Op 8-2-2023 om 12:55 schreef Bald Eagle:
> Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> 
> I am really thinking about a "Robert McGregor" kind of
>> explanation. I am sure it can indeed be of benefit to others, if not for
>> remembering myself on how to do certain things! I often have to reinvent
>> my own wheels... ;-/
> 
> Yeah, well, there have been a couple of times when I looked online for some
> POV-Ray code, found a pretty nice piece of code that seemed to be tailor-made
> for exactly what I wanted it for, and then when I dug further to see who the
> author was, in case they had written any more such code ....
> ....
> 
> it was my own code, which I had written for exactly what I wanted to use it for
> - again.  I'm not entirely sure how to describe how I feel when that happens.
> :|
> 

Yes, I fully understand!

>> Otherwise, I do much if not most by intuition and trial-and-error.
> 
> Well, this is exactly what some people need to hear in those exact words.
> Otherwise they may speculate that you have a magic wand or crystal ball, or
> secret knowledge handed down to you from the Dev Team or your colleagues at that
> Ivy League computer science department PhD meeting....
aahh... you found me out... ;-)

> Some people really do need to know that we just try new and different things
> until we find out what works, and we reject "error terror" and come up with
> reasons (that sound good at the time) to explore and try out new ideas.
> This is a skill that has somehow gotten - lost.
> 
Indeed. It may be that the art of (digital) doodling is getting lost (I 
guess the increasing use of social media for instance) as it is one of 
those fundamental activities which stimulate imagination and/or 
inspiration. Too many apps or software just take just that out of your 
hands. Disneyfying as it were.

> But also, there are surely many 3rd-party tools and resources that you use in
> the creation of your "scene assets".  Why you picked them, what they're good
> for, what they don't really do well, how you might combine 2 or 3 tools to make
> a single object {}, ....  Especially things like plants, which someone making
> their first landscape scene would likely be most puzzled and daunted by.
> Past scenes that inspired you, or that you recall some method that someone used
> for a function, a texture, an effect...
> Macros, include files, - all of that is likely a lot of unconscious stuff that
> you draw upon to make landscape after landscape, each with very different themes
> and styles.
> 
Absolutely true.

>> Especially the second half of the scene building process when the
>> essential elements are in place one way or another, are time-consuming.
>> It is this fine-tuning which consumes most of the time nowadays (in the
>> past I felt a kind of "urgency" which drove me on towards the end; not
>> always with best results I am afraid).
> 
> I hear that.  I have to accept that sometimes I just have to work within the
> available timetable, and get a scene file / render "published", else it will
> just be another unknown POV-Ray file in a directory on a HDD somewhere, rather
> than an accessible record/reminder to serve as a future starting point for
> myself or someone else.
> 
> I know other people who won't release anything until it's "perfect", and indeed,
> many of us here have worked on several projects either individually, or in
> collaboration on a greater whole - that have taken several months, or more.
> 
> Still again, there are other projects that people have taken up and put down -
> only getting posted after a great many years.   Or 7 or 8 revisions get posted,
> with each demonstrating some improvement in knowledge, inspiration, learning,
> skill, access to tools, or new POV-Ray features.
> 
I think I have also followed those different paths. It depends on the 
project; on the personal feeling about the (lack of) progress made; on 
the hesitations about the choices made...

> It's certainly about the techniques and methods, but it's also a story.
> I, for one, am glad you're planning on telling it.  :)
> 
Yes, and thank you for your thoughts here which are stimulating and 
guiding me in the right direction. Just have to write it up, huh? We 
shall see; the start is the hardest part is my experience.

> 
> "TdG: Architect of Landscapes and a Vast POV-Ray Archive, the Epic Saga"
> 
LOL! I thought about "The Landscape Factory". The /Archive/.... that is 
another thorn in my heel which I need to tackle too.


-- 
Thomas

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