Email: N6RE@mminternet.com Name: Raymond Clancy Topic: Frozen Moments Copyright: I submit to the standard raytracing competition copyright. Title: Sundogs10 Country: USA Web Page: None Renderer Used: Pov-Ray for windows 3.5 Tools used: Windows Paint, MGI Video Wave Studio, Irfanview Render time: One second (640x480bmp output) Hardware used: Athlon 1900+ Win98SE moboA7V333 Image Description: The image is a "Frozen Moment" generated by ice crystals at 3 to 6 miles in the atmosphere. It is colloquially called a display of "sundogs", possibly a term derived from hunters use of dogs (well-trained dogs hunt at defined distance and even with the hunter). Hunting dogs date back to 3000BC. With the gracious permission of the copyright holder, Philip Appleton, I make use of his "Sundogs at Winter Solstice"image. I have added two "frosty sundogs" to this background image. (Perhaps they are wearing sundog sunglasses!). The technical name for the celestial phenomenon is "Parhelia". The presence of sundogs is usually accompanied by high cirrus clouds of ice crystals. I had the pleasure of observing sundogs from my home last month (Nov) at mid-day hours. One instance included a second "halo" around the normal 22 degree halo at about 45 degrees. Colored sundogs appeared variably over the time span of four hours generating "frozen moments". A tangential curve appeared at the zenith of the halo at times. Antarctica has unique displays of sundogs due to the low sun position above the horizon. A sundog search on the internet reveals many facts and images of "Parhelia". A halo simulator program is available therein. Photographing this phenomenon by Mr. Appleton shows skillful use of photographic paraphernalia. I used his original image of 2472x1571x24bmp as the background. File halodog1.bmp is 11.1mb. Description of how this image was created: The .jpg image presented herewith was generated by editing the background image, removing the copyright statement to prevent erosion during the processes required. The copyright statement was typed in during evolution of the combined images. The dog image was edited in Paint for color and size. Foreground places the dogs. The background image was entered into MGI Video Wave Studio wherein the copyright statement was entered via the video mixer feature and a single frame output passed through Irfanview to generate a .bmp. Installed this .bmp into Pov-Ray as a sky_sphere image_map, adjusted parameters for the image and the camera to position the image. Returned the .bmp to Video Studio wherein the dog images were integrated into the scene using the single frame technique as before. The final.bmp was converted in Irfanview. This integrated image .bmp was then rendered in POV-RAY in one second and the .jpg conversion made in Irfanview. As you can probably tell, I am not expert at this, but I am having a ball! If nothing else, the render speed will be an eye popper!! It was made with simple tools....K.I.S.S. Happy New Year to all!