The Persistence of Vision Raytracer
The computer rendering program used to create the images on this site and a lot more besides. Available on almost every computer platform, extremely powerful, and best of all it's free! Well worth a look if you're interested in ray-tracing or indeed any aspect of computer graphics - but do read the documentation supplied with it, because it can be a little tricky to get started unless you follow the excellent tutorial supplied with the program.
Nathan Kopp's excellent Lens Flare plugin for POV-Ray, used to produce a whole variety of lens-flare effects from simple 35mm flares to elaborate space explosions and supernovae.
Although it's still 'officially' a beta version, this is a useful and stable 3D file format conversion tool written by Keith Rule. It can read and write a whole variety of 3D file formats; personally, I use it for converting 3DS and DXF mesh objects into POV-Ray format. Windows 95 or NT
Excellent text editor for Windows 3.1, 95 and NT. If you're still using Notepad or your current text editor isn't up to scratch, check out TextPad - I've been using it for months and I'm still impressed by how powerful and re-configurable it is. It's so good I've even registered it... :)
The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition
Star Wars (dir. George Lucas, prod. Gary Kurtz, Lucasfilm Ltd. 1997)
The Empire Strikes Back (dir. Irvin Kershner, prod. Gary Kurtz, Lucasfilm Ltd. 1997)
Return Of The Jedi (dir. Richard Marquand, prod. Garu Kurtz, Lucasfilm Ltd. 1997)
Lucas' 'definitive' versions of the classic Star Wars trilogy. Need I say more?
Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
(Bill Smith, Boxtree Limited (UK) / Ballantine Books (US), 1996; ISBN 0 7522 0114 X)
Comprehensive guide to all the ships and vehicles in the Star Wars universe, including the spin-off novels, comic books and
games. Contains technical drawings of most of the ships, along with background information about each of the ships and
details of the propulsion and weapons systems. Very useful for obtaining measurements and dimensions for the 3D models.
(Deborah Fine and Aeon Inc., Virgin (UK) / Chronicle Books (US), 1997; ISBN 1 85227 641 X)
One for the true die-hard Star Wars fan only (it costs £100 in the UK...), this is the definitive guide to the
characters, vehicles and locations from the original trilogy. Featuring over 300 pages of full colour, it contains photos
of the original costumes, models and sets, along with the sketches and prototypes which led to the versions we see in the
films. Expensive, yes, but probably the best source of information on the original trilogy that you're likely to
find.
Thanks also to Davin Felth for his outstanding contributions to alt.starwars.binaries, many of which were invaluable in the preparation of some of these models, and all the artists and modellers of the Star Wars Modelling Alliance.
