
actually went through the lampshade,  was smoothed by the glass,  and changed
color slightly.  The arealight smoothed out the transition as well.  PERFECT!




> Forget I said that... 55 hours to render eh? I don't see
> why, your pentium 166 (same ram amount I have too) should have been
> faster than that.

        There was several reasons for this.  One,  the bookcases alone were more
than 20,000 objects.  (each book was a separate object)  Then each book,  also had
it's own title using true type fonts.
Next,  like I said above,  I used an area light for the desk lamp.  There is a
normal point light at the ceiling,  then there is also a light outside the room as
well.  Radiosity settings were cranked up.  And I mean  CRANKED!
Also,  almost everything you see is an image map... and that didn't help at ALL!
The chandeleir is highly reflective.
I don't know... it's just SLOW!

>
> There appears to be one burnt out bulb in that chandelier. Could be a
> sign that somethings wrong in there.

        That wouldn't make a difference.... Due to the fact that I didn't want to
experience several birthdays waiting for the render,  there is just a single light
source near the chandeleir.  Rather than making each bulb it's OWN light source.



                                                        Thanks for the
comments.......

                                                                    Johnny

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