"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

> I'm currently working on a few ideas to help speed my POV scene building and
> have started a new web site to post and archive my current work and code. I'm
> working in a 'project tree' directory structure that allows me to jump around to
> various render-able asset libraries (materials, images, color_maps, objects,
> etc.).
> There are also a few utilities I've coded to help the process that I've also
> posted.

Hi Mike, and welcome back!

I like the new site, and the visuals are stunning as usual.  :)

I'm sure that you have a vast amount of knowledge about what makes things "look
good" - from the fundamental geometric aspects of structure and "smoothness", to
scene composition, lighting, and of course textures, normals, and finishes.

It would be really nice, and educational, if you could just post things here and
there about what was going through your head at the outset, and the key things
that you ensured were present to get the desired effects in the render.

"I _could_ have done it this way, but that would take too long, so I ...."
"I wanted to make this look [wet][powdery][translucent][hard & shiny][soft &
leathery] ... and so a texture like that requires at the minimum ...."
"The tentacle needs to look smooth and flowing, without any kinks, so I used a
[type] spline ..."
"Since I'm doing this in POV-Ray, I needed to take the structure of the SDL and
parsing into account.  [This] needed to be parameterized. [That] needed to
precede [xyz]. And [Sumthin' else] needed to be stored in a [data structure] to
really make it efficiently useable."

I think that new users would be fascinated and learn a lot, and even long-time
experienced users who don't have any graphic arts background would find such
explanations a goldmine of information and inspiration.

Just something to think about - it doesn't need to be formal.  Every little
tidbit, trick, rule, strategy, and optimization really helps.

Thanks for all that you have done and continue to do!
I like the new website, and the images are fantastic as always.
I'm sure the animations are going to be mesmerizing (and creepy ;) ).

- BE

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