Page Last Updated: 03/05/99
	'First Encounter'
	Time to trace: 7h 30m (ish) Image Description After the topic was announced for this round I was a bit short on ideas, so I downloaded POV 3.1 hoping for some inspiration. I paged through the docs and decided I'd try rendering a julia set, as it was something I'd never traced in POV 3.0. I tapped in the commands from the docs and saw an amazing shape. It was my *first encounter* with such a mathematical monster and my *first encounter* of POV 3.1. Wow -- tenuous inspiration! I've tried to reflect both of these firsts in the image by making the julia set the centre of the image and utilising some of the new features of POV, such as radiosity. This is my second entry in the IRTC, and once again I ran out of time. Given those extra few hours, I would have tried to give a more interesting wall and desk top, less 'red' lamp and pencils and a more twisting flex for the lamp. Image Notes Almost everything was created from scratch for this entry. The only exceptions were the basic pencil and the Newton's Cradle. The majority of the other objects (desk, desk lamp, mug, mat, pencil holder and julia stand) are all reasonably straight forward CSG. All of the objects were produced by hand using plain paper, a ruler, a pen and a lot of trail and error. The sketch of the julia set was produced by rendering a grey julia set on a white background, then applying the chalk and charcoal artistic filter from PhotoShop 4. The image on the mug is a simple image placed twice on a pi:1 ratio canvas. The zip file contains both images at a reduced resolution. A 'crackle' surface normal was used to give the rough wall texture. I think it gives a nice surface to slightly diffuse the shadows. There are 2 lights in the scene. The first is a 60% white shadowless light in the centre of the room. This is used to provide the general illumination for the image. The second light, a slightly yellow area light, is located within the lamp and illuminates the desk objects. Radiosity was also used on the final render. The only really difficult in the image was getting the pencils to look correct when they were placed in the holder. As my maths isn't up to much, I first calculated the angle from the centre of the base of each holder to the lip, then adjusted the height of the holder based on the angle and the width of the pencil object. Hopefully the result is that they don’t look too much like they are floating! There were some very nice comments for this image which I really appriciated: From bobfranke@halcyon.com: I think the composition if the image is fine. More items in the wall and desk top will just take the focus away from the fractal and sketch. Also the pencils look good. For me, one improvement is to rotate the wood texture on the stand for the fractal more. I think a little 'distressing' of the desk would have added to the image a little. From Sean_Hamilton@amrcorp.com: Very nice. Your julia model is great and the sketch is very appropriate! Thanks! From dick@buckosoft.com: Best use of the "useless" julia shape i've seen. Ta! From gmccarter@hotmail.com: Very nice gooseneck lamp, and wall texture. Some of the primary colors are too intense. Good overall lighting and ambience. Yup, my fault with the colours. Next time I'll spend a little extra effort getting the *right* colour. From tina@tezcat.com: I think the pencils came out great. Also the coffee mug and its coffee, and the coaster. The way the mug was just a little off-center on the coaster added to the artistic competition from my point of view. Thanks. Moving the coffee mug off centre seemed pretty much the only thing to do. From djconnel@flash.net: This is a very good image with the real chance to be excellent. The idea of the sketching of the fractal is a good one! However, I really don't think it meets the topic as well as it could.... the relationship between the artist and the subject is not on the same level as the relationship between subjects. But, I think the inclusion of the pencil sketch is quite good, artistically. It presents a nice contrast between the mathematical perfection of the rendered object and the filtered interpretation of conventional art. Eh? From east103@dialaccess.com: Nice job, well done. Thanks! From ethelm@bigfoot.com: Nice image. Good detail and lighting. Thanks again! From 101741.541@compuserve.com: A bit of a pretext concept. I like the desk lamp, especially the spring-part. Yup, I was stretching the topic a little. From blaineholmes@hotmail.com: I like the interaction with the pencil sketch and the fractal. Thanks, but it was purely accidental! From wozzeck@club-internet.fr: Nice texturing and lighting. The red pencil and blue pot are a bit flat, but jpeg created the problem. Err, no. The bad primary colours are entirely my fault. From clem@dhol.com: The connection to the topic is kind of thin. The drawing is nicely done and is a nice touch. The desktop texture is quite good, and the lighting works pretty well. The image doesn't really say much, though. Instead of just displaying a Julia set, it would have been better to *use* the julia set in some clever way. I have seen one used as a gateway in a "little Nemo" type scene in a previous round and as facial hair in a still earlier round. A scene with multiple Julias as, say, trees and bushes and clouds etc. would have carried the idea better. I know you had time pressure, but it would have been nice. Hmm... may be it would be nicer, but that was not what I wanted to do... From r@haka.saunalahti.fi: Never mind the drawing, I'd like to meet the guy who sculpted that in the first place! :-) The scene might look better with some details add realism, say, coffee stains on the table, dents in the pencil, a poster on the wall.. Yup, I think adding those little touches of realism would have nicely finished off the image. I know my desk at home is absolute chaos.