Once in a while I work on an older scene. This time it was Aftermath 
from 2010.

http://www.tc-rtc.co.uk/imagenewdisplay/stills/index291.html

I wanted to make changes to the time machine and took the opportunity to 
make some changes to the scene too, updating to the latest version of 
POV-Ray at the same time.

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> Once in a while I work on an older scene. This time it was Aftermath
> from 2010.
>
> http://www.tc-rtc.co.uk/imagenewdisplay/stills/index291.html
>
> I wanted to make changes to the time machine and took the opportunity to
> make some changes to the scene too, updating to the latest version of
> POV-Ray at the same time.
>
> Thomas

Your new image is a real improvement to the first. But there are still some
things I don't comprehend. I think you have not used focal blur here since the
foreground seems to be not blurred within the whole image, but the sky has an
overall blurred look. That departs the picture in a way. I think the clouds -
even after a deep impact of a meteroid - should look more like clouds - may be
darker. Hope, I will not see this in RL.

Tina Chep seems to have not expected this scene wearing sun glasses and a belly
top;-)

Best regards,
Michael

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> Once in a while I work on an older scene. This time it was Aftermath
> from 2010.
>
> http://www.tc-rtc.co.uk/imagenewdisplay/stills/index291.html
>
> I wanted to make changes to the time machine and took the opportunity to
> make some changes to the scene too, updating to the latest version of
> POV-Ray at the same time.

Well that's looking fantastic, Thomas! The ferns made it through the event,
partly due to the cloud cover I presume? (Around here ferns don't grow under an
open sky like that.)

This reminds me of a science fiction story I read in which people hid themselves
in reflective bubbles that were impervious to the ravages of time. In a
preserved state, they would remain locked away until a predetermined period of
time elapsed, at which point they would come out. If all went well, the
conditions they awoke to would be conducive to human proliferation, but of
course, since it was an /interesting/ story, all did not go well ;) (I feel like
I've mentioned that before....)

Your image needs something... The radiosity looks good. Ah, you need a touch of
focal blur to bring the time machine into focus and to blur the foreground &
background, but only a touch. (Focal blur will also help tie in the clouds, thus
unifying the composition.) Noise. Variation in fern sizing. A noise texture on
the ground that includes the color of the grass shoots.

My recommendations for good/cheap quality settings:

radiosity: count 1 to 16; error_bound 0.1 to 0.25; normal on
focal blur: 10 to 20 blur_samples
area_lights (if any): 2 to 3 samples
media: samples 1; intervals 1; jitter 0.1 to 0.33

That is all.

Wait... is that a raptor in the distance?

Sam

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On 19-8-2013 20:55, MichaelJF wrote:
> Your new image is a real improvement to the first. But there are still some
> things I don't comprehend. I think you have not used focal blur here since the
> foreground seems to be not blurred within the whole image, but the sky has an
> overall blurred look. That departs the picture in a way. I think the clouds -
> even after a deep impact of a meteroid - should look more like clouds - may be
> darker. Hope, I will not see this in RL.

I agree with you. The sky is a hdri map obtained first in a scene by 
Mick Hazelgrove. Somehow, the map results in a blurred sky. THis is 
something I need to look into; such maps may not be the best choices for 
these kind of scenes. Using Mick's original sky code would be better of 
course but would also tremendously increase render times. I have to 
consider, or maybe if somebody has a smart suggestion? ;-)

There are a number of natural catastrophic events which may happen and 
wipe out humanity. Fortunately they are very rare but statistically they 
can happen in a not so foreseeable future :-)

>
> Tina Chep seems to have not expected this scene wearing sun glasses and a belly
> top;-)

Time travel is a hot business :-)

Thomas

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On 19-8-2013 21:50, Samuel Benge wrote:
> Well that's looking fantastic, Thomas! The ferns made it through the event,
> partly due to the cloud cover I presume? (Around here ferns don't grow under an
> open sky like that.)

I do not remember exactly why the fern bloom happened. I need to look up 
the publication concerned. It was recorded in the fossil record however. 
It may have to do with the lack of competitive plants in the first years 
after the event and possibly indeed a much more cloudy atmosphere for a 
long stretch of time.

