"Tek" <tek### [at] evilsuperbraincom> wrote in message 
news:4abbbcc7@news.povray.org...
>I have been using this snow leopard wallpaper image 
>http://uneasysilence.com/media/2009/07/Rocks.jpg on my desktop at work (on 
>a vista machine) for a few days, and it struck me that something about the 
>image makes it look really 3D, as if it's really some pebbles sat just 
>behind the glass of my monitor.
>
> Anyway I wanted to devise a way of getting this effect in povray, so I did 
> the obvious things: objects arranged close to the plane of the image, lots 
> of focal blur, soft radiosity-lighting. But then I came up with an unusual 
> idea:
>
> I've illuminated the scene using a rectangle placed at the "position" of 
> the screen. i.e. I've placed the camera where my eyes are in my usual 
> seating position, and created a glowing (invisible) rectangle exactly 
> covering the area where my monitor would be, with the objects just behind 
> that. This glowing rectangle is meant to simulate lighting coming in from 
> the office, as if the monitor is a window into another world. I could 
> perhaps get a better effect with a gradient or even an HDR photo of myself 
> from the monitor's point of view! But the simple light box has achieved a 
> nice result.
>
> So basically, aside from the blur, this image is what you'd see if these 
> objects existed just behind the glass of your monitor, and were 
> illuminated by light coming through your screen! The blur helps the 
> illusion of depth, possibly just because it's a good depth cue, or maybe 
> it's harder for your stereoscopic vision to judge the depth of a blurry 
> shape, or something... not sure.
>
> Anyway, I like the result and it seems to make quite nice wallpaper 
> (though TBH I still prefer the pebbles photo).
>
> The image took almost exactly 24 hours to render, thanks to the rather 
> high quality radiosity & blur!
>
> -- 
> Tek
> http://evilsuperbrain.com
>
I'm having a real hard time getting a light box to work correctly, I dont 
suppose you mind sharing that bit of code?

Cheers Dre

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