Tutorials

Chapter 1. Introduction to Raytracing

LESSON 1.1: WHAT IS RAYTRACING?

	This lesson introduces raytracing programs and explains their capabilities in basic terminology.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

LESSON 1.2: HOW DOES RAYTRACING WORK?

	This lesson describes the raytacing procedure and basic algorithm of raytracing in generic terms.
	Level: Beginner	Status: In Progress

LESSON 1.3: RAYTRACING PROGRAMS

	This lesson covers the range of available programs. POV-Ray, MegaPOV, and other major renderers are described, as are modelling programs such as Moray, s-Patch, Rhino, and others.
	Level: Beginner	Status: In Progress

Chapter 2. Beginning Raytracing with POV-Ray

LESSON 2.1: DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING POV-RAY

	This lesson provides step-by-step instructions for locating, downloading, and installing the POV-Ray program on the common platforms. If you already have POV-Ray installed, you may skip to Lesson 2.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

LESSON 2.2: THE COORDINATE SYSTEM

	This lesson provides an explanation on how to navigate in 3-dimensional space. Topics include the XYZ coordinate system and the left-hand rotational system.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 2.3: CREATING A BASIC SCENE

	This lesson describes how to add the elements necessary to create a scene. Topics include adding a camera, light source, and a basic object.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 2.4: A CLOSER LOOK AT CAMERAS

	This lesson provides a more detailed description of how camera projection works.
	Level: Beginner	Status: In Progress

LESSON 2.5: A CLOSER LOOK AT LIGHTS

	This lesson provides further details on controlling a basic point lightsource.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

Chapter 3. Working with Objects

LESSON 3.1: CREATING SIMPLE OBJECTS

	This lesson explains how to create basic objects in POV-Ray. Topics include creating spheres, boxes, cylinders, cones, planes, and torii (donut-shapes).
	Level: Beginner	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 3.2: CREATING MORE COMPLEX OBJECTS

	This lesson explains how to create some of the more complex objects in POV-Ray. Topics include blobs, heightfields, lathes, prisms, superquadratic ellipsoids, surface-of-rotation objects, and text.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: In Progress

LESSON 3.3: BUILDING MATHEMATICAL SURFACES

	This lesson covers poly, cubic, quartic, and quadric surfaces.
	Level: Advanced	Status: In Progress

LESSON 3.4: CREATING IRREGULAR SHAPES

	This lesson describes some of the more irregular shapes used in POV-Ray, which are used to create complex shapes and structures. Topics include bicubic patches, discs, meshes, polygons, triangles, and smooth triangles.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 3.5: SPECIAL MEGAPOV SHAPES

	This lesson explains how to create splines and isosurfaces, shapes specific to the MegaPOV version.
	Level: Advanced	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 3.6: USING CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)

	This lesson explains how to create new shapes by combining basic shapes using CSG. It also provides a list of shapes which are compatible with CSG.
	Level: Beginner	Status: In Progress

LESSON 3.7: TRANSFORMING OBJECTS

	This lesson explains how to change the appearance and location of objects by translating, rotating, and scaling them. It also includes a slightly more advanced discussion on creating a transformation matrix.
	Level: Beginner/Intermediate	Status: In Progress

LESSON 3.8: MODIFYING OBJECTS

	This lesson explains how to modify objects by clipping them, bounding them, and specifying material, inverse hollow, and no shadow.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: In Progress

Chapter 4. Texturing Objects

LESSON 4.1: APPLYING PIGMENTS

	This lesson describes how to color objects using pigments.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

LESSON 4.2: USING BASIC PATTERNS

	This lesson explains how to apply the basic patterns built into POV-Ray, such as wood, brick, and checker patterns.
	Level: Beginner	Status: In Progress

LESSON 4.3: ADDING TURBULENCE

	This lesson describes how to add variation and realism to patterns by adding turbulence.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

LESSON 4.4: USING NORMALS

	This lesson explains how to add a third dimension to patterns using normals.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

