I hand code, mainly because modellers confuse me.  If it can't be 
hand coded then it doesn't get into my scene (except in my early 
POV days when I loved image maps). 

-- 
Cheers
Steve              email mailto:ste### [at] zeroppsuklinuxnet

%HAV-A-NICEDAY Error not enough coffee  0 pps. 

web http://www.zeropps.uklinux.net/

or  http://start.at/zero-pps

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"Doug Eichenberg" <dou### [at] nlsnet> wrote in message
news:39a025b0@news.povray.org...
| 99.9% script writing?  I have new respect for your work!  I come from
| an engineering background (lots of drafting), so I tend to model most
| everything... I leave the scripting to you guys!

I almost left the 0.9% off because I have used a modeler before, and image
map making in paint programs, and triangle meshes I've downloaded, and
whatever else might apply.  However, the amount of all else in comparison to
the hand coding stuff is easily 0.1% (1 external thing out of every 1000
internal(?)), not much of anything ever comes close to being finalized as
you certainly must know.

Bob

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Doug Eichenberg wrote:

> I make use of traingle meshes quite often.  Anything I model in AutoCAD has
> to be converted to a triangle mesh to be rendered in POV.  The same goes
> for anything modelled with 3DSMax, 3D Studio, TrueSpace, etc.... pretty
> much any file found at 3DCafe.

I stand corrected.  Are these objects typically intended to be rendered
as triangle meshes, or is that just the only way to export them to
POV-Ray?

-Mark Gordon

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In article <39a01203@news.povray.org>, "Wolf Manos" 
<wol### [at] to_much_spamcom> wrote:

> is the standard/common user (does there exist something like that in the
> first place?) using povray stand-alone or does he use modelling software
> (i.e. Moray)?

I think the average user hand codes and occasionally uses a modeller, 
but does not depend on the modeller. I always hand code. There are 
people who do everything from within one modeller, Moray for instance. 
Others use a combination of different modellers and put it all together 
by hand.


> if using Moray: Can you(do you) use it to create the 90% scene and then
> taylor the last 10% in your own script ??

Some people use modellers like Moray to do specific objects, and do the 
actual scene by hand by assembling the pieces. I find it difficult to 
work on a scene using a modeller, simply positioning the objects is more 
difficult.


> do you use a painting/drawing to start out a scene ?

I usually just start from an idea in my head...I have tried graph paper, 
but found it easier to code directly.


> in short: Tell me your best practices how to create a cool scene !!

It really depends on your skills and the scene. I find it easier to 
visualize the relevant pieces and type in the values manually than to 
navigate through a group of views and moving things with the mouse. This 
would probably be different if we had a VR modeller where you could 
interact directly with the scene objects and see the whole scene, 
instead of goofing around using a 2D pointer device for 3D operations. 
It would probably also change for many things if I had a lot of 
experience with a good modeller, but I am used to scripting things.

-- 
Christopher James Huff
Personal: chr### [at] maccom, http://homepage.mac.com/chrishuff/
TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg, http://tag.povray.org/

<><

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Spatch, I assume generates bicubic patches, judging by the name. Right??

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Bob Hughes wrote:
> 
> "Doug Eichenberg" <dou### [at] nlsnet> wrote in message
> news:39a025b0@news.povray.org...
> | 99.9% script writing?  I have new respect for your work!  I come from
> | an engineering background (lots of drafting), so I tend to model most
> | everything... I leave the scripting to you guys!
> 
> I almost left the 0.9% off because I have used a modeler before, and image
> map making in paint programs, and triangle meshes I've downloaded, and
> whatever else might apply.  However, the amount of all else in comparison to
> the hand coding stuff is easily 0.1% (1 external thing out of every 1000
> internal(?)), not much of anything ever comes close to being finalized as
> you certainly must know.
> 
> Bob

I'm pretty much like Bob. I too have played with several modelling
programs but have yet to find one that allows me to be as creative
as I am with pure hand coding. Even those times I find a nifty
utility or download an awsome mesh off the internet I play around
with the object for a short time then move on to my own creations
again. I doubt I have posted more than a couple of images to the
the images groups that were not 100% my own creation. But this debate
comes up often enough that I won't discourage others from doing
whatever it takes for them to achieve the results they are looking
for.

-- 
Ken Tyler - 1400+ POV-Ray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Mark Gordon wrote:
> 
> Doug Eichenberg wrote:
> 
> > I make use of traingle meshes quite often.  Anything I model in AutoCAD has
> > to be converted to a triangle mesh to be rendered in POV.  The same goes
> > for anything modelled with 3DSMax, 3D Studio, TrueSpace, etc.... pretty
> > much any file found at 3DCafe.
> 
> I stand corrected.  Are these objects typically intended to be rendered
> as triangle meshes, or is that just the only way to export them to
> POV-Ray?
> 
> -Mark Gordon

It's a mixture. For example you can create meshes directly in Acad
but it also has direct support for solid modelling. You cannot
however export the solid modelling data into a format that POV-Ray
can use so you have to convert it to a mesh first. Other programs
live in a mesh only domain while others like Rhino are NURBS based
which often means tesselating the NURBS surfaces into triangles
for export.

-- 
Ken Tyler - 1400+ POV-Ray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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I depended on sPatch when I began because it was a simple way to engage my
sense of drawing which was what I found familiar.  After less than a year my
interests came to be served better with POV scripting.  I had purchased Bryce
but never came to use it.  Because I seem to find learning a modeller/render
interface as frustrating as learning to model with native POV script, I have
never really given them a fair try. Ditto modeller front-ends for POV though I
am sure I may yet discover their worth.  In general you must use the tool which
best answers to your goals and capability.
/jc

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