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It's been a while ... I hope all is well with everyone.
I took a break from most of my computer/graphic work to 'work the farm', fish
and relax. Recently thought, I've have had the itch to get back into some POV
rendering. I just started animating my old 'Nest' scene, which has recently
become more of a 'test' scene for writing some visualizing tools.
I'm currently working on a few ideas to help speed my POV scene building and
have started a new web site to post and archive my current work and code. I'm
working in a 'project tree' directory structure that allows me to jump around to
various render-able asset libraries (materials, images, color_maps, objects,
etc.).
There are also a few utilities I've coded to help the process that I've also
posted.
new site: www.miller-raytracer.com
new email mil### [at] gmail com
I have an old site, that I don't update, that has some very early sketches and
POV stuff.
old site: www.miller-headspin.com
I'm hoping to be check in more often. God bless
Mike Miller
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"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> I'm currently working on a few ideas to help speed my POV scene building and
> have started a new web site to post and archive my current work and code. I'm
> working in a 'project tree' directory structure that allows me to jump around to
> various render-able asset libraries (materials, images, color_maps, objects,
> etc.).
> There are also a few utilities I've coded to help the process that I've also
> posted.
Hi Mike, and welcome back!
I like the new site, and the visuals are stunning as usual. :)
I'm sure that you have a vast amount of knowledge about what makes things "look
good" - from the fundamental geometric aspects of structure and "smoothness", to
scene composition, lighting, and of course textures, normals, and finishes.
It would be really nice, and educational, if you could just post things here and
there about what was going through your head at the outset, and the key things
that you ensured were present to get the desired effects in the render.
"I _could_ have done it this way, but that would take too long, so I ...."
"I wanted to make this look [wet][powdery][translucent][hard & shiny][soft &
leathery] ... and so a texture like that requires at the minimum ...."
"The tentacle needs to look smooth and flowing, without any kinks, so I used a
[type] spline ..."
"Since I'm doing this in POV-Ray, I needed to take the structure of the SDL and
parsing into account. [This] needed to be parameterized. [That] needed to
precede [xyz]. And [Sumthin' else] needed to be stored in a [data structure] to
really make it efficiently useable."
I think that new users would be fascinated and learn a lot, and even long-time
experienced users who don't have any graphic arts background would find such
explanations a goldmine of information and inspiration.
Just something to think about - it doesn't need to be formal. Every little
tidbit, trick, rule, strategy, and optimization really helps.
Thanks for all that you have done and continue to do!
I like the new website, and the images are fantastic as always.
I'm sure the animations are going to be mesmerizing (and creepy ;) ).
- BE
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"Bald Eagle" <cre### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> "Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>
> > I'm currently working on a few ideas to help speed my POV scene building and
> > have started a new web site to post and archive my current work and code. I'm
> > working in a 'project tree' directory structure that allows me to jump around to
> > various render-able asset libraries (materials, images, color_maps, objects,
> > etc.).
> > There are also a few utilities I've coded to help the process that I've also
> > posted.
>
> Hi Mike, and welcome back!
>
> I like the new site, and the visuals are stunning as usual. :)
>
> I'm sure that you have a vast amount of knowledge about what makes things "look
> good" - from the fundamental geometric aspects of structure and "smoothness", to
> scene composition, lighting, and of course textures, normals, and finishes.
>
> It would be really nice, and educational, if you could just post things here and
> there about what was going through your head at the outset, and the key things
> that you ensured were present to get the desired effects in the render.
>
> "I _could_ have done it this way, but that would take too long, so I ...."
> "I wanted to make this look [wet][powdery][translucent][hard & shiny][soft &
> leathery] ... and so a texture like that requires at the minimum ...."
> "The tentacle needs to look smooth and flowing, without any kinks, so I used a
> [type] spline ..."
> "Since I'm doing this in POV-Ray, I needed to take the structure of the SDL and
> parsing into account. [This] needed to be parameterized. [That] needed to
> precede [xyz]. And [Sumthin' else] needed to be stored in a [data structure] to
> really make it efficiently useable."
>
> I think that new users would be fascinated and learn a lot, and even long-time
> experienced users who don't have any graphic arts background would find such
> explanations a goldmine of information and inspiration.
