POVRay 101: A Beginner's Guide

[Crayons]

Part 1

After some various responses from people about POVray along the lines of "oh, I looked at that once but..." and "I don't do programming..." and so on, I have decided to attempt a Tutorial.

As an introduction before you waste time here...
POVray is a Free 3D Rendering Tool and appears to be unique in that it is solely Text based. I like that, which is odd, because usually I'm all in favour of GUI type tools.
In terms of capability, POVRay is really up there amongst all the best rendering tools, which cost m-o-n-e-y, usually. So you won't be disappointed with any results you get, if you explore the thing sufficiently.
For me, it also has the added benefit of including a number of basic software commands so you can "run" it like code, and let it create stuff through randomness, for example. I haven't worked out how one would do that with a GUI system to the same extent.

Anyway, since it is rather peculiar, and not widely used amongst this community (perhaps for valid reasons) I thought I'd start a beginner's tutorial illustrating some of the basics. It may be that those "valid reasons" have less weight than you think!
Have a play - it won't cost you m-o-n-e-y, only a bit of time.



Please feel free to comment or correct anything! feedback is always welcome!