Hi everyone.

I am new to POV Ray and imaging in general, suffice to say I am completely lost
as to how I am going to create art using this program or how I can render my
art in this program. If anyone has any tips on where to begin (a manual to read
perhaps) please let me know.

thanks

-javi.

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javi schrieb:
> Hi everyone.
>
> I am new to POV Ray and imaging in general, suffice to say I am completely lost
> as to how I am going to create art using this program or how I can render my
> art in this program. If anyone has any tips on where to begin (a manual to read
> perhaps) please let me know.
>   

How about the built-in help then? ;-)
Or, if you're using the Linux version and can't find the HTML help files 
that should be installed with it, you can read it on the net at  
http://www.povray.org/documentation/.

In any case, welcome to POV-Ray!

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clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> javi schrieb:
> > Hi everyone.
> >
> > I am new to POV Ray and imaging in general, suffice to say I am completely lost
> > as to how I am going to create art using this program or how I can render my
> > art in this program. If anyone has any tips on where to begin (a manual to read
> > perhaps) please let me know.
> >
>
> How about the built-in help then? ;-)
> Or, if you're using the Linux version and can't find the HTML help files
> that should be installed with it, you can read it on the net at
> http://www.povray.org/documentation/.
>
> In any case, welcome to POV-Ray!

I think I'm good for set up, I am using the mac version already compiled. I'm
just like....woah.... ya know. The only option I have is to create a marker
after that I am LOST ha.

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> I think I'm good for set up, I am using the mac version already compiled. 
> I'm
> just like....woah.... ya know. The only option I have is to create a 
> marker
> after that I am LOST ha.

Load up some of the simple demo scenes included and read through the code, 
look up the keywords you see in the help, generally fiddle about with stuff 
and learn.  And if you don't understand anything or get stuck, then post in 
the new users group - someone will surely help you.

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"javi" <jay### [at] hawksrwuedu> wrote in message 
news:web.4a7905c8d8b02b1a8bd383a50@news.povray.org...
> clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
>> javi schrieb:
>> > Hi everyone.
>> >
>> > I am new to POV Ray and imaging in general, suffice to say I am 
>> > completely lost
>> > as to how I am going to create art using this program or how I can 
>> > render my
>> > art in this program. If anyone has any tips on where to begin (a manual 
>> > to read
>> > perhaps) please let me know.
>> >
>>
>> How about the built-in help then? ;-)
>> Or, if you're using the Linux version and can't find the HTML help files
>> that should be installed with it, you can read it on the net at
>> http://www.povray.org/documentation/.
>>
>> In any case, welcome to POV-Ray!
>
> I think I'm good for set up, I am using the mac version already compiled. 
> I'm
> just like....woah.... ya know. The only option I have is to create a 
> marker
> after that I am LOST ha.
>

Are you able to run the POV-Ray application?
If so you should get the Mac interface described at 
http://www.povray.org/documentation/view/3.6.1/731/

From that you should be able to load one of the scene files that comes with 
POV-Ray and render it. For example biscuit.pov from the scenes:advanced 
folder. So long as that renders ok you can move straight on to creating your 
own art. This is done by adding instructions into a text file to describe 
the scene, then rendering it. The instructions are written in SDL (the Scene 
Description Language) and the majority of the documentation that Clipka 
linked to covers the wealth of things that you can do using the SDL.

You'll need to understand the X-Y-Z coordinate system (Y is usually 
considered 'up') and you'll need to be able to specify colours, either using 
their RGB values or using the predefined names in 'colors.inc'.

When developing your first scene it's best to keep it really simple, so 
you'll need a camera, a light source and one or more objects. A simple 
starting point would be:

camera {location <0, 2,-2> look_at <0,0,0>}
light_source {<2,20,-4> color rgb <1,1,1>}

sphere {<0,0,0>,1 pigment {rgb <1,0,0>}}

Or, if you want to use the predefined colors in 'colors.inc':

#include "colors.inc"

camera {location <0, 2,-2> look_at <0,0,0>}
light_source {<2,20,-4> color White}

sphere {<0,0,0>,1 pigment {Red}}

A common first project is to create some form of reflective sphere on a 
checkered plane (RSOCP).
The 'povray.newusers' newsgroup is dedicated to the sort of questions that 
new users often ask. There's also a FAQ at http://tag.povray.org/povQandT/ 
If you run into any Mac specific problems it may be worth looking through 
the Mac specific newsgroup at http://news.povray.org/povray.macintosh/

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Chris B.

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> Hi everyone.
> 
> I am new to POV Ray and imaging in general, suffice to say I am completely lost
> as to how I am going to create art using this program or how I can render my
> art in this program. If anyone has any tips on where to begin (a manual to read
> perhaps) please let me know.
> 
> thanks
> 
> -javi.
> 
> 
Welcome in the gang!

The first thing I did was to go trough the tutorial and enter all the 
samples by hand.
Once you have rendered a sampls, go ahead and change some thing(s) in it 
and render again to see the difference.

Next, skimm over the rest of the documentation that comes with the 
installer.

Now, start making a few simple scenes of your own, and progressively, go 
on to some more complexe scenes.

If you have a problem, or need some additional explanations, come back 
on this forum or on povray.newusers.

As for the artistic value of your creations, I can't juge that.


Alain

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"javi" <jay### [at] hawksrwuedu> schreef in bericht 
news:web.4a78eaf34a07b4048bd383a50@news.povray.org...
> Hi everyone.
>
> I am new to POV Ray and imaging in general, suffice to say I am completely 
> lost
> as to how I am going to create art using this program or how I can render 
> my
> art in this program. If anyone has any tips on where to begin (a manual to 
> read
> perhaps) please let me know.
>

If you are using the Windows version, something which might help you 
visualize what you are doing are the following two free modellers specially 
dedicated to POV-Ray:

Moray for Windows http://www.stmuc.com/moray/index.html . Be aware that 
Moray works well only with POV version 3.5 but it could help you along in a 
comprehensive way. In the future, Moray is expected to be overhauled and 
made compatible with latest versions. As is, Moray can let you make great 
things. I am still using it regularly for my creations.

Bishop3D http://www.bishop3d.com/index.htm . This modeller is compatible 
with later POV versions and is under development.

Hope this helps.

Thomas

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"javi" <jay### [at] hawksrwuedu> wrote:
> Hi everyone.
>
> I am new to POV Ray and imaging in general, suffice to say I am completely lost
> as to how I am going to create art using this program or how I can render my
> art in this program. If anyone has any tips on where to begin (a manual to read
> perhaps) please let me know.
>
> thanks
>
> -javi.

You can also use the online tool pointed to by
http://sixpairs.com/PovOL.aspx

You can just try stuff like "Sphere;" or
"difference Sphere; Torus Green; end"
in the text box and you will have a complete scene.

Or you can modify existing scenes (by putting your name in the strings...)

Then you can have a look at the generated
Pov-Ray SDL code to learn about SDL.

The documentation is on the tool's page as well and
it is written in the same language; so you can
use the documentation as "a set of scenes to learn about Pov-Ray".
(The doc scenes are still in the process of buing built)

You can even modify the documentation scenes to have your own set
doc scenes.

See also a recent previous post in this newsgroup:
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3Cweb.4a706c4b86936ff9f2bcf83f0%40news.povray.org%3E/

-Ciper

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