EMAIL: marcos@nt.lan.iper.net
NAME: Marco Semprini
TOPIC: Magic
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: "Kafkanian Dream"
COUNTRY: Italy
RENDERER USED: PovRay 3.02 (for DOS)
TOOLS USED: POVLAB 4.0 SP1, sPatch 1.0, Lather 1.0, Moray 2.5, HF-LAB 0.84
RENDER TIME: 19 minutes  52.0 seconds (1192 seconds)
HARDWARE USED: PC      (Pentium Intel 200 Mhz/64 Mb EDO Ram)
               SCANNER (ScanJet HP 4P)
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Strange Dreamy Magical Kafka

                   I really like the dreamy/non-sense/alienated atmosphere
                   of this image!
                   I know ray-tracing should be a lights triumph, but this
                   image is an example of "carved lights"!!
                   Consider this one the "dark angle of trace"!!

                   This image is partially based upon an Environment
                   installation i wished to realize in a little Art Gallery
                   of my city (Rimini) in 1992, but the rental cost was too
                   high for my possibilities.  :(


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

    (Main modeller)

    The main used program is the great Denis Olivier's POVLAB 3D modeller!


    (In order of creation)

    Kafka's Image Map - This photo is retrievable using any Internet Search
                        Engine, and looking for "Kafka.gif".
                        This seems the only Kafka's image available!

                        Used as "Automatic_Square_Map" objects within POVLAB!


    Picture Frames    - I've scanned a frame photo from a book; converted
                        the TGA image in grey_scale; imported it in John P.
                        Beale's HF-LAB 0.84 Beta (c) utility and
                        smoothed/scaled to fit my taste.

                        Used as "Heigh_Field" objects within POVLAB!


    Eyeballs          - These are simple objects (each made by 3 spheres)
                        i've created to simulate the very well-know
                        3DS eyeballs.  ;)

                        Used as "Sphere" objects within POVLAB!


    Apple             - This is my first attempt on creating a lathe object.
                        I used Klaus Lepschi's Lather 1.0 (c) utility,
                        for its feature to export in POVLAB format.
                        After having manually drawn the main shape, i
                        decided to create a "cubic_spline" instead of
                        "linear_spline", because it's better smoothed
                        during rendering, but it creates a hole in the
                        center of the object. So i've created also a
                        "linear_spline" lathe object and scaled it a little.
                        Putting the "linear_lathe" inside the "cubic_lathe",
                        i've simulated a single object!
                        The lathe slows down a lot the rendering time!  :(

                        Used as "Import Lathe" objects within POVLAB!


    Apple Twig        - This is a simple curved spline created with POVLAB,
                        using "smooth edges" feature.

                        Used as "Spline" objects within POVLAB!


    Fabric            - I used Lutz and Kretzschmar's Moray 2.5 (c) modeller
    (under the Apple)   for its really great "Bezier Patches extended editor".
                        Fast, easy to use and powerfull (imho).
                        After having exported the patches to POV file, i've
                        created manually (i.e. with an ASCII editor) the
                        POVLAB Bezier import files.

                        Used as "Import Bezier" objects within POVLAB!


    Hand and Arm     -  The "Hand" is a converted 3DS mesh i've found on the
                        great graphic site <3D Cafe>. I've converted it
                        in RAW format using Thomas Baier's 3Dto3D (c)
                        utility; than generated different little raw files
                        for every object (i.e. for every fingers), because
                        i wanted to move indipendently those objects!

                        The "Arm" (not really visible) is simply a "cylinder"
                        object!

                        Used as "Raw" objects within POVLAB!

    Curtains         -  This is my first object created with Mike Clifton's
                        sPatch 1.0 (c) utility. It's a Windows 95 modeller
                        for Bezier patches, that features a phong_shaded 3D
                        preview (great!!).
                        This object is "simply" a grid of patches with
                        moved/scaled nodes - well, to say the truth, it's
                        simply in the form, but it's composed by 104 patches
                        (!!!!!), all manually converted in POVLAB Bezier
                        import file -.  :P

                                            Marco "tHe DReAMeR" Semprini