EMAIL: meijome@primenet.com
NAME: Todd Meijome
TOPIC: Science Fiction
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
RENDERER USED: Povray 3.0beta
TOOLS USED: PovSB 0.99h and MS-DOS Edit
RENDER TIME: approx. 4.5 hrs.
HARDWARE USED: 486dx33 w/12 MB of RAM (don't laugh, it works)
IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
Two robots (or Mechs, if you know what I'm talking about) proceeding
toward an off-screen defender at night.  I tried to keep the image and
the objects within fairly simple. I also used a triadic color scheme
(roughly the primary colors, if you hadn't noticed).  I would have to
say that I'm fairly pleased with the end result, but I would like to
add more detail to it in the future.
DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:
The image was not preconceived.  It just happened while I was fooling
around in PovSB.  It began with the arms (the missiles, etc.) and then
I added the torso (or the head).  Most of the body parts are CSG 
objects that evolved as I added or subtracted from a simple object.  
The only parts that aren't CSG objects are the football shaped ones 
(the missiles, cockpit, and part of the arm/missile launcher).  The
different objects were created and finalized in PovSB and exported as
PovSB objects.  A list of objects will follow and are included in the
attached source zip file:
    Arm/Missile Launcher
    Head/Torso
    Upper leg
    Lower leg
    Foot
These objects were then imported into seperate scenes where I created
the two robots (one apparently standing still, the other taking a 
step) and then saved them and exported them to POVRAY source.  I used
MS-DOS Edit to cut and paste the robots and translated them in the
final source file where I added black fog, some explosions, laser fire,
and a sort of sandy ground.  The lights are placed to make it seem as
though the explosions are creating the light (they are emitting halos, 
but the light just doesn't travel that well).  There was a lot of 
preview rendering in 160x100 to get the scene just right.
Unfortunately, since I started so late on it, there wasn't time for me
to add other things like dirt flying through the air and craters from
the explosions.  I was also thinking about adding more detail to the
robots like a grill on the block above the gun turret and some grooves
on other parts of the torso and arms.