Hi All,
  I'm new to POV-Ray and 3D modelling.  After learning to think in 3D
with
RDS demo and Blob Sculptor, I finally realized that POV-Ray is far more
efficient
for the math-based animations I have in mind (orbiting binary stars,
animated
technical plots, etc.).

I use an iMac OS8.6 and POV-ray 3.1g.r1 and would like to export
animations
to PowerMac 6100/av.

I have three questions:

1) what are the import/export options?
        e.g. Color-It! to POV-ray
        e.g. Bryce 4 to POV-ray
        e.g. 3D Modeller (like Blob Sculptor) to POV-ray
                e.g. POV-ray to RDS
                e.g. POV-ray to AfterEffects or Premiere

2) Are ther tutorials online for making luminous spheres?  I need to
make 2 or more
luminous spheres in the foreground similar in appearance to the
sky_sphere.   The
POV.doc seems vague on how to use Object Media to create halo effects or
perhaps
I need to read more on transparent pigment filters.

3) I have some money to spend on commercial software and am looking for
recommendations from experienced POV-ray users.
  I am considering the Bryce/Canoma/Poser package at around $300
       and AfterEffects at around $600.
My animations will mostly concern planetary terrains, starfields,
luminous spheres,
planetary rings, and animated technical plots.
Is there any software you use along with POV-ray that you find
essential?
I already have Blob Sculptor demo, ColorIt!, and MS Office 98.

Thanks in advance.

-Vic Pary

Post a reply to this message

>1) what are the import/export options?
        e.g. Color-It! to POV-ray
        e.g. Bryce 4 to POV-ray
        e.g. 3D Modeller (like Blob Sculptor) to POV-ray
                e.g. POV-ray to RDS
                e.g. POV-ray to AfterEffects or Premiere<

You can't export from POV-Ray to anything. Color-It is an image editing
program, you can use it to generate image maps, height fields, and so
on, as long as the files are in something like TGA or PNG so POV-Ray can
read them.
There are programs that convert from other formats to POV, but I don't
know anything about them and don't know what Mac versions are available.



>2) Are ther tutorials online for making luminous spheres?  I need to
make 2 or more luminous spheres in the foreground similar in appearance
to the sky_sphere.   The POV.doc seems vague on how to use Object Media
to create halo effects or perhaps I need to read more on transparent
pigment filters.<

The sky_sphere is just for the background, I am not sure what you mean
there. You probably want to use a sphere filled with emitting media,
with a spherical density. I could give example code if needed, but since
this is not platform-specific, it should probably go to one of the other
groups like povray.newusers.


>My animations will mostly concern planetary terrains, starfields,
luminous spheres,
planetary rings, and animated technical plots.
Is there any software you use along with POV-ray that you find
essential?
I already have Blob Sculptor demo, ColorIt!, and MS Office 98.<

I am a coder, I write everything directly into the scene file. There
really aren't any programs like this that I feel are absolutely
necessary(For me, that is. Other people can't do anything without
modellers, I can't do anything with them.).
However, something like Blob Sculptor and maybe some other modeller
utilities could be useful. Have you looked at the official POV-Ray Mac
web page? There is a list of utilities there which might be useful.

Post a reply to this message

Chris Huff wrote:
> Have you looked at the official POV-Ray Mac web page? There is a list
> of utilities there which might be useful.

http://mac.povray.org

  I have been working with Thorsten letting him know of any knew programs
that I find related to the Macintosh platform. He has likewise been feeding
me with any new leads on programs that work on the Mac. In this regard
you should find almost duplicate resources at either the offical Mac web
page or at the povray.org links page.

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

Post a reply to this message

In article <38307371.A00692D1@pacbell.net> , Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet>  
wrote:

>   I have been working with Thorsten letting him know of any knew programs
> that I find related to the Macintosh platform. He has likewise been feeding
> me with any new leads on programs that work on the Mac. In this regard
> you should find almost duplicate resources at either the offical Mac web
> page or at the povray.org links page.

Except that I am a kind of slow in keeping up with your amazing rate of
finding new sites :-)


    Thorsten


____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

Post a reply to this message

Thorsten Froehlich wrote:

> Except that I am a kind of slow in keeping up with your amazing rate of
> finding new sites :-)
> 
>     Thorsten

In that case...

  I have been trying to be consciences about identifying any mac related
links with "mac" in the description field. This way if you use the online
search engine at the povray.org links page in my sig you should have a
list presented of all of the mac related links in the collection.

Speaking of finding links does anyone know of a good Mac online warehouse
of share/free ware ? Something of the order of winsite.com but the Mac
equivelant.

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

Post a reply to this message

Minor correction to my first note:

Vic Pary wrote:

> 2) Are ther tutorials online for making luminous spheres?  I need to
> make 2 or more luminous spheres in the foreground similar in appearance
> to the sky_sphere.

That should be similar to the sun with halo effect that can be made with
sky_sphere.

> -Vic Pary

Post a reply to this message

In article <38308548.67E5A6B1@pacbell.net>, lin### [at] povrayorg wrote:
>Speaking of finding links does anyone know of a good Mac online warehouse
>of share/free ware ? Something of the order of winsite.com but the Mac
>equivelant.

