TITLE: Nuclear Flux
NAME: Maarten Dinger
COUNTRY: New Zealand
EMAIL: irtc2@maartendinger.net
WEBPAGE: none (yet)
TOPIC: Catastrophe
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: nukeflux.jpg
ZIPFILE: nukeflux.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    Povray 3.6

TOOLS USED: 
    AC3D for modelling/posing.

RENDER TIME: 
    18 Hrs

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium IV 2.2 GHz, 1 GB RAM

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 
    This image is trying to depict the instant after nuclear
detonation - before the coming shock waves, sound, debris etc appear, where all
the organics are vapourised almost instantly by the intense radiation alone.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 
    The skeleton model was downloaded
sometime ago somewhere (I think 3D Cafe) off the internet, edited/posed with
AC3D and subsequently exported to POVRay where it was textured and a normal
(granite) applied. I forwent any additional scenery since the intense light
needed for the image made this look superfluous and/or fake. On hindsight, a
fogged silhouette of trees or buildings in the far background might have been
nice. The vapourising effect was acheived with a very simple iterative variable
transparency routine applied to a lower polygonskeleton model. Atompsheric
media was initially attempted, but a staisfactory result could not be obtained
by this method (by me, anyway). The image does look better with radiosity (I
did some low res tests), but the render time became excessive. The two models
afer being converted to POVRay smooth triangles were too large for upload (8
MB), so only the main source file is included.

