EMAIL: famrom@ran.es NAME: Guillermo Sanz Romero TOPIC: Science Fiction COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. RENDERER USED: POVRay 3.00.msdos.wat-cwa TOOLS USED: DOS Edit and Micrografx Picture Publisher 5.0 RENDER TIME: 34h 34m 3s HARDWARE USED: PC i486DX2-66Mhz IMAGE DESCRIPTION: "Back Home." This picture shows three Space Fighters returning to base (the camera has the point of view of the third, so only two are visible :) ). Three Tugships are approaching to carry the Fighters inside the base, that can be seen in the background, orbiting around a blue planet with ochre clouds. DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: During this summer I had been working in a series of space objects (fighters, tugs, freighters, capitol ships, bases, planets,... even procedural textures for all) trying to be realistic: gravity decks, multiple engines for manoeuvring, small jet blasts... (I used graph paper and my "Mental OpenGL engine", aka brain, for this). When I saw the topic "Science Fiction" I decided to use these new objects. I started with 3 tugs and 2 fighters (the third fighter is the "camera") in a 4*3 format (a dull scene with my best models, at that moment). After thinking about it I positioned a planet and a base with three 1G-decks and two solar "sails", but then the problem of visual overcrowding appeared. The image looked like a WWI air dog-fight. The idea came miraculously: change the format from 4*3 (computer) to 16*9 (pal plus). I rearranged the objects: the fighters (near distance) in the right, the tugs occupied the center (mid distance), and finally the base and the planet in the left (far distance). I used a low ambient value, as can be seen in the fighters, cos I want a real scene not a Star Wars or Star Trek scene where light comes from almost everywhere and with flashing engines at full power. Sorry if you think that the shadow and highlight zones contrast too much, but so real space is. As final touches I put some containers and five Tugs floating near the "top" part of the base to test the new rand() and #while instructions of POV3. (Due to the distance only the containers can be seen, but I promiss that in higher resolution the ships can be seen). After the render was finished (more than 34h ;) using a 18*18 area_light for the sun, with antialias type 2) I added borders and text and converted the image to jpeg format with Micrografx PP5. Check http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4774/index.html for more data, specially if you want to see pictures of the ships. If you want the source files send me an email ;) to . ============================================================================== Comments get from IRTC comments page: ===== Try using a different texture map for the planet. It really brings down the image quality. ===== Not a bad picture, but the ships and stuff are so small that any interesting detail is lost. ===== Planet looks just a little too flat..... ===== Planet could definitely use some work. ===== planet looks 2D (no shadow, no curvature) ===== The planet looks flat. ===== I love the background the planet looks a little fakey though. I think if this looks more 3d'ish it would improve your picture alot. ===== Planetary disk is a little too flat. You might try attenuating the light (fade_distance,fade_power) and making it REAL bright (you can use numbers more than 1) The area_light is very effective here. If the planet is not a sphere it should be. Check the Halo Demos that came with POV3. 16x9 ratio is neat. ===== Maybe a little more light would help - it's hard to see all the details. ===== Cool concept. I like the notion of fighters having to have tugs pull them in! The large signature was distracting.