Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> Once in a while I work on an older scene. This time it was Aftermath
> from 2010.
>
> http://www.tc-rtc.co.uk/imagenewdisplay/stills/index291.html
>
> I wanted to make changes to the time machine and took the opportunity to
> make some changes to the scene too, updating to the latest version of
> POV-Ray at the same time.

Well that's looking fantastic, Thomas! The ferns made it through the event,
partly due to the cloud cover I presume? (Around here ferns don't grow under an
open sky like that.)

This reminds me of a science fiction story I read in which people hid themselves
in reflective bubbles that were impervious to the ravages of time. In a
preserved state, they would remain locked away until a predetermined period of
time elapsed, at which point they would come out. If all went well, the
conditions they awoke to would be conducive to human proliferation, but of
course, since it was an /interesting/ story, all did not go well ;) (I feel like
I've mentioned that before....)

Your image needs something... The radiosity looks good. Ah, you need a touch of
focal blur to bring the time machine into focus and to blur the foreground &
background, but only a touch. (Focal blur will also help tie in the clouds, thus
unifying the composition.) Noise. Variation in fern sizing. A noise texture on
the ground that includes the color of the grass shoots.

My recommendations for good/cheap quality settings:

radiosity: count 1 to 16; error_bound 0.1 to 0.25; normal on
focal blur: 10 to 20 blur_samples
area_lights (if any): 2 to 3 samples
media: samples 1; intervals 1; jitter 0.1 to 0.33

That is all.

Wait... is that a raptor in the distance?

Sam

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