EMAIL:MMandl@aol.com
NAME:MaryAnn Mandell
TOPIC:Magic
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE:Butterfly Magic
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/6588/povfind.htm
RENDERER USED: POV for Windows
TOOLS USED:Moray, Blob Sculptor, CTD, Worms and PSP for the height fields.
RENDER TIME:56 minutes
HARDWARE USED:Pentium 200

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

It is magical that a caterpillar turns itself into a drab chrysalis where it rearranges itself into a magnificent butterfly. We know what happens, we kind of know how it happens but we have no idea why. It's all part of Mother Nature's magic!

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

The Butterfly veins were made using a modeler called Worms, where I drew them free hand. Then, I sent them to CTD to make them into spheres and cones. I used a radius of .5.
I gave the veins a black color and rendered them on a red background. Using PSP, I used this render to create height fields for each of the three colors (granite textures layered with a gradient) in the wings.
Back in Moray, I nested three very thin cubes, gave them their textures and placed them in the center of the veins. Next, I differenced each of the height fields with these cubes to create the shapes I wanted. I even used this to make the holes so the white dots would show. I did one for the upper wing and another for the lower wing. Then I copied and rotated them for the other two wings.
The body is a lathed object with a spotted texture.
Then I positioned the butterfly and used some spotlights and it came to life.
The catipillar is a blob with some cones and toruses.
The chrysalis is a union of a lathe and a Bezier patch.
The flowers and leaves are CSG differences and/or unions of solid primitives.
All textures were created using Moray's texture editor.