TITLE: The Petrona Towers
NAME: Javier Silveira
COUNTRY: Argentina
EMAIL: jsilveira@fibertel.com.ar
WEBPAGE: I don't have one...
TOPIC: Architecture
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: petronas.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    3d Studio Max 4.0 with Finalrender Stage 0

TOOLS USED: 
    Corel Photopaint 9 for some textures

RENDER TIME: 
    1 hour 30 minutes

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium III 1Ghz, 256 RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


First of all, forgive my english (my native language is spanish) Well, I have
always admired the Petrona towers, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They are
currently the tallest towers in the entire world (with a height of 450m).
Finished in 1996, for me they are a great symbol of the astounding development
architecture has reached in the last century. I had never sended anything to
the Pov-Ray competition, and when I saw this topic, I thought it was perfect
for my first work. I didn't think twice what I was going to portrait (or at
least try...): this huge monument to architecture, engineering and civilization
located in Malaysia had always been a source of inspiration for me and a
"pending task" in my list....


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


Basicly, I created everything in 3dMax (both the model and the materials). There
are only two bitmaps as textures (actually, as opacity maps for a mix of two
materials), one that delimitates the "metalic" part of each floor from the
other part (done in Photopaint), and another one for the ground (one of max's
standard libraries). The rest is all modelling, procedural maps, reflections
and ligthing._
First of all I downloaded from the internet (trhough google's image search) like
50 pictures from the real towers. I found some basic measures (although very
few and "general") and the rest of the model was made trying to "guess" which
was the precise structure and shape of the building (it was a very intensive
work). Once I finished the model, I started with the materials and illumination
part. I spend most of the time doing this. I drove myself crazy trying to
achieve a realistic look, changing the background the light, the level of
reflection the materials. I finally decided on a "cloudy day", combining point
lights and finalRender global illumination. Another complicated issue was the
camera angle: the towers were so big and tall, that it was very dificult for me
to find a point of view where you could see some details and at the same time
that showed the entire building. I must admit finalRender helped a lot making
the reflections rendering much faster than 3dmax scanline or raytrace
renderers.
So, here it is what I got... I did my best, and I recognize it has a lot to be
done yet, but I am still happy with it. It's my first work, my hardware didn't
helped too much and I can't complain.
I didn't send the model files because they were too heavy, but if anyone woud
like to have it (as if it worths ,something...) you can send an email and maybe
I could see how to send to that person the model.


