Fun with ray tracing.

I installed POVray for no reason. Well, I was looking at all these Debian packages that I could download, and povray was one of them. I figured, hey, if DKB-Trace could work on my old A500, POV-Ray would haul ass on my 486. I was right, by the way.

I figured maybe I'd make myself a Cartman head, and maybe see what Cartman's head would look like if his hat were made of bricks. Or his face, even.

But instead of doing something simple like that, I make myself a big ol' Kenny head. Well, OK, I make a half-sphere and a cone segment and attach them together. I don't yet know how to paint eyes on a sphere, and I don't want to stick a couple of big bulky spheres on top of an existing sphere. So I just do the hood. I soon discover that I'm in way over my head because the shape of the lining is quite mysterious indeed. I can understand why so many people copped out by either using some kind of bitmap or by making a weird stunt double like the VRML Kenny.

I have a flash of inspiration at 1:30 a.m. last night, 24 hours ago, wake up, turn on all the lights and scribble circles and cone segments all over the place. At 1:45 I realize that I really didn't have any good ideas, I just wanted to draw a bunch of little shapes really quick just in case I woke up the next morning and forgot how to draw a trapezoid.

Somehow, early this afternoon by sheer divine providence I was able to figure out exactly how to get the lining in Kenny's hood. Then, as I began to put the head in the hood, I realized that I'd conceived the shape all wrong. Next thing I know, I'm creating variables and trigonometric expressions on exactly what point in the sphere portion of Kenny's hood does it become a cone segment, and what variables need to be set in order to make the cone segment form a perfect tangent from the sphere so it all looks like one shape. After drawing half a page worth of diagrams and re-living an Advanced Pre-Calculus test, I had an algorithm that worked perfectly THE FIRST TIME.

The head, I did with some help from some guy on IRC. I was surprised that there was an IRC #povray channel that spanned across EFnet, DALnet, AND some weird net I've never heard of. Apparently there is a news server dedicated to povray stuff and people post binaries there. Neato. As soon as I figure out how to get trn to use a temporary .newsrc and a temporary news server like that, I'm there.

Anyway, after a while, I got it so it looks a lot like Kenny, with a hood and eyes and a head.... no body yet. And I plan to dull the front of his hood because currently the lining and the outer hood fabric come together at a razor-sharp point, and I'd like to put in a drawstring.

If it turns out I have a knack for this stuff, I'm going to feel so stupid going to DeVry when I could have gone to the Arizona Art Institute and majored in this instead of racking up all this debt learning COBOL and other stuff that'll make me less eager to get up in the morning.

So, I've delineated all of the mathematical properties of Kenny's head, and wasted a lot of time since the body will be pretty damn difficult. And I've neglected much schoolwork. I would have neglected it anyway but not tomorrow..... if I'm on this much of a roll tomorrow I won't show up in the lab to do the COBOL homework I've been neglecting all week, and I'll be in trouble. Then I'll show up in class with none of my work done and have nothing to show for it but a computer-modeled cartoon character.

I'll probably end up handing Kenny's head to some guy who can finish it and maybe put him to work, maybe I'll sell him to that dude who wrote those VRML characters. Maybe I'll go the whole nine yards and make a looping MPEG animation. I don't know. But I do know this: I've never goofed off with as much vigor and effort as I have today.

In article , [email] (Nick S Bensema) wrote:

}If it turns out I have a knack for this stuff, I'm going to feel so stupid }going to DeVry when I could have gone to the Arizona Art Institute and }majored in this instead of racking up all this debt learning COBOL and }other stuff that'll make me less eager to get up in the morning.

Also Art School Girls are easy.

ART GIRL STUDENTS ARE NOT EASY!!!

Easy to troll tho, it looks like.

Losira23 wrote in message ...

But they ARE cheap!

Oh, yeah, and they're so honest and healthy and free of emotional baggage! Especially painters!

-Teg

In article , Teg Pipes wrote:

}[email] (E Teflon Piano) writes: }> In article , [email] (Nick S }> Bensema) wrote: } }> }If it turns out I have a knack for this stuff, I'm going to feel so stupid }> }going to DeVry when I could have gone to the Arizona Art Institute and }> }majored in this instead of racking up all this debt learning COBOL and }> }other stuff that'll make me less eager to get up in the morning. }> }> Also Art School Girls are easy. } }Oh, yeah, and they're so honest and healthy and free of emotional baggage! }Especially painters! } Dear Mr Pipe, If you recall, when you're Mr. Benesema's age, a two-timing, clap-ridden, paranoid relationship saboteur can be the Perfect Woman, as long as she wears a leather skirt and no knickers.

[email] (E Teflon Piano) writes:

And also they're not insane swirling vortices of emotional need, and they never have friends who are involved in Really Bad Things who show up at your house at like two in the morning after meeting you like ONCE, and they can express their feelings clearly and openly!

In article , [email] (Joseph Michael Bay) wrote:

}[email] (E Teflon Piano) writes: } } }> Also Art School Girls are easy. } }And also they're not insane swirling vortices of emotional need, and they }never have friends who are involved in Really Bad Things who show up at }your house at like two in the morning after meeting you like ONCE, and }they can express their feelings clearly and openly!

Look, just so long as they can express a leather skirt with no knickers clearly and openly, all the rest is the price of the ticket, including friends who are involved in Really Bad Things which are just normal for the Art Crowd because how else are they going to flout the rules of the non-creative, including by refusing to open the door to strangers because you're a recluse with a good sturdy deadbolt lock and a lawn sprinkler on the porch.

Quotes are entirely fictional, and not based on real people including E Teflon Piano . Articles crossposted with alt.tv.southpark may contain vulgar language and should not be read by anyone: @ In article , [email] @ (Joseph Michael Bay) wrote:

@ }[email] (E Teflon Piano) writes: @ } @ } @ }> Also Art School Girls are easy. @ } @ }And also they're not insane swirling vortices of emotional need, and they @ }never have friends who are involved in Really Bad Things who show up at @ }your house at like two in the morning after meeting you like ONCE, and @ }they can express their feelings clearly and openly!

@ Look, just so long as they can express a leather skirt with no knickers @ clearly and openly, all the rest is the price of the ticket, including @ friends who are involved in Really Bad Things which are just normal for @ the Art Crowd because how else are they going to flout the rules of the @ non-creative, including by refusing to open the door to strangers because @ you're a recluse with a good sturdy deadbolt lock and a lawn sprinkler on @ the porch.

Hey! What does this have to do with Hello Kitty!@!!!!!!!!11

Nick, please stop flocculating the nudibranch here in rec.org.mensa.

Suppose you remembered that, but forgot how to draw anything scalene.

You'd have to buy new SCALENE HELPER! One little pill before looking at a triangle will allow you to see it scalene to the left or the right.

Please stop putting your Tater Twister in alt.'s Banana Hanger.

                                                -- K.

                                                Voice of all five cars
                                                on "Team Knight Rider",
                                                which is like the original
                                                except the cars aren't gay.