Fun with ray-tracing

geometric-genesis, originally uploaded by weissjeffm.

(Click on image to go to Flickr - look at the full-size image)

Here's a little design I made in POV-ray (a raytracing graphics program). I like to play with it, because it can draw 3-D objects on a 2-D canvas, and I can't. I just have to tell it what to draw. The way you tell it what to draw is basically a programming language, which I of course speak well.

In this case, I had it draw a cube (with a slightly mirrored finish). Then I had it draw 20 cubes in a circle, changing the color slightly each time. (I had to remember my trigonometry) Then I had it draw 20 spheres in a circle perpendicular to the other circle. Then I had it do all that again (eight times), making the circles smaller and smaller each time, and also rotating each one a bit more each time. Of course, I had to do some fiddling to make it look pleasing - changing the colors and the angles and what not.

But still, this is just a beginner (me) spending only a few hours on it. The "program" was only about 50 lines of text (not much longer than this blog post).

My image above is mere child's play compared to what the tool is capable of. Check out the POVRay Hall of Fame.