Speaking of Happiness Moments, I finished my POV-Ray Tardis project.
Or more accurately, I finished the first phase of the project. The beauty of something like this is that you can return to it later and add details or make improvements. Sometimes you learn a new trick that can be retro-fitted to an older project.
That can happen on programming projects, too. Exposure to the Smalltalk and Lisp communities gave me a view of code as a living thing that evolves (sometimes daily) as all living things do.
I’ll write about that sometime, but today I just want to show off my Tardis!
[Click pics for bigger pic.]
Oh, oh! It appears the Tardis has been trapped in some sort of evil space trap. (The red glow tells us that it must be evil.) The Tardis is fighting back with a force field. What will happen next?
We made it safely inside the force field. The Tardis looks unharmed! In fact, it looks a bit too new. Sometime I’ll look at ways to apply a “weathered and dirty” look.
One thing that made this a lot easier is using existing images for the “Police Box” and “Pull To Open” signs. The former might have been doable with text objects, but the large white front sign would have been a tough trick.
Ray tracing is powerful enough that you can simulate real lenses (you can give a transparent object an Index of Refraction), but it really bumps up the render time. So instead of making a real Fresnel lens for the blue lamp, I just faked it with a striped pattern.
How about the handle on that baby? I think I’ve mentioned that I may have a touch of OCD that—fortunately—seems to manifest only in my work. (You certainly don’t see it in my housekeeping or lifestyle!)
I did originally have a much simpler handle and lock, but I just can’t resist putting in little details that make it look more life-like. I so completely identify with those guys who spend hours building a ship in a bottle. Or even just any model maker, really. That’s all this is.
Unfortunately, my Tardis has a rather normal-looking inside. (Or is that just its disguise? Maybe you’re not allowed to see its real insides.)
And where did that stool come from? (Again the compulsive detail: no one will ever see that ceiling light! The windows are not actually transparent; they’re just a glowy orange color.)
One of these days I should really learn to do that slideshow thing… this would have been perfect for it. On the other hand, there is something nice about seeing all the pictures, even if it does boost the page load time. (At least I put them below the fold!) I guess I’m kind of on the fence, which is why I haven’t made the effort to learn the trick.
February 8th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
This is completely cool, even though I can’t even pretend to understand the process.
February 9th, 2013 at 9:56 am
If you’ve ever done any kind of scripting (even BAT files) or programming, that’s a direct analog. You write a “scene” that describes your whatever and hand it off to the app to render into an image file. It’s different in that with most code there’s a sense of, “it starts here and ends here.” A scene just describes, and that description has no preferred order.
You can compare it to learning a musical instrument. There are three components: how to make notes with that particular tool (technique); how to make music with that particular tool (performance); and how to make music, period (art). Here the technique is the scene description language (and some minor details about using the app). Performance is partly experience, partly education (tutorials), partly knack (able to think about objects in 3D space) and partly just liking “that sort of thing.”
February 8th, 2013 at 6:52 pm
You’re such a nerd! 🙂 Love it!
February 9th, 2013 at 9:57 am
😆 Wait,… nerd or geek? Oh, who am I kidding; either is correct!
February 9th, 2013 at 10:18 am
and either is awesome!
February 9th, 2013 at 10:30 am
Well I not going to argue with someone who calls me awesome, I just won’t! 😀
February 9th, 2013 at 10:31 am
Smart man!!
February 9th, 2013 at 11:57 am
Although whether I let her have the last word on my blog is another matter… 😛
February 9th, 2013 at 12:34 pm
Fair enough!
February 9th, 2013 at 1:23 pm
I’m glad you understand!
February 9th, 2013 at 2:04 pm
I’m glad you’re glad that I understand LOL!
February 9th, 2013 at 3:15 pm
We’re glad and on the same page!
February 9th, 2013 at 7:36 pm
That we are! So ok, you can have the last word now, if you want…
February 10th, 2013 at 10:30 am
Very gracious! (As if you had any say in it in these here parts! 😆 😛 😎 )