POV-Ray

POV-Ray is a freeware ray-tracing package, available from POV-Ray.org, which generates photo-realistic pictures using script files which describe the scene.

For example, here is the script for a simple 'ball sitting on an infinite plane' picture:

#version 3.6;
#include "colors.inc"

global_settings { assumed_gamma 1.0 }

camera {
  location  <0.0, 0.0, -4>
  look_at   <0.0, 2.0,  10.0>
}

sky_sphere {
  pigment {
    gradient y
    color_map {
      [0.0 White]
      [0.6 Blue]
    }
  }
}

light_source {
  <0, 0, 0>            
  color rgb <1, 1, 1>
  translate <-30, 30, -30>
}

plane {
  y, -1
  pigment { color rgb <0.7, 0.5, 0.3> }
}

sphere {
  0.0, 1
  texture {
    pigment { color rgb <1.0, 0.0, 0.0> }
    finish  { specular 0.6 }
  }
}

And here is the result:

Gallery

Click on the thumbnails below to view a full-size picture.

The TARDIS If you are British, you will certainly know what this is! If you are not, and you don't know why I should want to create a picture of a police telephone box, find out more by clicking here
The Study
The Temple
Submarine (This is a still from a short animation)