TITLE: Fairy Tale
NAME: Sonya Roberts
COUNTRY: CanadaWEB PAGE:             http://www.geocities.com/Soho/Lofts/1022


EMAIL: Sonya_Roberts@geocities.com
TOPIC: Glass
COPYRIGHT: I submit to the standard raytracing competition
JPGFILE: fairytal.jpg
ZIPFILE: fairytal.zip
RENDERER USED: 
       POVRay 3.01.watcom.Win32 Pentium Optimised , POVRay
3.01.msdos.wat-cwa

TOOLS USED: 
          Adobe Photoshop 3.0 to add file info and convert to JPG.
                      John Beale's HF-Lab for creation of height fields.
               Texture Magic 0.95 for creation of the different jewel textures.
                      3D Studio Max and the MetaMax plugin to create the mesh
for the
                      swan boats, WCTV2POV was used to translate it to POV
smooth triangles.
               My own nested-loop "tree.pov" files for the foreground trees.
                      POVRay 3.01 Windows interface (with customized insert
menu) for all
                      coding and test renders.
                      My unassisted and overworked brain to layout and plan
objects.

RENDER TIME: 
         Rendered in seven sections over three days using both the
Windows and
                      DOS versions of POVRay (DOS version renders in approx. 73
of time
                      needed by Windows version).  Total time, including being
parsed seven
                      times, is roughly 51 hours, 28 minutes.

HARDWARE USED: 
       Pentium Pro 200 w/64 meg memory and Matrox Millenium 2mg
Graphics Card

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

There was a king with seven daughters (though some say it was twelve).
Every day a new pair of dance slippers was made for them.  Every morning
when they woke up, the slippers were worn out.  If the slippers were withheld,
they'd wake with their feet blistered and sore.

In desperation, the King offered half his kingdom and the hand of any of his
daughters in marriage to whomever solved the mystery.  Anyone who wished to try
would be allowed to stay in the princesses' chamber for three nights to see
what
happened.  Many princes, lords, dukes, earls, barons, knights, etc., tried, but
they all failed.

Came a poor soldier to the kingdom.  Coming across an old woman in distress, he
helped her out - she was of course a fairy, testing mortals to see if they
remembered to be kind and good to all living things.  In gratitude for his
help,
she told him to go try his luck with the mystery, and give him a ragged cloak:
"Wrap this around your shoulders, and you'll be invisible.  But take care not
to
eat or drink anything offered you after the door is closed for the night".

The poor soldier went to the castle, and asked to try to solve the mystery. 
The
King was so desperate by now that he allowed the soldier to do so - "But," he
said, "It is not right that someone as lowly as you should spend the night with
my daughters.  If you fail, you will be killed.  Are you still so sure that you
would like to try to solve the mystery?"  The poor soldier insisted that he was
still willing.  The king was pleased by his bravery, and secretly regretted his
harsh promise.

That night he was brought to the princesses' room, and led to a pallet in the
corner.
Then the door was closed and locked for the night.  The eldest daughter (or
perhaps
it was the yougest - who can tell?) came over and prettily offered him a warm
drink before bed.  Forgetting the fairy's advice, he drank, fell into a stupor,
and
slept the night.  Waking the next morning, he saw the worn-out slippers hanging
from the foot of each princesses' bed, remembered the fairies advice, and
cursed
himself as a fool.

The second night he remembered not to drink, but stupidly accepted a sweetmeat
from
the youngest princess (or perhaps it was the eldest).  Again he slept the night
away,
waking to find the slippers worn to rags, and himself a fool yet again.

The third night he was better prepared, and when offered the cup only pretended
to
drink, pouring the drugged wine onto a cloth he'd previously hidden beside his
pallet.
When offered the sweetmeat, he only pretended to eat it, and hid it beneath his
pillow.
Pretending to be asleep, he watched through slitted eyes as the princesses
leaped out
of bed, hurriedly dressed in fine gowns and jewels, and put on their dancing
shoes.
Wrapping the ragged cloak about his shoulders, he followed them as they snuck
away
through a hidden trapdoor in the corner.

Down, down, down they went along a near-endless staircase - staying close to
the
princesses so as not to lose the light of their candles, he accidently trod on
the
hem of the oungest princesses' dress.  She cried out in fright "We are being
followed!  Someone just trod on my hem!" but as he could not be seen the eldest
princess said that she was imaging things and they continued on their way.

