One reason I took so long to get down to writing the Muse column this month was that I was hard at work on an entry in the IRTC, the Internet Relay Tracing Competition, which I help administer. I've been an active participant in the IRTC since its restart back in May 1996 but have only actually entered one competition. So this round had a special meaning for me. I don't often have the time to work on entries unless something else suffers. To be honest, however, I was also using this entry to learn more about RenderMan, BMRT and in particular, the RenderMan Shading Language.
Nothing is quite such a a teacher as experience.
And my entry in the IRTC was a wonderful teacher. All entries must have this file. I'll let the text file describe what I did, who helped me do it, and some of the issues I encountered. I hope you find this useful information. Its a school room, just after detention has let out.