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'Mayday... Mayday...'



Digital Waterfalls 20th anniversary image. This image is in celebration of Digital Waterfalls being born in May 1994, as a 'vehicle' for displaying my artwork.

The scene depicts a pirate Rucker-class spacecraft (seen elsewhere in this gallery) firing its beam laser at a hapless Platypus-class trader, just as it was launching away from the planet below. The Platypus suffers a catastrophic explosion in the hull, almost breaking it in two. The crew had just enough time to issue the 'Mayday' distress call, but will the crew by rescued in time before their lifeboat's life support runs out, or will the pirate have other ideas?. The explosion was created using the media function in POV-Ray, with the craft modelled in AC3D (including the exploding panels). This is also my interpretation of the famous 'Mayday...' introduction to the Classic Traveller RPG books.

The image was previewed and rendered as a test on a Windows laptop and rendered on a BeagleBone Black SOC computer for printing, running Arch Linux at 3300x2700 resolution, taking just over 27 hours to complete. The explosion part of the scene taking the longest, due to the particle system used to create the detonation.


About this image:-May 2014, POVRay 3.7, AC3D 7.011

All images © S. Attwood / Digital Waterfalls
Book covers are © their respective owners
Images may not be reproduced without permission