Finally the staircase ended at a vast cavern.  They now followed a lighted path
through
an orchard of fabulous trees, trees of gold and silver with leaves and fruits of
finest
gemstones.  "I must have a souvenir of this", thought the soldier, and reaching
up he
broke off a small twig.  The youngest princess cried out again "A branch just
cracked!
We are being followed!" but again she was told that she was imagining things,
for no
one could see the soldier in his cloak of invisibility.

Now they came to a lake in the center of the cavern, and on an island in the
lake was
a castle of terrible aspect, and at the side of the lake waited seven boats (or
perhaps
it was twelve) with a dark prince in each - some say they were the demon sons of
the
witch that was the princesses' stepmother.  Others that they were Lords of Hell.
 No one,
of course, really knows.  Each princess stepped in a boat and was brought across
the lake.
The poor soldier stepped into a boat with the youngest princess, who by now was
so terrified
that all she did was shiver when she felt the boat sink deeper into the water.

Across the lake they went, and at the island the princesses left the boats and
entered the
castle, where they danced and danced and danced until their slippers wore out. 
Before they
left, each was offered a draught out of a fine golden goblet by their dance
partner.  The
poor soldier stole a cup, and followed them back to the surface.  Scarecly had
they fallen
into bed when it was morning.

The soldier gathered up the cup, branch, sodden cloth, and sweetmeat, wrapping
them in
his cloak of invisibility and thereby carrying them beneath his arm without
anyone noticing.
He was brought before the king, and told his story of the trapdoor, the endless
stairway, the
orchard of fabulous trees, and the castle of dark aspect on the island in the
lake where
the princesses' danced with dark princes all night long.

The eldest princess scoffed at his tale.  "What proof do you have," she asked,
"that this is
not just some wild story?"  Without a word, he flung open his ragged cloak,
displaying the
jeweled branch, the golden goblet, the cloth soaked in drugged wine, and the
drugged sweetmeat.

Each of the princesses was made to drink from the golden cup.  The spell was
broken - the
princesses would dance no more.

Some say the stepmother shrieked and sunk into the earth, her pact with Hell
broken.  Some say
the dark princes were ensorcelled themselves, to dance a year beneath the earth
for each night
they'd danced with the princesses.  Some say the poor soldier married the
youngest princess.
Some say he married the eldest.  Some say he went on to have further
adventures.

Who can know?  Who can tell?  It's just a fairy tale, after all.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

I wanted to create a scene that illustrated what the cavern and the trees of the
fabulous
orchard looked like.  The cavern itself was easily created using a height field
generated with
HF-Lab, while I used my own nested-loop tree generation routine to create the
two trees and
bushes visible at the front of the picture; they are, clockwise from upper left,
as follows:
 - A silver tree with amethyst fruit and peridot leaves
 - A gold tree with blue topaz fruit and light emerald leaves
 - A brass bush with ruby fruit and peridot leaves
 - A copper bush with amber fruit and dark emerald leaves

Two swan-shaped boats made of white opal are floating in the lake.  The mesh for
the swans
was created in 3D Studio Max using the freeware "MetaMax" metaballs plugin, and
the resulting
mesh translated into POV format (smooth triangles) with the WCTV2POV utility. 
The white opal
texture (along with all the other jewel textures) was created using Texture
Magic.

There is a railing around the edge of the lake and the island; the rail itself
is obsidian
(volcanic glass), with spindles of faceted diamond.  The lamps lighting the
cavern are
glowing crystal eggs raised up on stanchions.  The bonfire inside the castle
also casts
light, though it's yellow rather than gray like the other lights are.

I wanted the "castle of terrible aspect" to have an "evilly organic" look, which
I felt
the taffy-like shapes of julia fractals were easiest to use for.  The castle is
therefore
made of a single julia fractal object, rotated and unioned with itself three
times.  I found
it interesting to discover that the julia fractal objects does NOT look quite
like three
different views of the same object; instead, it looks like three slightly
different versions
of similar objects.  I gave it the standard "Glass1" smoked glass texture, as I
didn't want
it to be as dark as the obsidian.

 

