I've been monitoring the POV-Ray newsgroups for nearly a decade, and I've seen a
number of prolific users come and go.  I'm curious what software POV-Ray users
tend to migrate toward after they 'move on'.  Do most convert to high-end
render packages (I think H.E. Day did this), or is there another open-source
package that eventually steals away the POV community?

I wonder if such users 'outgrow' POV-Ray as an artistic tool, or whether they're
mostly casualties of 'lack of time' syndrome (as I perpetually seem to be).

(Not that I'm advocating such an evolution.  I've heard you can catch the H1N1
flu if you don't use POV-Ray regularly...)

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"How Camp" <hac### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht 
news:web.49f9937ffb2e5f1ac59235590@news.povray.org...
> I've been monitoring the POV-Ray newsgroups for nearly a decade, and I've 
> seen a
> number of prolific users come and go.  I'm curious what software POV-Ray 
> users
> tend to migrate toward after they 'move on'.  Do most convert to high-end
> render packages (I think H.E. Day did this), or is there another 
> open-source
> package that eventually steals away the POV community?
>
> I wonder if such users 'outgrow' POV-Ray as an artistic tool, or whether 
> they're
> mostly casualties of 'lack of time' syndrome (as I perpetually seem to 
> be).
>
> (Not that I'm advocating such an evolution.  I've heard you can catch the 
> H1N1
> flu if you don't use POV-Ray regularly...)
>
>

My impression is that both cases happen. A top artist like Gilles Tran for 
instance, nowadays creates much of his work in Cinema 4D. However, when 
somebody is coming back after months or even years of absence, RL has always 
been the true culprit.

Thomas

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"How Camp" <hac### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> I've been monitoring the POV-Ray newsgroups for nearly a decade, and I've seen a
> number of prolific users come and go.  I'm curious what software POV-Ray users
> tend to migrate toward after they 'move on'.  Do most convert to high-end
> render packages (I think H.E. Day did this), or is there another open-source
> package that eventually steals away the POV community?
>
> I wonder if such users 'outgrow' POV-Ray as an artistic tool, or whether they're
> mostly casualties of 'lack of time' syndrome (as I perpetually seem to be).
>
> (Not that I'm advocating such an evolution.  I've heard you can catch the H1N1
> flu if you don't use POV-Ray regularly...)


I've been using POV and involved here since around 1994 when I first discovered
it.  I'm fairly 'loyal' to POV: I like the flexibility, understand it's
modelling concept and like the programming aspect.  I haven't tried other
big-name renderers as I wouldn't find the same satisfaction in pushing a few
buttons to automatically create something.  I like to work at the base concepts
in POV and only really cheat when I need to.  A lot of the work I end up doing
in POV involves specifically using it's SDL programming capabilities which is
not as easily done in other systems.  I do occassionally use 3rd party
modellers to create meshes (mainly it's been TopMod abtract stuff, or using
aldready built mesh models for the purposes of lighting and texturing tests and
renders).

All that said, in the past year or so, I've only been lurking here and using POV
sporadically as a result of RL.  Two young kids and work tend to occupy a lot of
my time...

-tgq

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"How Camp" <hac### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> I'm curious what software POV-Ray users
> tend to migrate toward after they 'move on'.

For me, it's Corel Dream--> povray ---> blender --> povray

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"gregjohn" <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> For me, it's Corel Dream--> povray ---> blender --> povray

I'm curious what caused you to shift away from POV and then back. Just
broadening your rendering tool library?

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How Camp wrote:
| I've been monitoring the POV-Ray newsgroups for nearly a decade,
and I've seen a
| number of prolific users come and go.  I'm curious what software
POV-Ray users
| tend to migrate toward after they 'move on'.  Do most convert to
high-end
| render packages (I think H.E. Day did this), or is there another
open-source
| package that eventually steals away the POV community?
|
| I wonder if such users 'outgrow' POV-Ray as an artistic tool, or
whether they're
| mostly casualties of 'lack of time' syndrome (as I perpetually
seem to be).
|
| (Not that I'm advocating such an evolution.  I've heard you can
catch the H1N1
| flu if you don't use POV-Ray regularly...)
|
	Mostly, for me it's lack of time + a migration to Blender (I had
the intention of doing character animation for which Pov is woefully
unsuited, but Real Life (tm) intruded so much I haven't done much
with Blender either).

		Jerome
- --
mailto:jeb### [at] freefr
http://jeberger.free.fr
Jabber: jeb### [at] jabberfr
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=+lwe
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"How Camp" <hac### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> I've been monitoring the POV-Ray newsgroups for nearly a decade, and I've seen a
> number of prolific users come and go.  I'm curious what software POV-Ray users
> tend to migrate toward after they 'move on'.  Do most convert to high-end
> render packages (I think H.E. Day did this), or is there another open-source
> package that eventually steals away the POV community?
>
> I wonder if such users 'outgrow' POV-Ray as an artistic tool, or whether they're
> mostly casualties of 'lack of time' syndrome (as I perpetually seem to be).
>
> (Not that I'm advocating such an evolution.  I've heard you can catch the H1N1
> flu if you don't use POV-Ray regularly...)

