"Mike the Elder" <nomail@nomail> wrote:

> Nifty work.  I particularly like the changes in viewpoint in which is looking at
> a traditional kaleidoscopic image one moment then observing the "mechanism" for
> generating it the next.
>
> BTW, what software are you using to deal with the soundtrack portion of the
> animation? Is the music your own composition?  I quite like it in any case.
>
>
> Good luck on dealing with the snow.  I suppose that I should stop complaining
> about the six inches worth I had to drive through to get to work.  ;-)

Thanks, Mike, for your kind remarks!

Yes, I want to show the kaleidoscope from outside, sometimes, so one can see
what it is.

When a third "vertical" mirror is added, for instance, if we erect mirrors upon
each edge of a 30-60-90 triangle, an infinite tessellation of the plane arises.
I set max_trace_level to 100. It is quite interesting to see what happens when
the camera is inside the kaleidoscope, and tilts up so that one sees away into
the distance of the infinite tessellation: render times slow way way down. So I
have to be very careful with the camera or I end up needing ten minutes for each
frame of an animation. All my animations these days are 640X480, 29.97
frames/second.

My process with the animations and music is like this: create frames in POV,
stitch together in QuickTime (BTW I actually use MacMegaPOV and to speed up
render times for animations I run two copies of MegaPOV at once, I set one to
render frames 1 to 30, the second to renderf rames 31 to 60, or whatever--it
really maxes out my dual-core processor! I mean, the dual-core is about
red-lining or whatever you call it! Quite gratifying, and speeds things up a
LOT).

Then bring the animation into iMovie. In iMovie I can add any number of
different animations, add titles, effects if I wish, and, add music. Anything
in my iTunes library can be added.

It so happens that I am an amateur musician and use Apple's "GarageBand," which
is totally amazing software, to record input from my MIDI keyboard. I can also
record analog sound from a microphone if I wish. GarageBand allows who knows
how many independent tracks. GarageBand, in the out-of-the-box form I have it,
strangely, does not have the standard MIDI instruments. But it does have a
plethora of bizarre synths. So I will hammer something out on my keyboard and
basically send it into outer space, applying the synths. Then I export to
iTunes; the tracks are mixed down to CD-quality regular stereo.

It is true that I used to do light shows for Bill Graham, in San Francisco, back
in 1967-68. So if you detect a certain psychedelic bias, well, it's all true. I
just wish I had POV-Ray back then!

The snow, the beautiful snow, can be quite a nuisance. I ought to look like
Hercules for all the snow I've been shoveling. But no, I do not look even
remotely like
Hercules. I just have sore arms, shoulders, and back. The Sierra Nevada is a
great great mountain range. But if one dares to live above a certain elevation,
well, there is such a thing as deep snow. So close to the Pacific, the snow is
often wet and heavy.

Fortunately there is also such a thing as cross-country skiing! Ah well. In a
week or so, if the sun stays out, I will be back to normal. It didn't even get
down to freezing last night.

--Russell Towle

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