EMAIL: t.degroot @inter.nl.net
NAME: Thomas de Groot
TOPIC: Decay
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Decay
COUNTRY: Netherlands
WEBPAGE: none
RENDERER USED: POV-Ray 3.5
TOOLS USED: Moray 3.5
RENDER TIME: 2 hours
HARDWARE USED: Compaq Presario 7000T- Pentium III

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
Sometimes, for no apparent reason, a place can fall into decay. A once important cross road is suddenly abandoned. Perhaps, the destination town was destroyed by war, plague, or some natural disaster; perhaps, simply, the river and the ford flooded the once praticable road. In any event, no one comes here anymore. A curious traveller that has lost his way, may perhaps look through the dirty window panes and discover to his amazement that the table is still dressed for the last meal, as if the inhabitants fled in a hurry some long forgotten thread.
Decay comes slowly. A lost wayfarer throwing a stone at some window, alarmed by the loud shattering of the glass in the still air. A winter storm tearing at the tiles on the roof, the tall, cold chimneys. Nobody is around to repair the damage. Birds and small animals slowly take possession of the quiet, hollow place.
Decay is beautiful. It merges back into nature the handywork of man. Slowly, history is forgotten.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:
The scene was entirely composed in Moray 3.5. The InsertCode plugin was used for different elements: POV-tree (Gena Obukhov/Tom Aust); sky and reed macros (me); the ruined wall in the background (Ian Shumsky). Different heightfields were made with Leveller 2.3, in particular the tracks. The water surface is a texture by Gilles Tran.
The house was build in an earlier stage as part of a series of five Medieval houses. Starting "deconstruction" proved to be as fascinating and difficult sometimes, as constructing it.