I usually use the Info-Mac Hyperarchive, at
http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Abstracts/Recent-Summary.html

And I use http://www.download.com/, although I've found them to be
becoming less and less useful over the last year.

Jerry

Post a reply to this message

In article <38308548.67E5A6B1@pacbell.net> , Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet>  
wrote:

> Speaking of finding links does anyone know of a good Mac online warehouse
> of share/free ware ? Something of the order of winsite.com but the Mac
> equivelant.

Well, one main one are the mac-info archives which are cached by all major
universities around the world. They (finally) have a website at
<http://www.info-mac.org/>. however, the archive (ftp) is a bit hard to
navigate...


    Thorsten


____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

Post a reply to this message

Chris Huff wrote:

> >1) what are the import/export options?
>         e.g. Color-It! to POV-ray
>         e.g. Bryce 4 to POV-ray
>         e.g. 3D Modeller (like Blob Sculptor) to POV-ray
>                 e.g. POV-ray to RDS
>                 e.g. POV-ray to AfterEffects or Premiere<
>
> You can't export from POV-Ray to anything.

I take this to mean you can't export POV-ray models to another
modeling program.

I'm guessing you could output a quicktime movie and touch it up with
Premiere or AfterEffect.  Do many POV-ray users do this?  or is it easy
to get lens flares, animated smoke, flames, or explosions using just
POV-ray?

> Color-It is an image editing
> program, you can use it to generate image maps, height fields, and so
> on, as long as the files are in something like TGA or PNG so POV-Ray can
> read them.

I have experimented with GraphicConverter.  It seems to work.

>
> There are programs that convert from other formats to POV, but I don't
> know anything about them and don't know what Mac versions are available.

I know Blob-Sculptor exports to POV-Ray scripts -- what about Poser 4?.
And one of the posts here implies that Bryce4 exports results to POV-ray.
These are programs I am considering buying.

> >2) Are ther tutorials online for making luminous spheres?  I need to
> make 2 or more luminous spheres in the foreground similar in appearance
> to the sky_sphere.   The POV.doc seems vague on how to use Object Media
> to create halo effects or perhaps I need to read more on transparent
> pigment filters.<
>
> The sky_sphere is just for the background, I am not sure what you mean
> there.

Sorry, I meant like the sun/halo effect I produced with sky_sphere.

> You probably want to use a sphere filled with emitting media,
> with a spherical density. I could give example code if needed, but since
> this is not platform-specific, it should probably go to one of the other
> groups like povray.newusers.

or you could email it to me.  That would be much appreciated by this novice

to POV-Ray!

> >My animations will mostly concern planetary terrains, starfields,
> luminous spheres,
> planetary rings, and animated technical plots.
> Is there any software you use along with POV-ray that you find
> essential?
> I already have Blob Sculptor demo, ColorIt!, and MS Office 98.<
>
> I am a coder, I write everything directly into the scene file. There
> really aren't any programs like this that I feel are absolutely
> necessary(For me, that is. Other people can't do anything without
> modellers, I can't do anything with them.).

I found the modeller demos good for learning the basics (objects, cgs,
color and light, etc), but I think POV-ray is more efficient (as a coder
myself) for trig-based motions, geometrical positioning, etc.  But, I'm
thinking that programs like Bryce4/Poser4/Canoma could speed up the
production process for characters, organic shapes, and landscapes *IF* they

can output to POV-Ray scripts. (I did the height-map tutorial successfully,

but feel that Bryce4 would be more efficient and flexible for creating
landscapes.)

> However, something like Blob Sculptor and maybe some other modeller
> utilities could be useful. Have you looked at the official POV-Ray Mac
> web page? There is a list of utilities there which might be useful.

Yes, I have, but I'm running out of steam after trying numerous demos
over the past two months.  I'm ready to commit to POV-Ray but want
the advice of experienced users as to what else is productive to use
alongside it.

Thanks for the info.

-Vic Pary

Post a reply to this message

>> You can't export from POV-Ray to anything.

I take this to mean you can't export POV-ray models to another
modeling program.<

Yes.


>I'm guessing you could output a quicktime movie and touch it up with
Premiere or AfterEffect.  Do many POV-ray users do this?  or is it easy
to get lens flares, animated smoke, flames, or explosions using just
POV-ray?<

You could do this, most people here aviod post processing and you would
almost always get better results doing it through POV-Ray. There are a
couple includes for lens flares and explosions, smoke and flames are
usually done with media.

>I have experimented with GraphicConverter.  It seems to work.<

GraphicConverter is an exellent program, one which I plan on registering
as soon as I get my job. :-)

>I know Blob-Sculptor exports to POV-Ray scripts -- what about Poser 4?.
And one of the posts here implies that Bryce4 exports results to
POV-ray. These are programs I am considering buying.<

They probably don't export directly to POV-Ray, but to a format like DXF
which has converters to POV format. I don't know what converters have
Mac versions available.


>or you could email it to me.  That would be much appreciated by this
novice to POV-Ray!<

A lot of the other novices would appreciate it too, which is why this
stuff is usually posted on the newsgroups for everyone to see. I will
make a posting in povray.newusers, with an example of "luminous
spheres".

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