>
> Just something to think about - it doesn't need to be formal. Every little
> tidbit, trick, rule, strategy, and optimization really helps.
>
> Thanks for all that you have done and continue to do!
> I like the new website, and the images are fantastic as always.
> I'm sure the animations are going to be mesmerizing (and creepy ;) ).
>
> - BE
Thanks BE.
I'll be happy to post my 'thought process' as I work though some new renderings.
I finally put 'pencils down' on my 'Nest project'. I have sketches of this from
30 years ago. haha. I'm rendering a 2000 frame drift animation through the
scene...which is taking some time @8 min per fame.
I've just started a new POV scene based on an old 'world' I designed in
Unity and exported for final renderings in Lumion 9. A software I own but is
'almost' impossible to export data out of. The renderings and animations focused
on an old flywheel driven 'pump-house' buried in ruin and over-grown vegetation.
I'll post some sketches of my idea along with some preliminary rendering I did
years ago. My goal on this will be to rebuild the Lumion scene in POV
without using smooth triangles - I miss CSG modeling and like a good challenge.
I do have my original CAD drawings that I'll use as underlays for building the
architectural structures.
BE, did you mean post stuff in this .general thread, or somewhere else?
Thanks!
miller
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"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> BE, did you mean post stuff in this .general thread, or somewhere else?
You could do it here, where I think having your skill, creativity, experience,
and expertise archived would be a fantastic resource for people who really want
to learn how to achieve more professional looking results in their renders.
Or you could maintain a sort of blog on your site.
Or cross-post everything so that it's in both places. Because - digital things
disappear sometimes.
- BE
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"Bald Eagle" <cre### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> "Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>
> > BE, did you mean post stuff in this .general thread, or somewhere else?
>
> You could do it here, where I think having your skill, creativity, experience,
> and expertise archived would be a fantastic resource for people who really want
> to learn how to achieve more professional looking results in their renders.
>
> Or you could maintain a sort of blog on your site.
>
> Or cross-post everything so that it's in both places. Because - digital things
> disappear sometimes.
>
> - BE
Thanks BE.
I'll set up a page on my website for this current project 'pump house' and post
here with any news or updates. I found my original concept sketches and the
Collada/Lumion files. I'll take some screen grabs of this model and post along
with my sketches and images I gathered for reference & inspiration. I always
pull images and sketch* what I can before I get too far into modeling. I built
the first model in Revit and exported it to Unity and Lumion for animations and
visuals.
* I usually have a 'final' image or 2 in mind that I'll rough out in pencil, but
my drawing skills are diminishing with age - so more like doodles. :) Now that I
have a few CPU's that can render frames at a decent rate, I'm also thinking
about camera path animations and how to break a scene down into manageable
parts.
Mike
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hi,
"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> It's been a while ... I hope all is well with everyone.
>
> I took a break from most of my computer/graphic work to 'work the farm', fish
> and relax. Recently thought, I've have had the itch to get back into some POV
> rendering. I just started animating my old 'Nest' scene, which has recently
> become more of a 'test' scene for writing some visualizing tools.
>
> I'm currently working on a few ideas to help speed my POV scene building and
> have started a new web site to post and archive my current work and code. I'm
> working in a 'project tree' directory structure that allows me to jump around to
> various render-able asset libraries (materials, images, color_maps, objects,
> etc.).
> There are also a few utilities I've coded to help the process that I've also
> posted.
>
> new site: www.miller-raytracer.com
nice site, although my "old eyes" struggled with the contrast, in places.
thanks.
regards, jr.
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"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Thanks BE.
Thank _you_, Mike.
It's been great see all of the sketches, development, WIPs, and renders.
> I'll set up a page on my website for this current project 'pump house' and post
> here with any news or updates. I found my original concept sketches and the
> Collada/Lumion files. I'll take some screen grabs of this model and post along
> with my sketches and images I gathered for reference & inspiration. I always
> pull images and sketch* what I can before I get too far into modeling. I built
> the first model in Revit and exported it to Unity and Lumion for animations and
> visuals.
Yes. I think that "storyboarding" or flowcharting how you go from initial idea
to final render would do much to dispel the "magic" of how such final renders
come into being.
