Gogledd Orllewin

29 09 2023 Pov-Ray Blobmap

I use MacOS so downloaded a build via povrayunofficial.wordpress.com, there's a recently compiled version (hosted on Google Drive here) which has some nice additional native features.

• Choose a source image. eg:
  
  
• Save the source image in a directory with a POV-Ray source file, blobmap.pov:

  
  // Persistence Of Vision raytracer version 3.8
  // Blob shape with environment map example
  #declare imageFile = "source.png";
  global_settings { assumed_gamma 2.2 }
  
  camera {
    location <0, 0, -5>
    direction <0, 0, 1.2071>
    look_at <0, 0, 0>
  }
  
  //Similar to sky_sphere but with no_image set so it doesn't draw
  sphere {
    0,1.3
      pigment {
        image_map {
          png imageFile once interpolate 2 map_type  1
        }
     }
    finish {
      emission 1.2
    }
    scale 30
    hollow
    no_image
  }
  
  blob {
    threshold 0.60
     sphere { <.75, 0, 0>, 1, 1 }
      sphere { <-.375, .64952, 0>, 1, 1 }
      sphere { <-.375, -.64952, 0>, 1, 1 }
    scale 1.75
    finish {
      ambient 0.9
      diffuse 0.5
      reflection .82
    }
  }

• In the MacOS POV-Ray GUI navigate to Main Menu > Settings > Image & Quality and set Image Type as PNG and toggle 'Add Alpha Channel' to on. Click Render.
  
• Combine the rendered image with the source image in any image editor, I used Figma and tweaked the 3D image slightly, made it slightly semi-transparent and altered the shadows and exposure.