Project 11

Final Creative Image

Creative Image:

(Image scaled down. Click on images for fullsize view.)

This is my favorite image that I have produced this semester, with Monte Carlo effects added (glossy reflections in the mirror, translucency in the glass ball).

A simple enough image (perhaps a little boring even) but I like it for this final assignment for a few reasons. In general, this image gives a good demonstration of what my ray tracer can do. In particular:

• Primitives like the infinite plane and the sphere are shown. These are objects that are difficult to model using a Z-buffer type algorithm (e.g., OpenGL) but are simple enough for a ray tracer.
• Reflection, which again is hard to do in OpenGL, is demonstrated here in its most natural setting, that of a mirror.
• Shadows are abundant (behind the mirror, between the mirror glass and the wood frame, on the ground under the spheres).
• The Monte Carlo effects, which strive to produce physically-based effects, are shown here. I wish I had also implemented area lights and depth-of-focus, but I must pick my battles.
• The simple but effective lighting model on the ground plane (specifically, the bright spot between the glass ball and the mirror, above which a light source is situated).

Generally speaking, this image demonstrates some of the salient features of my ray tracer. More specifically, I still think it's really cool that I can model a mirror so simply with ray tracing techniques.

I am impressed by some of the stuff the other people in the class have accomplished with they ray tracers, but I am also impressed that I could have produced enough to create this image (with all its attendant visual effects) this semester, even though I come from nowhere near a graphics background.

Someday, perhaps I will return to my ray tracer and make it even spiffier...