EMAIL: gmccarter@hotmail.com
NAME: Glenn McCarter
TOPIC: Physics and Math
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: "Velocity"
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE: -none-
RENDERER USED: POV-Ray 3.0
TOOLS USED:
  Pencil & paper (to visualize a few complex CSGs )
  Paint Shop Pro (to create height fields; to convert image to JPEG)
RENDER MUSIC: Herbie Hancock, Jamiroquai
RENDER TIME: 16h 13m
HARDWARE USED: Pentium-90

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

Physics and math are everywhere, even in the pages of comic books.

Imagine this as an issue of "Texas Crimefighter Comics" from 1952,
and we are seeing the following scene:
It's a warm night on the outskirts of Clayton Station, Texas.
A getaway car speeds away from the scene of the crime.
Lone Star state crimefighters are in hot pursuit.
Bullets are flying overhead.
A locomotive bears down on the railroad crossing.

The police car might make the crossing.
Or there might be a violent wreck.
The robbers might get away.
Or they might be brought to justice.
Everything depends on...


Velocity!



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

How do you illustrate an abstract concept such as "Math"?
Or "Physics"?

One way is to pick a concrete example.  I made up the following
example textbook problem:
"An express train passes A at 11:55 and travels northeast at 60 mph
to B, 24 miles away.  Meanwhile at 12:08, a car leaves C at 45 mph
and proceeds south towards D.  C is 21 miles from A and 6 miles
from B. Will the car beat the train to the crossing?"

What would the key moment of this scenario look like?
A speeding car.  A threatening locomotive.  Velocity!

Velocity \ve-LAS-et-e\(n) [MF velocite]
1: quickness of motion : speed
2: time rate of linear motion in a given direction

The next step was to execute the concept.
I chose to render this image in a "comic book" style, in order
to give it maximum drama and impact.  My goals in this scene were
to achieve the comic book effect, as well as to produce a nighttime
scene (without looking gloomy).

Elements that help give the scene a comic book effect:
- The train and cars are stretched and squashed. This was done
  in POV with transformation matrices, which shear the objects.
- Objects in the scene are placed at exaggerated angles
  which emphasize the sense of movement and tension.
- The white border inset image, sound effects, and motion blurs.
- Also, the unusual point of view of the camera itself
  plays a key role in the comic book look.

Technical details:
I created all textures, models, lights, etc. specifically for
this IRTC image. Everything was hand-coded within the POV-Ray editor.
Only one image_map is used in this scene -- the inset image -- which
is another raytracing of the same scene with a few parameters changed.
Four intersected height fields are used to form each of the rocks.
The 400+ rocks are randomly colored and randomly positioned between
the railroad ties.
Numerous color maps are used to form textured color gradients,
such as the shading of the rails, signpost, and text background.
The human figure is fully poseable; take a look at "BlobHead.inc",
"BlobHand.inc", and "BlobMan.inc" in the zip file.
The motion blurs are made with my patented, new and improved,
all purpose, "BlurFilt.inc" include file.  Download this and
use it to add motion blur to your POV-Ray scenes.

By the way, several velocities are illustrated in this scene:
    The light is blazing   at 1,080,000,000 km/h
   The bullet is zipping   at 1,100 km/h
    The train is speeding  at 120 km/h
      The car is moving    at 80 km/h
The continent is drifting  at .000000003 km/h  <g>

Will Officer Johnson get his man?
Don't miss the next exciting issue of
"Texas Crimefighter Comics"!