:: February 12, 2004 :: 8:24 PM

Click to enlarge....

The final step in the whole procedure: post-processing the solo shots of the "Lethbridge teapot". In this case, there wasn't a whole lot of post-processing to be done... what you see is very nearly what was done in POV-Ray. Notable exceptions include...

• Compositing two images, one with the teapot very bright (an extra light shining on it) and one that was darker (for the background and shadow)
• Retouching the color just a tad... it wasn't quite red enough when it rendered the last time.
• Blurring the edges of the shadows. One of POV-Ray's downfalls is it's tough to soften the edges of raytraced shadows. That's where The Gimp's blur tool comes in handy!

Now, for the final rundown... Teapot? Check. Post-processing? Check. Final blog entry? Checkity-checkity, check.

And that, as they say, is all she wrote.

:: February 11, 2004 :: 7:46 PM

(From the waterfall blog...)

Teapot, teapot... who's got the teapot?

Where do you put a teapot in the middle of the mountains? How did it get there, anyways? Such are the mysteries of life, I'm afraid. Seems there's been a mysterious new variety of conifer sprouting in the midst of the Rockies... of the teapot variety. Now the only question is... can you find it?

Oh? And did I happen to mention that I added another 3 trees -- well, 1 "bush" (scaled tree), one tree, and one... um... "teapotree"? That brings our grand total up to... (drum roll, please) 418.

Progress Snapshot

Teapot Embedding

Enter "Oooohs" and "Ahhhhhs" Here

:: February 1, 2004 :: 11:21 AM

"Photoshop, Photoshop, where wouldst I be without thee?"

I love my texture for the "Lethbridge teapot". And it only took seven tries to get it "acceptable". Basically, I extracted bits and pieces from the three photos supplied and put them together in Photoshop. It's a little bumpy some places, but believe me, this is the best of the seven attempts. When I put in on the teapot, I thought it looked mighty fine, so I threw up my hands, and declared victory over the evil teapot texture... bwah, hah, hah.....

Ahem.

After that momentary lapse in sanity, I should also note that I managed, also, to color match a back plane and a ground plane pretty close to what was in the original pictures. We'll have to see how it all shakes down, but, personally, I think it looks pretty close. Maybe if I have time (ie. remember), I'll see if I can't get it a bit closer, but for now, I'm pleased with it.

Progress Snapshot

Texture

:: January 31, 2004 :: 1:32 PM

Now, I think that whoever came up with Moray deserves a medal. Or at least some kudos. I was originally going to model the "Lethbridge teapot" (No, you're not going crazy it's not REALLY a teapot like Mrs. Potts or anything... what now you're going to tell me that she wasn't real?!? That neither was Belle? Or Beast?!?!?) in POV-Ray, using a couple of cones and a difference. Maybe a rotational sweep if I was feeling really ambitious. "But," I thought, "we're allowed to use Moray, so what the hey!" Turns out that was a really great move... there's no way I could have done it as well by hand. I ended up using a bezier-patch-cylinder, which I could twist and turn and bend and... well, you get the idea. I think it looks pretty spiffy... but you're gonna have to wait for pictures!