EMAIL: bds@myhost.com
NAME: Bruce Szablak
TOPIC: Magic
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Alchemy
COUNTRY: USA
RENDERER USED: PovRay 3.02 for windows
TOOLS USED: moray 2.5b, LView Pro 1.6
RENDER TIME: 6 hours
HARDWARE USED: AMD 586 with 12mb RAM
IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
The alchemist completes the final step that changes a bar of
lead into gold...
DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:
This is my first IRTC entry and my first "complete" image. In fact,
this image was my introduction to the Moray modeller (which seemed
to be the most popular modeller). I started with the basic idea
of a turning lead into gold and decided that the prime focus for
my compostion would be a bar of lead (super-ellipsoid) turning into
gold (using a gradient texture). I then added elements to the model
the most difficult being the thumb and forefinger of the alchemist.
Giving up on blobs, I modeled these using splines and with much
trial and error got them into the correct position relative to the
wand. Modelling the rest was fairly straight forward, but I should
mention the use of a spline to constrain the candle and lamp flames.

I also imported the raw data for the skull from a file that I obtained
from www.povlab.org download site. I'm afraid I have no further
information as to the origin of that file. A bumpy and rough texture
removed the triangular shape artifacts of the raw image.

Once the model was laid out using tentative textures, I switched to
PovRay for windows to "fine-tune" the textures and light sources.
This is when rendering time exploded as I used a 4x4 area light in
the lamp flame to soften shadows. I also played with the ambient
light composition so that the flame faded into the background and
the level so that the scene was dark enough to set the mood, but
still revealed all the details. The glowing wand was achieved by
setting a high ambient value, while the magic "halo" was in fact
a simple halo. The final result differs significantly from that
produced by the modeller.