TITLE: Grade One
NAME: Gautam N. Lad
COUNTRY: Canada
EMAIL: gautam@interlog.com
WEBPAGE: http://www.interlog.com/~gautam
TOPIC: School
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: gnlgrad1.jpg
ZIPFILE: gnlgrad1.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray v3.01.msdos.wat-cwa

TOOLS USED: 
    Mid Night Modeller v2.10 (Main modeller),
                POV-Ray v3.01.msdos.wat-cwa (Main renderer),
                Microsoft Paintbrush (Alphabet blocks image maps),
                LView v3.1 (.TGA to .JPG Conversion, Copyright text, and
                            Gamma correction),
                PictureViewer v1.61 (Various image conversion),
                Dyeworks v1.40 (Various image conversion),
                Logitech ScanMan 256 Hand-held scanner (Scanning image),
                ColorDesk Photo (Software used to control scanner and adjust
                                 image brightness, etc.),
                Texture Blender v1.0 - From POV-PAK v1.0 (Used to make the
                    carpet, alphabet blocks, and train textures),
                Tracer Timer v1.0 - From POV-PAK v1.0 (To time image),
                My sister's crayons (For the main image)! ;)
                

RENDER TIME: 
    Approximately 10 hours 45 minutes 35 seconds (38735 seconds)

HARDWARE USED: 
    486 DX2 50MHz with 8MB of RAM (Computer)
                Logitech ScanMan 256 Hand-held scanner (Scanning image),


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

The main theme behind the image comes from the famous English proverb:
            "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

The story behind the title:
"Jack (the ficticious character who drew the image) was told by his Grade One
teacher to draw a picture of himeself, as a little art project.  He seems to
be a very good drawer, as touted by his class-mates, but unfortunately, Jack
has gotten bored of his work, and decided to spend some time by playing with
Legos, the very educational alphabet blocks, and a wooden toy train.
He even managed to spell out the word 'POVRAY' using the blocks!"

NOTE:
Although you can't see the alphabet block letter O, I'm expecting the letter
O (Oh) to come out of your mouth when you see this fantastic image.  I said
"O" when I saw the first test render.  This is a very lame JOKE, huh?!? ;)



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

Wow, this has been my biggest, and best project ever, it's also the first
time I rendered an image that took more than 5 hours! ;)

1st, I drew the main image using my sister's crayons, and made it like how
a (really good) grade one child would draw it.  Since my mom babysits a
grade one child, I (sort of) knew how one draws.  I then scanned my drawing
in, and lacking image editing programs, I left the image as it was
(except for making it brighter).  I made two drawings, and made various tests
using the first, but later drew another, and that remained the final.  Because
my scanner isn't amazing when it comes to quality, the colour on the first
were light and so I made the second drawing darker (by pressing harder with
the crayons).

Very first thing I modelled were the crayons, and the paper.   Made a few
test renders, and the decided to add more objects.  I then made a Lego object
using POV-Ray's programming language to simplify things (at least for me).
I then spent like a week working with the Legos, and when I was satisfied, I
made the entire batch of Legos into one object (AllLegos).

Next came the alphabet blocks.  So, I spent like another week or two making
the bitmaps of the letters (specifically P O V R A Y), and the main alphabet
block object.  Once again, using the POV-Ray programming language to simplify
things, because you can't tile an image onto all sides of a cube, so I had
to make a loop that drew all the side as a thin cube.  So, after getting the
main block done, I created a separate scene and modelled a bunch of blocks,
and then made the entire batch of blocks into one object (AllAlphabet).

Finally, came the time for me to do test renders.  First render I
made took about 10 hours, and it used radiosity and +a0.289. This was the
first time I rendered an image that took more than 5 hours.  In that render,
I noticed a few glitches.  First, the alphabet blocks were too high off the
carpet (that's what the floor is).  Next, the letter V on the alphabet block
was slightly slicing through the block below.  Next, the crayons all looked
brand new, and this was due to the tip being perfect.  So, back to MNM I
went and made scrap CSG cubes and manually applied to the source.  The result
would give the effect of the crayons being used (dull points).  Another thing
was there were still some jaggies, so I increased the anti-aliasing and
disabled radiosity.  The quality seem to look the same, and since I lowered
anti-aliasing, using radiosity would possibly take even longer (to me that
would be FOREVER with my 486).

The train was a last minute add-on.  The idea came from a toy my sister has,
but that toy is like an inch in length (quite small).  So, I made it big to
fill up space! ;)

One thing I forgot is to add a black crayon.  Let's just say the child is
holding it in his hand, and went away from his 'work area' for a while! ;)

FINAL NOTE: The render time isn't EXACT, because MS-Windows 95 crashed like a
            dozen times during the final render.  I guess Win95 isn't as
            crash protected as it was said to be (I may be wrong here).
            I knew I should have used  OS/2, but I had little time! :(

            Next, I hope you try out my POV-PAK utilities bundle.
            It's got some neat utilities for POV-Ray, two of which
            were used in this project!  And, it's FREEWARE!
            Check out my site for more information.  

(Submitted: April 28, 1997)
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Grade One -- Copyright (C) 1997, Gautam N. Lad.  All Rights Reserved.

NOTE:  If YOU wish to use this image/file for ANY purpose, you MUST first
       contact me at my e-mail address to get my premission.
       Visit my website to find software/graphics/links, etc. at:
       http://www.interlog.com/~gautam
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