Raytracing

I use raytracing as a way to relax with my computer. It's sort of like programming without the meetings and conference calls.

I use the Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POVRay) for all of my raytracing. I've tried a couple others, but I like POVRay best. For one thing, it's completely free! The newest version (3.02) is really unbelievable. I think the keyword list doubled in size between versions 2.2 and 3.0. It even has some support for radiance and atmospheric effects now.

I don't consider myself an artist--I am strictly an engineer. These images have more to do with the fun of creating mathematically defined objects than with any attempt to create aesthetically pleasing "Art"--I'll leave that to the artists. I composed all of these raytraced images by hand with a text editor, because I have yet to find a 3D-modeller that I like. Actually, the truth is that I can't figure any of them out.

Here are some examples of raytraced images I've created:

Refrigerator: 640x480x16M, 266K Gyroscope: 640x480x16M, 87K Windmill: 640x480x16M, 52K
Refrigerator Gyroscope Windmill
Spider: 640x480x16M, 80K Mailbox: 640x480x16M, 35K Bumble Ball: 640x480x16M, 30K
Spider Mailbox Bumble Ball
Hammer: 640x480x16M, 26K Snowman: 640x480x16M, 25K Milk Carton: 640x480x16M, 35K
Hammer Snowman Milk Carton