Uhhh .. Ohh ...
This would be wonderful ....

--
background{rgb 1}camera{location<1,5,-2>look_at 0}#macro m(a,b,i)#local
d=(b-a)/
8;#local
e=vcross(d,y);#if(i)m(a-e,a+e+2*d,i-1)m(a+e,a+2*d-e,i-1)m(a+3*d-e,a+e+3
*d,i-1)m(a+3*d-e,a+5*d-e,i-1)m(a+6*d-e,a+e+6*d,i-1)m(a+8*d-e,a+e+8*d,i-1)#el
se
cylinder{a,b,vlength(d)/3 pigment{rgb 0}}#end#end m(-4*x,2*x,4) // Jan
Walzer

Post a reply to this message

Dan Johnson wrote:

> I'm scared there are crazy people who don't cut cans of red paint open with
> axes to find out what is inside.

Damn straight.

--
David Fontaine  <dav### [at] faricynet>  ICQ 55354965
My raytracing gallery:  http://davidf.faricy.net/

Post a reply to this message

Dan Johnson wrote:
> If only I had a digital camera I could send a picture of what an old
> marble looks like.  Oh wait I lost all my marbles.

Everyone at work is pretty much convinced I have (lost my marbles).

I have set several work colleges on a mission to creep into their kids
bedroom tonight and steal me some used marbles.

I didn't exlpain why I wanted them; that would spoil the fun.

Cheers.
--
Duncan Gray
(warning: may contain traces of nut)

Post a reply to this message

Francois Labreque wrote:
> > What on earth possesed you to break open a can and find out ?
>                                                      ^^^^^^^^
> This-----------------------------------------------------'

Fair comment, I cant argue with that.
I do the same with electrical appliances:

a) If it works, I'll open up the case to find out how.
b) if it doesn't work, I'll open it up to find out why.

By strange co-incidence, my finding are nearly always the same:

a) Dont know - lots of chips and stuff.
b) Because I didn't put it back together again properly after operation a)

Cheers.
--
Duncan Gray
(warning: may contain traces of nut)

Post a reply to this message

Dan Johnson wrote:
> I'm scared there are crazy people who don't cut cans of red paint open
with
> axes to find out what is inside.

At what point in this thread did the paint become RED, and when did the AXE
come into it ?

Now Dan, I'd like you to sit back and make yourself comfortable, relax and
try to think only nice, pleasant thoughts. Tell me:

Have you stopped chopping people up and putting them in the freezer ?
(YES/NO)

Wishing you a speedy recovery  ;-)
--
Duncan Gray
(warning: may contain traces of nut)

Post a reply to this message

Nekar Xenos:
> I.m starting to feel a bit guilty giving advice left and right, knowing
> how I have trouble myself, just getting the atmosphere right or the
> transparency.

I can't play a musical instrument, but I wont let that stop me from saying
'I like the melody in that song'. I value and appreciate your suggestions as
I do everyone else's - even the axe wielding ones  (Dan)  ;-)

And I am inclined to agree with you, the innner reflections should be more
bubble like rather than covering the entire swirly bit. But I confess, at
the moment I cannot think of how to go about doing this. I'll think on it
and see what I can come up with.

Thanks once again for your thoughts.
--
Duncan Gray
(warning: may contain traces of nut)

Post a reply to this message

"Duncan Gray" <dun### [at] eclipsecouk> wrote in message
news:3a91a041$1@news.povray.org...
>
> Any idea how they make them ? Glass marbles that is, not ceramic.

http://www.marblemuseum.org/articles/ribboncore.html  about marble making

and

http://www.marblealan.com/reprohand/  which tells of the Atlanta Porcelain
marbles.  Apparently they aren't genuine "marbles".  :-(  Disappointing but
I hardly paid anything for them.  Another place tells of many other such
fakes in the marble collecting realm.  I should have known  :-)  Well, these
I have just might be some kind of old porcelain anyway, painted over, from
some mill I read at one place.  They have cracks and look old.  Seems an
elaborate way to get 50 cents a piece.  Guess I should have checked up on it
at the time but it was soon after the Olympics that I bought these at a
antiques store.

Bob H.

Post a reply to this message

Thanks Bob - thats great - just what I've been looking for.

Now why didn't altavista tell me about that.

Cheers
--
Duncan Gray
(warning: may contain traces of nut)

Post a reply to this message

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions.

I'm fairly happy now with the surface or the marble (the chipped normal),
and though the swirly bits are still not quite right, they are much closer,
and I think I now have an algorythm will work, it's just a matter of tuning
the parameters a bit more. The colour of the marble has also been changed
slightly to give a greenish hue (thanks to those who suggested this, it does
I think improve the look)

Problem now is with the shadows which are being cast by the marble, looking
at the shadow of the broken marble nearest the camera - the JPEG-type effect
around the dark shadow I am happy with - this is caused by the area light,
and can be lessened up by increasing the number of elements in the area
light source (currently 5x5) and by adding the jitter keyword.

The bit which is concerning me is within the shadow of the semi-transparent
part of the marble, the colours are not blending well - it gives me the
impression of an image which has either been heavily compressed when
converting into JPG or an image which has been enlarged and smoothed,
neither of which are the case.

the light source is as follows:

light_source

  lamp1_pos
  color 1

  area_light <3,0,0>,<0,0,3>,5,5
    adaptive 1

  spotlight
    radius 3
    falloff 6
    point_at lamp1_tgt
}

Can anyone help me out with this little problem ? Am I doing something wrong
with this light source - I'm not sure if you are meant to combine area_light
and spot_light in a single light source, but I couldn't find anything to say
I cannot.

The tiles have a normal on them, though it is fairly subtle. they are
slightly reflective also, might these factors be contributing to the effect
?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
--
Duncan Gray
(warning: may contain traces of nut)

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'marbles.jpg' (68 KB)

Preview of image 'marbles.jpg'

It looks pretty good. I'm not sure how marbles would fracture but i'm not gonna
get up roght now and go find out... the texturing is good and I see you fixed
the spirals :)

--
David Fontaine  <dav### [at] faricynet>  ICQ 55354965
My raytracing gallery:  http://davidf.faricy.net/

Post a reply to this message