TITLE: Mystic Eggs
NAME: Jammer
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: jammer@shelby.net
WEBPAGE: www.shelby.net/southerneagle
TOPIC: Glass
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: glsseggs.jpg
RENDERER USED:  POVRAY 3.0 for DOS
TOOLS USED:  Corel 5.0
RENDER TIME:  180 hr. 43 min. 48 sec. (a little over seven and a half days)
HARDWARE USED:  Cyrix 686 120

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 
 In the vastness of space a forgotten mysty nebula 
conceals within its shrouds the Temple of the Eggs.  This ancient structure 
of glass is the keeper of a magical treasure.  On the glass tables in the 
middle of the temple, resting in gold holders, are the Mystic Eggs.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 
 A lot of work went into making 
Mystic Eggs.  At times like this I wish I had a wire frame modeler.  
Everything in this picture is made of glass except the gold holders, stars, 
and the white nebula.  The way I got my glass effect is with my own mixes of 
filter, reflection, refraction, and phong statements.

The eggs are elongated glass spheres that are the primary colors of light 
(blue, green, and red).

The holders that the eggs in which the eggs are resting are made of cones, 
spheres, and toruses.  The toruses were elongated to match the eggs and the 
top halves were cut off so the eggs would not be completely enclosed.  The 
ring of spheres was created using a simple rotate statement.  There are eight 
cones which support the holder.  The larger end fits within the ring of 
spheres while the smaller end touches the table with a fine tipped point.

The tables consist of shperes and cylinders.  The flat top is a cylinder.  
The main support is a cylinder.  The decorations around the main cylinder are 
eight cylinders, 4 long and 4 short.  At the bottom of these are shperes 
which change the flat bottom to a smooth curve.  The tables are magenta.  
Around the tables are colored spheres.

The floor is made of a few cylinders.  The one on the bottom is bigger than 
the one above it, creating a stair effect (more visible from the outside).  
The floor is an orchid color with white specks.

The main part of the ceiling is a wide cylinder.  Above it are four cylinders 
rotated around the y-axis.  On top of those is one cylinder connecting them 
all together.  There are flattened spheres all around the bottom edge of the 
main cylinder.  The ceiling uses the same white specked pattern as the floor.  
The cylinders on the top can be seen, but not very noticably, creating a 
subtle change in the ceiling's pattern.

The columns were hard to make.  The main column is a cylinder.  The multiple 
spirals around the cylinder are made by four similar statements.  The 
statements are very complex, dealing with toruses that cut in half and then 
rotated to the angle I want them to spiral up.  The next step in getting the 
constant spirals was to have a while loop which rotated them around and 
moved them up at just the right amount so they would attach to each other 
seamlessly.  After I had declared one column as all of the above, I had to 
rotate it around in a circle, then add the proper glass effects.  The color 
is a dark purple.

The "magic gate" around the outside of the columns which prevents entry was 
also difficult to make.  I started out by making two small toruses of equal 
size, one over the other.  Then I calculated the proper points for a roughly 
45 degree angle of the spokes in between.  However, there weren't enough 
spokes, so I changed the already complex while loop to add even more; I also 
made the toruses wider in diameter.  When I rendered the rough draft to see 
what my creation would look like, the spokes no longer went to the proper 
points.  I then had to manually calculate a completely different equation 
that would roughly keep the spokes going around in a circular pattern and 
stay within (or at least near) the center part of the rings.  Having finally 
achieved the desired result, I declared it as an object and imported and 
scaled it to the proper size.  Finally, I added a glass effect using a medium 
purple.

The glass chandelier in the center of the ceiling also took a while to 
perfect.  The green, red, and blue globes are glass spheres with a black web-
like pattern on them.  The frame of the fixture was created by using a torus 
for the main support, in the middle.  It holds the blue sphere in place.  The 
other structures that hold the green and red spheres are part of a flattened 
sphere with a difference statement to allow the spheres to rest in them.  The 
frame was given a glass statement with a grayish coloring.

This leaves only the background.  The background was created with the sky 
sphere command.  The stars were a pigment statement I found in the star field 
include file.  I altered the pattern and colors to until I got the stars how 
I wanted them.  The white swirl I used for the nebula is a bozo pigment 
statement using white blended with transparent.

After the image was done rendering, I used Corel to add gamma correction and 
my name and web site.


