In article <3dbbc275@news.povray.org>,
 "Andrew Coppin" <orp### [at] btinternetcom> wrote:

> Has anyone ever seen that funky transparent plastic that turns rainbow
> colours when you try to bend it?
> 
>   1) does anyone know how this stuff works?
>   2) can it be simulated with POV-Ray?

I don't know what you are talking about. Does it look like it gets many 
tiny cracks in it? Or does it just get an iridescent oil-film look?

One possibility is microscopic cracks that form a diffraction grating, 
like a CD. You might be able to simulate it with a normal of some kind 
and dispersion.
Another possibility is a more complex effect having to do with 
polarization...put cellophane or some other plastic between two 
polarizing filters for an example. I've seen this effect on things like 
CD jewel cases as well. You might want to look at the "irid" iridescence 
feature, it is a fast way to simulate the "oil film" or "mother of 
pearl" look.

-- 
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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