TITLE: First Encounter with Artificially created Life
NAME: Caleb Hattingh
COUNTRY: South Africa
EMAIL: caleb@chemeng.uct.ac.za
TOPIC: "First Encounters" Competition ending 31 Dec 98
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: life.jpg
ZIPFILE: life.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    Povray for Windows 3.0

TOOLS USED: 
    Moray for Windows 3.0, Spatch

RENDER TIME: 


        Settings:

        800x600
        Anti-aliasing 0.2
        Jitter        0.5
        Rays          2x2

        Computer Specs:

        Intel Celeron 300MHz
        32 Mb RAM

        Time taken:

        Parse:  0 hrs 8  min 56 sec
        Trace: 35 hrs 28 min 37 sec
        Total: 35 hrs 37 min 33 sec


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Quarter to 1.  The alarm on his watch had scared him a little.  
He knew of course that there was no reason to be nervous, since 
he had been performing amateur organic scientific experiments for 
years now.  He knew he was close to something special, but he 
did not know for sure.

He added maybe 2 or 3 drops more of his protoplasmic blue syrup, 
and suddenly, without warning, a translucent green monstrosity, 
grew up and out of the evaporating dish he was working in.

His last thoughts were not of fear, nor anger.  They were of pride.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The green thing is the artificially created life-form.  Uh-huh, yep, 
I know it is not immediately obvious from the picture; I also realise 
I will probably lose many points for this, judging from the comments 
from previous rounds.  Had I wanted the topic to be immediately
evident from the picture, I would have done a UFO-meets-humans type
picture, and I am sure there are going to be many of those.  I 
wanted to do something a little bit different.

The Erlenmeyer flask (one with the blue liquid) holds the protoplasm,
The test-tubes serve as general purpose holders.  This is a 
conscientious scientist.  Anyone who has worked in a lab knows that
the usual general purpose containers include pencil-cases, coffee mugs
and even pockets (get that phosphorus outta there sonny).

The test-tubes are held in a rack that is identical to the ones we have 
in my lab, you may have seen different ones, in case it seems my 
modelling sucks (although truth be told, it does suck).

The woody looking thing is a table. 'Nuf said.

Clearly, this is a very simplistic scene.  I could have put in more,
but I grew fond of the relationship between the objects in the scene.
Visually, there is a lyrical interplay between the 'organic' life-form
and the curves in the glassware, and the objects were arranged (on 
purpose btw) to pull the viewers eye towards the top right of the scene
(try it). The darkness then pulls the focus around the edges of the 
picture to the bottom left and the cycle continues (that art class in
school payed off bigtime).

My sole intention was to create a picture with atmospheric and visual
appeal.  So don't penalise me too heavy on the topic thing.
 

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


The glassware is easy - rotational sweeps in Moray.  Moray is superb.

The life-form is an Spatch model.  Spatch is very superb.

The test-tube holder is your classic block and sphere CSG differences.

The scissors (yes that is a pair of scissors) was also Spatch, as well
as the spatula.

Note the following:
1) the scissors could have been done better - the handles are pathetic
2) the spatula is still too thick
3) the lifeform has a stupid deformation on the "body" in the front - its
   not smooth there (I dragged a point by mistake and there was no undo)
4) the wood texture is very good, I think
5) the light effects *inside* the life-form were exacltly the effects I 
   was hoping to achieve - it looks really cool
6) The liquid in the flask is very shiny - thats cause I stuck a light
   inside it.  I always wondered what that would do. 

        Thats All Folks - good luck to all other entrants