>
> This reminds me of a science fiction story I read in which people hid themselves
> in reflective bubbles that were impervious to the ravages of time. In a
> preserved state, they would remain locked away until a predetermined period of
> time elapsed, at which point they would come out. If all went well, the
> conditions they awoke to would be conducive to human proliferation, but of
> course, since it was an /interesting/ story, all did not go well ;) (I feel like
> I've mentioned that before....)

Those are interesting premisses for a nice story. Reminds me of an idea 
I had some time back: suppose we were able to bring dinosaurs forward to 
our time, and suppose they were able to survive in our environment. What 
would happen to the ecological balance? And as a corollary, if - as we 
undoubtedly would do - bring back dinosaurs in such numbers that the 
original Cretaceous ecosystem would collapse, we would be responsible 
for the demise of the dinosaurs at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary ;-)

>
> Your image needs something... The radiosity looks good. Ah, you need a touch of
> focal blur to bring the time machine into focus and to blur the foreground &
> background, but only a touch. (Focal blur will also help tie in the clouds, thus
> unifying the composition.) Noise. Variation in fern sizing. A noise texture on
> the ground that includes the color of the grass shoots.

Yes indeed. All that is needed.

>
> My recommendations for good/cheap quality settings:
>
> radiosity: count 1 to 16; error_bound 0.1 to 0.25; normal on
> focal blur: 10 to 20 blur_samples
> area_lights (if any): 2 to 3 samples
> media: samples 1; intervals 1; jitter 0.1 to 0.33

Going to play with that.

>
> That is all.
>
> Wait... is that a raptor in the distance?

Dilophosaurus. Anachronistic, I know. I explained in the original text 
that my personal view is that all dinosaurs did not die instantaneously 
at the impact. Especially at the antipodes and remote corners of the 
Earth, I guess that some survived for some time. However, the ecological 
collapse was such that those (few?) survivors died out pretty soon 
after, within a couple of months to a couple of years to decades. Not 
enough to be visible in the geological record.

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> Dilophosaurus. Anachronistic, I know. I explained in the original text
> that my personal view is that all dinosaurs did not die instantaneously
> at the impact.

Not as anachronistic as a _V. komodoensis_ in the Permian. ;-)  But
Dilophosaurus (assuming there were any as late as the Cretaceous) would probably
not have dined on ferns.  I suppose a few could have subsisted on rotting
carcasses.

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On 20-8-2013 18:02, Cousin Ricky wrote:
> Not as anachronistic as a _V. komodoensis_ in the Permian. ;-)  But
> Dilophosaurus (assuming there were any as late as the Cretaceous) would probably
> not have dined on ferns.  I suppose a few could have subsisted on rotting
> carcasses.

LOL. The poor chap has already picked clean all the carcasses... ;-)

Thomas

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This is a much more dramatic version of the scene.

I corrected some illumination errors, added Mick's media clouds instead 
of an image map, re-modelled the skeletons.

The highlights on the grass are not due to any specular, phong or 
reflections. I used Rune Johansen's grasstex macro there and I guess it 
is the pseudo grass which is shown in backlight.

Thomas

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On 22/08/2013 1:23 PM, Thomas de Groot wrote:
> This is a much more dramatic version of the scene.

Yes, I like this a lot better.
Can you add some lightning bolts?

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> This is a much more dramatic version of the scene.
>
> I corrected some illumination errors, added Mick's media clouds instead
> of an image map, re-modelled the skeletons.
>
> The highlights on the grass are not due to any specular, phong or
> reflections. I used Rune Johansen's grasstex macro there and I guess it
> is the pseudo grass which is shown in backlight.
>
> Thomas

More dramatic, but I like it better. There is a bit too much white in the sky
IMO. I suggest to make it even more dramatic adding one of your poles to the
right of the time machine and striking it with a lighting bolt. That should
illuminate Tina better as a side effect. In fact I recogniced the raptor first.

And for the grass issue I have only the idea to use Gill's grass instead of
Rune's trick in the foreground (up to the stem laying across). In the background
Rune's grass can still survive IMO. That will slow down the rendering a bit, but
with your machine it should not prolong it for days. Hm, depends on the
radiosity settings, focal blur and others issues. Than it can prolong it for
days...

Best regards,
Michael

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