EMAIL: raytracing@grayproductions.net NAME: James Edward Gray II and Christina Nordloh TOPIC: Frozen Moment COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. TITLE: Winter Games COUNTRY: USA RENDERED USED: POV-Ray 3.5 (UNIX build - optimized compile) TOOLS USED: Mac OS X, and Windows version of Pov-Ray 3.5, as well as Photoshop 7.0 for the JPEG version. We found that working with both versions was possible, but adding code as we went caused complications due to added spaces and glitches via email bugs. Using a Macro's was pretty much mandatory so we wouldn't go insane trying to find the extra space or odd character that wouldn't allow the render. RENDER TIME: 4 minutes 34 seconds HARDWARE USED: Dual 533 G4 running Mac OS X and Duron 750 running Windows XP Professional IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Winter Games is an attempt to freeze a scene in total motion, while adding some wonderful humor. We used snowmen because they were simple shapes that were easy to manipulate, and a snowball fight because we found it a fun concept There is the green team, and the red team; both about to be creamed by a round of snowballs, cannon balls, and icicle swords. Humor was our main goal in this picture, we wanted something we could be proud of and laugh at in the same stroke. The mountains and snow lake are mainly eye candy to break up the great expanse that became our world, and were a lot of fun to create. DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: This image was created by James Gray and Christina Nordloh, a dual and equal partnership that consisted of a teacher (James), and an artist that had never toyed with a ray tracer before (Christina - the one writing this). In short two very good friends. This will be the first picture to enter into a competition for either of us, an adventure of sorts for certain. It began with James asking me if I was interested in doing a joint project in Ray Tracing, and turned into a sprint for the competition deadline. I spent the first week after I agreed to do this, doing the Demos that come with the download - at that point I was certain I was in way over my head, but was willing to give it a go. James had fiddled with POV-Ray for a couple of years so was in the driver's keyboard when we were doing something I didn't understand fully (i.e. macro's, and complex textures such as glass for the swords) We chose simple shapes we could easily manipulate so I could get a handle on what I was doing, and stuck with pure POV-Ray for the entire scene to keep it simple and not have to learn a new renderer or modeler due to our time limitations. It was accomplished with both of us doing parts on our own time and then a weekly meeting to get things finalized and decide what to do next. A lot of the meeting time was spent in laughter as we made mistakes, or found something more to add in the humor department - that had to be my favorite part of this project. It was awesome to see a simple concept come to life at our fingertips, and the paratroopers have remained our combined favorites. We started with a simple snow texture, put a wall, two snow forts, and one snowman, then went from there. We quickly realized that the simple snow texture had no end so the mountains and snow lake were born - they make for wonderful eye candy. The tricky part came when we started trading files and found that Mac OS X and Windows emails don't transfer files as well as we had hoped so we made a macro for the snowmen, and a few other things to eliminate the down time it took to find that extra space or character that had been added. Overall we kept the scene simple, something we could both handle and still have fun doing. I admit I'm hooked - I look forward to my next entry - whether it be with James or solo. It was an honor to work along side James, and it's awesome to have a finished piece to show for it. Enjoy!