Orchid XP v2 wrote:
> As suggested by a few, I have added a second blue lightsource. Nothing 
> else has changed - so far. As you can see, it does look quite a bit 
> better. (Unfortunately, it's still unspeakably suckful... but never mind.)
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
What I feel now is that the candle is much too powerful for the effect I 
guess you want to achieve...
If you want to restrict the light from the flame to the center of the 
scene, you could use light fading. Maybe with more red for the light on 
the flame as well, so as to gain contrast between your ice and the fire.

Keep working on that one, I think it has a great potential...

-- 
Vincent

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news:43f3a427@news.povray.org...
> As suggested by a few, I have added a second blue lightsource. Nothing
> else has changed - so far. As you can see, it does look quite a bit
> better. (Unfortunately, it's still unspeakably suckful... but never mind.)
>

It's an improvement!
You could give the candle a patterned texture with a spherical pattern
centered on the flame with ambient to fake  subsurface scattering

texture
      {
         spherical
         texture_map
         {
            [0.0     pigment  { you_pigment    }
               finish{ ambient 0 }
            ]
            [1.0      pigment  { you_pigment    }
               finish{ambient 1  }
            ]
         }

      }

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Orchid XP v2 wrote:
> As suggested by a few, I have added a second blue lightsource. Nothing 
> else has changed - so far. As you can see, it does look quite a bit 
> better. (Unfortunately, it's still unspeakably suckful... but never mind.)
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

Somehow I like it.
It looks like something is dissolving or growing
right under the "candle". If the transition from
"ground" to "snow" would be more smooth it
would make an interesting surreal image. Though
I'm not sure whether I can see fire an ice.
On the other hand fire dissolves/melts ice so
one could argue.

Sebastian

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Orchid XP v2 wrote:

> Having just said that... I did turn off area lights, and the daft "snow" 
> texture on the candle. Just to speed up the render.

I was going to say - 'nice lump of poo' ;-)

But the snow texture will most likely make it look better :-)

Tom

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"Orchid XP v2" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:43f3a427@news.povray.org...
> As suggested by a few, I have added a second blue lightsource. Nothing
> else has changed - so far. As you can see, it does look quite a bit
> better. (Unfortunately, it's still unspeakably suckful... but never mind.)
>

Is the background the wood texture? If so, scale it down a lot (0.05 or so)
Or just say it's a marble texture which is what it currently looks like.

A proper flame and a proper snow texture (slightly transparent?) and this
should look very nice.

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Tone down the brighness of the candle and drop the fade_distance down so
that the blue light shows. Also consider changing the ground texture from
stone to snow. The candle can then look like it's growing out of the
snow-covered ground.

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Orc,
The extra light helps hugely!

The candle will look more like a candle if you remove your placeholder "lamp
post" and put in a flame together with a melted down pool of wax. This will
also allow you to move the light source lower to light up the candle from
inside some more.

Wicks are white - until they have been charred in the flame zone.

DLM


"Orchid XP v2" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:43f3a427@news.povray.org...
> As suggested by a few, I have added a second blue lightsource. Nothing
> else has changed - so far. As you can see, it does look quite a bit
> better. (Unfortunately, it's still unspeakably suckful... but never mind.)
>

Post a reply to this message

> Orc,
> The extra light helps hugely!

It does, doesn't it? :-)

> The candle will look more like a candle if you remove your placeholder "lamp
> post" and put in a flame together with a melted down pool of wax. This will
> also allow you to move the light source lower to light up the candle from
> inside some more.

Melted wax would be good... but rather difficult. (It took me ages to 
get a cylinder with a "rounded" top. Not sure how to put a dent in it 
that I can fill with wax. I suppose I could jsut CGS *cut* a hollow out, 
but it wouldn't look very realistic...)

> Wicks are white - until they have been charred in the flame zone.

Thankyou for pointing that out... you're right of course.

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> It's an improvement!

Well that's *something*...

> You could give the candle a patterned texture with a spherical pattern
> centered on the flame with ambient to fake  subsurface scattering

What an interesting idea...

Of course, *real* wax is partially transparent. Especially so close to a 
powerful light source. Hmm...

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> Is the background the wood texture?

You *know* your texturing is great when people can't even figure out 
what it is... :-S

> If so, scale it down a lot (0.05 or so)
> Or just say it's a marble texture which is what it currently looks like.

Well, gotta do *something* to it anyway...

I did add a scaled normal map to try to give the impression of a grain, 
but it doesn't really work very well.

> A proper flame and a proper snow texture (slightly transparent?) and this
> should look very nice.

I'm currently trying out the snow textures you gave me. They seem to 
work much better than what I had. (Would be nice if I could figure out 
how to add "sparkle" to it, but other than that...)

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