EMAIL:		jull43@tampabay.rr.com
NAME:		Matt Giwer
TOPIC:		End of
COPYRIGHT:	I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE:		Freedom
COUNTRY:	USA
WEBPAGE:	http://www.giwersworld.org/artiv/ & artii/ & artiii/
		& artv/ 
RENDERER USED:	povray 3.1g and 3.5
TOOLS USED:	gimp, mpeg_encode
RENDER TIME:	
HARDWARE USED:	Celeron 400, 64M, linux 2.4.18-3 kernel
VIEWING:	mplayer and quicktime work, windows media player some
		versions have trouble, some will not work at all some just
		do not give the correct playing time.

GENERAL INFO:	http://www.giwersworld.org/artiv/mpeg.phtml has generic
		comments on size limited animations.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

	End of life. 

	End of rope.

	This is a take off on two things. The first is a parody by some folk
music group I have forgotten on the Ballad of Tom Dooley sung by The
Kingston Trio from the 1960s. The second is a story I first remember from a
Twilight Zone episode on the man who survives a hanging. I doubt it
originated with Rod Serling but that is the oldest version I know. I have no
idea of the oldest version of the story. I have seen several in between
Serling and today. For better or worse, there is now a Povray animation
version.

	Of course all the versions of the story have required nature, quiet
brooks, vistic scenery for the scenes between falling and neck snapping.
That is, all the things Povray is not good at unless one counts frame
rendering in hours instead of minutes. I took a modest shot at implementing
those things. 

MY VERSION: 

	The traditional gallows scene, climbing the steps, the rope, falling
through and swinging. A wind swept flatland that is half of the american Old
West setting. The clouds move and the sheet below the gallows ripples in the
wind.

	Then a quick cut to the rope not swinging and standing on his toes.
So here you can assume I made a mistake in the animation as the rope is not
swinging but you know something is wrong. And he runs away. 

	Depart from here said Grayson
	Here lies a sinful man
	When the crowd departed
	8 Ball got up and ran

	That did fit into either the song or the animation but it worked in
the parody. 

	First he is in the green hills of Tennessee walking through the
flowers with the rainbow sign of hope in the sky. Then he flies through the
air in a very unrealistic sequence and lands near a golden stairway to the
heavens. OK an escalator into the heavens but it is even less realistic. 

	He arrives at the top, and is pierced by the bright light, the
tunnel. He appeals to it but is rejected and falls. He ends swinging from
the rope showing the scene of falling through the gallows was correct. 

THE USUAL:

	First the lame apology, procrastination put everything off until the
last minute. Some intended effects were left out due to the time per frame
and working at the last minute. In reference to the sidebar below, this is a
trade-off of many things not only technical but of time in days and time of
year including the holiday season having to end before I started.

	Second, I have been criticized for too much and too little material
in this section. I am still seeking the Baby Bear, just right, amount of
verbiage. 

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

	This implements both a walking and a running algorithm. 8 Ball was
given arms for the first time in this one. They are not great arms and
rather apish in length but they do add to the ability to express and portray
scenes. Neither is very satisfactory but it has only been a year and I have
not quit my day job. 

	The whole 8 Ball thing is in a larger context of trying to develop
an expressive personality for animations using Povray. In the first
animation it was just a pool ball. Later he gained legs and this time arms
and expressive eyes at the end of the second to last scene. 

ZIP file

	The full lyrics as I remember them. 

	The include file that makes the sheet on the gallows wave in the
wind. This was also used in the Nov-Dec 2003 stills competition, Future, for
the flag but I forgot to send a zip file for that competition. Credit is
contained within the file.

	For the spotlight scene the media parameters and of particular note
the samples values. I am not sure what these mean to Povray but the common
meaning varies by the type of scattering. These low values of 3. 10 has no
appreciable quality difference from 30, 100 but rendered in one minute vice
five minutes per frame. 

	A set of files for the "by the way he's running" scene is included
mostly to try to make the zip file contain something. The email address
works so if you are interested in something just ask. I have no trade
secrets. I am working on a way to create a zip file that will make it easy
to include everything needed to recreate an entire animation but not likely
something coming before next year this time. 

<sidebar>

	For those who have been making the favorable comments on my entries
in the last year or so, a bit of an explanation. In each competition I have
tried to do something that is new for me rather than simply use things I
have used against a straightforward story. Occasionally this comes together
with my entry to the Journey competition in early '03. 

	As to why backgrounds are often simple see the link under GENERAL
INFO above. Simply the more complex the image including background the
larger the mpeg. This is a size limited competition. The size of the image
when converted to JPEG, determines the size of the MPEG. The more complex
the scene the greater the size of the MPEG.

	I agree the gross pixelation of some animations does not appear to
harm the chances of winning however it bothers me to resort to such methods
to reduce the MPEG size. I may overcome my dislike of it. 

</sidebar>

===

	To the children, a reminder.

<quote>
  Etiquette

   This describes the intentions of the competition and what we hope to
   gain from it.

    c. The competition is not about winning. You do not have to be a
       professional, or even any good! 
</quote>

	I assure everyone, I am no damn good.