prev index next 
Making Difficult Objects 
 POV-Ray Tips, 
 Tricks, and Techniques
Wall with "Decoration"? 
 
lg2 wants to model a special brick wall: I want to make a wall with a 'decoration'. The greatest part of the wall should be produced with the brick-pigment. On the upper end it should look like this: 

---------------------------------- 
     |     |     |     |     |      <Xgrad #1 
---------------------------------- 
  |*****|     |     |*****|     |   <X grad #2 
---------------------------------- 
*****|*****|     |*****|*****|      <X grad #3 
---------------------------------- 
  |*****|     |     |*****|     |   <X grad #2 
---------------------------------- 
     |     |     |     |     |      <X grad #1 

      ^^^^^^^put the three X-gradients into a y-gradient 
 
Robert Dawson offers this technique:
 (1) Create 3 X-gradient textures, one for each type of row of bricks.  You might try using the repeat warp to make the adjacent bricks look different. 
(2) Layer them together into a y-gradient, using a texture_map. 

If you want a normal for cracks between the bricks, try the following. 
Start out by creating a slope_map something like 
 _________  __________  ___________ 
/         \/          \/           \/ ..... 

This should correspond to vertical lines like 

|     |     |     |     | 
|     |     |     |     | 
|     |     |     |     | 

Now use the repeat warp to offset every line of bricks half a brick: 

|      |      |       | 
   |       |      | 
|      |      |       | 

Now, create a similar but shorter-period normal for the horizontal cracks; 

_________________________ 
_________________________ 
_________________________ 

and "average" the two. This should look quite realistic. 
 
  1