Jason Ranger's ray tracing project

What did I do?

I chose to recreate a building from the what remains of the village of Dorothy, alberta.
My reasons were simple, I thought that the abandoned building looked like it would be fun
to recreate. I used the MOray extension for POV Ray. Although limited compared to some
more advanced ray tracing products it gave me a good understanding of what is involved in
3D image creation(and i must say its time consuming). Also seeing the code for what i was
creating(via POV-Ray) was quite interesting.

Were my problems self imposed?

The entire building was made from only squares and I didn't use any imported textures or
objects because I thought that I would see what I could do with the base program without
the work of others. I did have a bit of a hard time getting the colours looking decent,
they still contrast too much. The window curves and the roofing took the most time. The
windows because of their curving features and the roofing I just wanted to make look nice.


Probaly the hardest part was simply becoming familiar with the interface(there are alot
of buttons). However once i learned the different commands and tools available(mostly
through experimentation) the many options made the job easier and easier. The rest mostly
just took time.


Realistic colours and textures are hard to create. Unfortunately the perfect pieces I was
able to create don't lend themselves easily to trying to create an old looking and rundown
building. I have to say that, although mine may not be the perfect example, those who make
realistic looking imperfect, damaged, and older objects must put ALOT of work into it.

Conclusion:

this project was fun but i only wish i had a better understanding of the progam i was using.
I probably spent way too much time on the smallest things but after learning the program's
capabilities it became easier and therefore faster. This project helped me understand
that you dont just slap a few objects together to make a 3D image, instead many samll
shapes, time, determination, and some artistic talent(which i may be lacking in) are the
required elements of 3D design.

Some Images

And here is the Dorothy building it was based on.