I'm not a "stolen child", but like to throw in my 2 cents as well, about why
(and how) I *am* using POV-Ray:

- It's free. No commercial tool can give me that :)

- Due to its textual interface, it doesn't distract me with stuff I haven't yet
toyed around with (nor with yet another 3D interface behaving in a proprietary
manner); so I can just perfectly leave such stuff aside until the time comes
for me to try and use it. Makes for a very adaptive learning curve.

- It's powerful. I cannot think of much you cannot do with it *already* (even
though some things may take time).

- It's portable. I can run quick test renders on my Windows machine, and have my
Linux QuadCore crunch away on the final renders.

- I'm typically using POV-Ray (A) as a render engine, (B) as a tool to assemble
a scene from pre-modelled objects and to fine-tune textures, and (C) as a tool
for auto-generating some geometry based on other objects (like the mattress in
the shot I postend recently). I rarely do straightforward CSG modelling; most
non-trivial objects in my scenes are modelled in Wings3D (very intuitive tool,
with a very good "beginner's mode", again making for a good learning curve!),
or 3rd party work typically modified using Wings3D or Poser.

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How Camp wrote:
> I've been monitoring the POV-Ray newsgroups for nearly a decade, and I've seen a
> number of prolific users come and go.  I'm curious what software POV-Ray users
> tend to migrate toward after they 'move on'.  Do most convert to high-end
> render packages (I think H.E. Day did this), or is there another open-source
> package that eventually steals away the POV community?
> 
> I wonder if such users 'outgrow' POV-Ray as an artistic tool, or whether they're
> mostly casualties of 'lack of time' syndrome (as I perpetually seem to be).
> 
> (Not that I'm advocating such an evolution.  I've heard you can catch the H1N1
> flu if you don't use POV-Ray regularly...)
> 
> 

I think we can do little more than speculate on this.  Gilles Tran was, 
at the time, fairly open and specific about why he moved to another 
software.  He is a particularily 'pure' example in that his interests 
and goals as an avowed amateur artist remained fairly consistent, but he 
needed to explore a new approach. To the best of my recollection, he 
said, in effect, that the POV 'process' that he, as much as anyone, had 
embraced, had become as much a hindrance as a 'calling.' And that 
certain limitations were standing in his way.  He is an exploring kind 
of guy.  For other stars I suspect the picture had less purely to do 
with software and would have been complicated at least as much by rl 
considerations.

Myself, I still embrace Gilles' amateur-artist ideology.  When I first 
started working with POV I was excited and inspired by the POV creative 
process and the sense of exploration and discovery toward achieving 
professional results in free space.  I doubted I could ever catch the 
superstars, but I thought I might close the gap.  It is still thrilling 
to me to see POV attract some astonishing new talents, and to see the 
spirit of exploration in free space continue.  But the gap has widened. 
  The 'friction point' for innovation seems well out of my reach at this 
point. I undersand little of the innovations that excite the top talents 
now. But I still plod along. I still think it is a meaningful endeavor.

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Jim Charter <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote:
> Myself, I still embrace Gilles' amateur-artist ideology.  When I first
> started working with POV I was excited and inspired by the POV creative
> process and the sense of exploration and discovery toward achieving
> professional results in free space.  I doubted I could ever catch the
> superstars, but I thought I might close the gap.  It is still thrilling
> to me to see POV attract some astonishing new talents, and to see the
> spirit of exploration in free space continue.  But the gap has widened.
>   The 'friction point' for innovation seems well out of my reach at this
> point. I undersand little of the innovations that excite the top talents
> now. But I still plod along. I still think it is a meaningful endeavor.

Thanks for this, and all the other interesting replies.  I think I tend to fall
into the same boat as Jim -- I find POV incredibly attractive from an
idealistic perspective.  It offers a raw potential that's open and accessible
to everyone.

But I sense that the gap is widening as well, and somehow that faintly bothers
me, though I can't specifically say why...

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"How Camp" <hac### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht 
news:web.49fed1ad4eec845cc59235590@news.povray.org...
>
> Thanks for this, and all the other interesting replies.  I think I tend to 
> fall
> into the same boat as Jim -- I find POV incredibly attractive from an
> idealistic perspective.  It offers a raw potential that's open and 
> accessible
> to everyone.
>
> But I sense that the gap is widening as well, and somehow that faintly 
> bothers
> me, though I can't specifically say why...
>

I am relieved to read how Jim has nicely wrapped up his personal experience 
regarding POV for me too. I thought I was the only one :-)

Thomas

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