EMAIL: rdavis@rmi.net
NAME: Bob Davis
TOPIC: Unbelievable
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Vigil of the Ancients
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE: http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/gargoyle/34/
RENDERER USED: Povray 3.02
TOOLS USED: None
RENDER TIME: 25m 02s
HARDWARE USED: PII-266
IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

In a parallel dimension, ancient guardians post a silent watch as
Earth evolves before them.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

In three words - "Fun with Fractals".

For this topic, I thought that an image with a surreal flavor would fit quite nicely.
From personal experience, I've found that there is often a fine line between surrealism
and the abstract. To stay within the former's boundaries requires a simple
(non-cluttered) overall look using complex shapes while at the same time keeping
pronounced angles to a minimum.  What better candidates than fractals?  Besides, I'd
been looking for a good reason to experiment with them.

The "guardians" are a CSG of two distinct julia fractals using quaternion 4-D algebra
and incorporating the sqr function.  Each fractal has been clipped, rotated and 
translated to form the desired effect.

The "animal-like" beings on each side of the image are also julia fractals.  I was able
to clip, rotate, and translate each fractal in such a way that when combined with just 
the right texture and coloring, the image became almost "organic" in appearance.

The "watchamacallit" above the guardians is a CSG consisting of a series of extruded
and "normal" spheres.

The rest of the image is fairly basic;

The tile is just your standard 3-texture hexagon plane incorporating two stone textures
and a "Mr. Clean" finish.

The planet is a sphere overlayed by an image map of Earth.

The energy field around the Earth, is a blue-green tinted sphere.  The finish uses a
"non-standard" reflection and roughness factor for a transparent object in order to
use the reflections from the sky and tile to give it a shimmering and fluid effect.

The sky is a hollow sphere using a somewhat turbulent bozo pattern and a 4 segment color
map.