Ray-tracing images with POV-Ray

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My favorite collection of links to very good digital image artists and resources is found here.

My favorite collection of POV-Ray images made by other people is found here.


The images shown below and corresponding pov-files are made by Stefan Spännare with and for the amazing
Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POV-Ray) program. Many thanks to the POV-Ray team!

I must admit that I have "stolen" some ideas from other POV-Ray artists (see the readme files below for references).


Download

Pov-files for POV-Ray 3.6 (for Windows and Linux) to make the images below are now available here:

Note, to render the images with POV-Ray 3.7 (for multi core CPUs) just add the line #version 3.6; at the top of the pov-file.

New! March 23 2014. Pov-files for the dodecahedron star, hanging chain, Isabell plates and Newton's Cradle
images are now available here. Also including a brief instruction how to make a Newton's Cradle animation.
Pov-files for the RGB link, bearing and cube animations will be included in the package soon.

High resolution images to download (1200 x 900 and 4000 x 3000 pixels, JPEG, for the images shown below).
The images are now rendered with AA 0.3 anti aliasing which improves the image quality quite a bit.
This file will be updated with images made by the "sspov2.zip" pov-files soon.


Images and animations

If you click on one of the small images below a 1200 x 900 pixels image will appear. The images are now
rendered with POV-Ray 3.6.2 or 3.7.0 with AA 0.3 anti aliasing which improves the image quality quite a bit.


New! November 5 2015. I made some small C-programs that generate pov-code for Dragon Curves (here of order 11).
Here are the resulting images.

New! November 5 2015. I am also on my way to build a small CNC milling machine. Here are two not so fancy
images how it might look like when Dragon Curves are milled in wood or Aluminum. Together with another DC
image. Pov-files and the C-programs will come when the machine is fully up and running.


New! July 16 2015. Some new quite simple images added. This is really ray-tracing basics. But at least I think
also simple objects can have some "beauty". The idea to the geometrical setup of these images comes from
an image I found on Internet that has connection to the Swedish shopping center Nova in Lund. If someone
mind that I have the images on this web-page please contact me and I will immediately remove them. This is
work in progress and tentative pov-files can be downloaded here: nov1.zip.


January 11 2015. My impression of a glass obelisk. The original work of art is made of lead glass and is about
30 cm high and was made by the artist Jan Johansson at Orrefors glassworks Sweden 1972. The object is rendered
with the "no_shadow" option. February 10 2015. Three RGB glass obelisk images added. This is work in progress
and tentative pov-files can be downloaded here: gobelisk1.zip. Readme file and an animation to come.

January 18 2015. Just for fun I made some 3-, 5-, 6- and 7-sided glass obelisk images (here together with the
original 4-sided one). It was a very simple extension. Tentative pov-files can be downloaded here: gobelisk2.zip.



February 10 2015. Three RGB thorny crystal ball images added. The original thorny crystal ball and
the thorny red ball with mirror walls are quite old. Tentative pov-files can be downloaded here: cball1.zip.


February 5 2014. Some dodecahedron star images and the basic dodecahedron shape. The star images
were quite easily made by modifying the "dodec.pov" file found on Paul Bourke's nice web page about
Platonic solid fractals found here. Many thanks to him! Some animations to come.


March 17 2012. Updated June 24 2012. Some images and animations of a Newton's Cradle.
Maximum pendulum angle 45 degrees.

Some Newton's Cradle animations.

nc-anim1-640.avi (2.5 MB)
nc-anim2-640.avi (2.5 MB)
nc-anim3-640.avi (2.5 MB)

nc-anim1-1280.avi (7.2 MB)
nc-anim2-1280.avi (7.4 MB)
nc-anim3-1280.avi (7.4 MB)


September 15 2013. Some new hanging chain images with a simple greyish background and no shaddow.
Unfortunately there seems to be a small error in my "mkcoshyp.c" program (see the sspov1.zip package) that
makes the uppermost links somewhat longer than those further below. I will try to correct for this in a future
version of the program. Time will tell when.


Aart original colour and steel. More information can be found here.


RGB trefoil knots.


RGB and steel links.

March 16 2012. Rotating RGB links animations.

Faster:
linksrgb-anim1-640.avi (4.7 MB)
linksrgb-anim1-1280.avi (13.8 MB)

Slower:
linksrgb-anim2-640.avi (7.5 MB)
linksrgb-anim2-1280.avi (25.1 MB)


Ball bearings and a steel cluster.

June 18 2012. Bearing animations with rotating balls.

Faster:
bearing-rotballs-anim1-640.avi (4.9 MB)
bearing-rotballs-anim1-1280.avi (14.6 MB)

Slower:
bearing-rotballs-anim2-640.avi (9.3 MB)
bearing-rotballs-anim2-1280.avi (28.4 MB)

June 18 2012. Bearing animations with rotating bearings and balls.

Faster:
bearing-rotbearballs-anim1-640.avi (4.8 MB)
bearing-rotbearballs-anim1-1280.avi (14.5 MB)

Slower:
bearing-rotbearballs-anim2-640.avi (8.3 MB)
bearing-rotbearballs-anim2-1280.avi (26.4 MB)


A cube, four tori and a Moffat function.

March 16 2012. Rotating cube animations. Less fog (half-sight distance 30).

Faster:
cube-fog30-anim1-640.avi (3.0 MB)
cube-fog30-anim1-1280.avi (9.8 MB)

Slower:
cube-fog30-anim2-640.avi (3.0 MB)
cube-fog30-anim2-1280.avi (9.8 MB)

April 6 2012. Rotating cube animations. More fog (half-sight distance 10).

Faster:
cube-fog10-anim1-640.avi (3.0 MB)
cube-fog10-anim1-1280.avi (8.6 MB)

Slower:
cube-fog10-anim2-640.avi (3.0 MB)
cube-fog10-anim2-1280.avi (8.6 MB)


Some kind of 1/2 and 3/2 revolutions twisted Möbius bands.


A diamond and rings.


A retort with CuSO4 (aq) and four retorts with different liquids.


Large Earth based Solar Telescope (LEST) and water (H2O).


An abacus, a tea cup and a cosine hyperbolic chain.


My (very simplified) impression of the beautiful baptismal font in Alfta church Hälsingland Sweden.
A not so good photo of the real object is found here. A better photo from another angle is found here.



New! September 27 2014. Some new Isabell images. Times New Roman and Cyrvetic font.
Added January 11 2015. Unfortunately I lost the pov-files for all except the wooden once.
I will try to restore them as similar as I can and soon make them available here.


Author: Stefan Spännare
E-mail: stefan.sp@outlook.com
Latest update: 2015-11-05