SM_XRAYS

Created by Stefan Maes for the May-June 1995 Raytracing Competition.
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I submitted my very first raytraced picture for the December '94 Topic: Games
(sm_darts). Not only did I get a couple of positive comments, but it turned
my raytracing experiment into a hobby. Shortly after that I created 2 more
darts related pictures. Inspired by a question in the raytracing newgroup I
created a library of POV definition files for LEGO bricks. I created a few
LEGO simple pics as well. It was the first time I did some serious CSG.

When the 'Science' topic was announced it was time to re-enter the competition.
I had been playing with some ideas for a long time, but I never actually
came to tracing them and if it wasn't for the extra month, I still wouldn't!
Planning is one thing, finding the time is another. This render turned out to
be sort of a last minute submission. It's June 29, 22h00 now and I'm *almost*
satisfied with all the textures. There's always tomorrow morning and our 4
processer Sun station for the final render..

Anyway, I know for sure that this isn't a winning picture, but I just wanted
to support Matt and his competition (hence this late submission). I got A LOT
of nice (Windows background) pictures, so I certainly didn't want the
competition to end. My second reason was that it was about time I did some
serious experiments with textures.

OK, what is thing? It's a goniometer head on which I and my fellow
crystallographers mount our little crystals (approx. .2 to .5 mm in all
dimensions) we want to examine. Actually it's quite an ingenious device. It has
to if we want to keep the crystal in the center of the X-ray beam all the time.
With the 2 rings on top, we can adjust the height (Z). We can also shift the
(borate) glass capillary (on which we glue the crystal) in the XY plane and if
that isn't enough we can tilt the whole thing around X- and/or Y-axis using the
two bows at the bottom. To fine tune the crystal position on the goniohead we
have a special tool, which can be seen in the background. I intend to render
the diffractometer (an Enraf Nonius MACH3) as well, but God only knows when.

Not all (metal)textures are true to life, but I like them. I'm very pleased
with the crystals (texture). They looks exactly like the one I examined at
different temperatures (293-93K) and which constitute an important part of my
Ph.D. In case you wonder, they are orthorombhic crystals of
trans-1,2bis(3-methoxy-thienyl)vinylene and there are a exactly 171 of them
scattered around on a piece of paper. Their positions were created with Quattro
Pro's random number generator, as well as their size and orientation. Why a
171? It's just one of my 'magical' darts numbers (3 times trebble 19).

Well, I think I bored you long enough. So let's make an end to this file. The
goniohead is probably the most complex object I created so far. No modellers
were used, except for my brain (or what's supposed to be one)