LESSON 4.5: ADDING FINISHES

	This lesson provides instructions on how to add the final touch to your objects with finishes. Topics include ambience, diffuse, highlights, reflections, and iridescence.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Author Contacted

Chapter 5. Controlling the Interiors of Hollow Objects

LESSON 5.1: SIMPLE INTERIORS

	This lesson explains how to make simple modifications to object interiors. Topics include refraction, caustics, and attenuation.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Needed

LESSON 5.2: MEDIA

	This lesson describes the various types of media and how to use them.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted

Chapter 6. Creating Atmospheric Effects

LESSON 6.1: BACKGROUNDS AND SKYSPHERES

	This lesson covers the two basic background effects.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

LESSON 6.2: FOG

	This lesson explains how to use fog effectively. Normal fog and ground fog are covered.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Needed

LESSON 6.3: RAINBOWS

	This lesson describes the built-in rainbow feature of POV-Ray, which creates a smooth arc.
	Level: Beginner	Status: Needed

Chapter 7. Using Advanced Cameras and Lighting

LESSON 7.1: CAMERA PROJECTION TYPES

	This lesson provides a detailed explanation of the various camera projection types.
	Level: Advanced	Status: In Progress

LESSON 7.2: LIGHTING OPTIONS

	This lesson contains information on more complex lighting options, such as spotlights, attentuation, lookslike, glows, fade distance, and fade power.
	Level: Intermediate/Advanced	Status: In Progress

Chapter 8. Understanding the POV-Ray Scripting Language

LESSON 8.1: FLOAT AND VECTOR FUNCTIONS

	This lesson defines float and vector functions and explains them basic terms.
	Level: Basic	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 8.2: READING FROM AND WRITING TO FILES

	This lesson explains how to open, close, read from, and write to external files from within a scene file.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Needed

LESSON 8.3: CONDITIONALS

	This lesson explains the conditional functions that control whether something happens in the scene file based on a specified value. Included are #if, #ifdef, #ifndef, #switch, #case, #range, #while, etc.
	Level: Intermediate/Advanced	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 8.4: USING MACROS

	This lesson explains how to use macros to create objects, series of objects, or to process functions.
	Level: Intermediate/Advanced	Status: Needed

LESSON 8.5: GLOBAL SETTINGS

	This lesson describes the various global settings and explains how to use them effectively.
	Level: Intermediate/Advanced	Status: Needed

Chapter 9. Creating an Animation

LESSON 9.1: USING THE CLOCK VARIABLE

	This lesson explains how the clock variable enables POV-Ray to create animations.
	Level: Advanced	Status: Needed

Chapter 10. Techniques for Creating Basic Scene Elements

LESSON 10.1: MAKING REALISTIC SKIES

	This lesson describes several methods for creating different kinds of realistic sky effects.
	Level: Beginner/Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 10.2: INCLUDING DEM HEIGHFIELDS

	This lesson discusses the use of Digital Elevated Models (DEMs) as heightfields.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Needed

LESSON 10.3: CREATING KALEIDOSCOPES

	This lesson provides simple instructions on creating abstract kalidoscopes using POV-Ray.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 10.4: PANORAMAS AND VIRTUAL REALITY OBJECTS

	This lesson explains how to create fully immersible scenes.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: In Progress

LESSON 10.5: BUILDING CAVES

	This lesson provides instructions for creating underground caverns using heighfields.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: In Progress

LESSON 10.6: 3D STEREO PAIRS

	This lesson explains how to create the illusion of three dimensions using a pair of images.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 10.7: BRICK WALLS

	This lesson provides a method for creating a realistic brick wall.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted

Chapter 11. Building Specific Models

LESSON 11.1: SPENT BULLET CASING

	This lesson walks the reader through the process of creating a spent bullet casing from simpler objects.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted

LESSON 11.2: SIX-SIDED DICE

	This lesson provides one method for creating dice, which may be extrapolated to similar objects.
	Level: Intermediate	Status: Author Contacted