You don't just open up a text editor and start typing out SDL.
(Well, _I_ do a lot of times . . .)
Showing all of the sketches and modelers and conversion utilities, and 3rd party
software that gets used in preparation for a final POV-Ray render, and then
maybe even post-render processing would be a master class in what you do so
well.
> .... I'm also thinking
> about camera path animations and how to break a scene down into manageable
> parts.
Yeah - that's always another layer of challenges which have their own solutions.
- BE
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"Bald Eagle" <cre### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> "Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>
> > Thanks BE.
> Thank _you_, Mike.
> It's been great see all of the sketches, development, WIPs, and renders.
>
> > I'll set up a page on my website for this current project 'pump house' and post
> > here with any news or updates. I found my original concept sketches and the
> > Collada/Lumion files. I'll take some screen grabs of this model and post along
> > with my sketches and images I gathered for reference & inspiration. I always
> > pull images and sketch* what I can before I get too far into modeling. I built
> > the first model in Revit and exported it to Unity and Lumion for animations and
> > visuals.
>
> Yes. I think that "storyboarding" or flowcharting how you go from initial idea
> to final render would do much to dispel the "magic" of how such final renders
> come into being.
>
> You don't just open up a text editor and start typing out SDL.
> (Well, _I_ do a lot of times . . .)
> Showing all of the sketches and modelers and conversion utilities, and 3rd party
> software that gets used in preparation for a final POV-Ray render, and then
> maybe even post-render processing would be a master class in what you do so
> well.
>
> > .... I'm also thinking
> > about camera path animations and how to break a scene down into manageable
> > parts.
>
> Yeah - that's always another layer of challenges which have their own solutions.
>
> - BE
Thanks, BE
I just posted some concept sketches for this POV piece along with images of my
past models to my web. I'll do have a 'plan of attack' to make this happen in
POV and will put a bullet-list together.
miller
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"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> "Bald Eagle" <cre### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> > "Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks BE.
> > Thank _you_, Mike.
> > It's been great see all of the sketches, development, WIPs, and renders.
> >
> > > I'll set up a page on my website for this current project 'pump house' and post
> > > here with any news or updates. I found my original concept sketches and the
> > > Collada/Lumion files. I'll take some screen grabs of this model and post along
> > > with my sketches and images I gathered for reference & inspiration. I always
> > > pull images and sketch* what I can before I get too far into modeling. I built
> > > the first model in Revit and exported it to Unity and Lumion for animations and
> > > visuals.
> >
> > Yes. I think that "storyboarding" or flowcharting how you go from initial idea
> > to final render would do much to dispel the "magic" of how such final renders
> > come into being.
> >
> > You don't just open up a text editor and start typing out SDL.
> > (Well, _I_ do a lot of times . . .)
> > Showing all of the sketches and modelers and conversion utilities, and 3rd party
> > software that gets used in preparation for a final POV-Ray render, and then
> > maybe even post-render processing would be a master class in what you do so
> > well.
> >
> > > .... I'm also thinking
> > > about camera path animations and how to break a scene down into manageable
> > > parts.
> >
> > Yeah - that's always another layer of challenges which have their own solutions.
> >
> > - BE
>
> Thanks, BE
> I just posted some concept sketches for this POV piece along with images of my
> past models to my web. I'll do have a 'plan of attack' to make this happen in
> POV and will put a bullet-list together.
> miller
I've added some progress images to my Pump House page and a bullet list of
processes. I was able to get a temp license for Revit and extracted the CAD and
3D models I wanted before starting the POV model. I'll start on the main
flywheel and mounts first and post progress as I go.
miller
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On 26/07/2026 18:57, Mike Miller wrote:
>
> I've added some progress images to my Pump House page and a bullet list of
> processes. I was able to get a temp license for Revit and extracted the CAD and
> 3D models I wanted before starting the POV model. I'll start on the main
> flywheel and mounts first and post progress as I go.
> miller
Hi, Mike!
Glad to see (read) you here again after a long break. Your new site
looks neat and elegant. Pump House is also exiting (I like industrial
environment), especially rendered with Lumion which make it even more
impressive.
Looking forward for POV version - good luck with this work !
--
YB
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