The image is lit by a pair of small
Christmas tree style lights woven between several fir branches. Since both lamps are fully encased within glass
geometry, all light must first refract through the glass bulbs before reaching the camera; the scene contains no
direct light paths. This makes the scene
impractical to render with path-tracing integrators.
To simulate the appearance of glitter on the surface
of the ornament, a particle
system generates 200,000 individual glitter objects. The random orientation of these tiny cubes allows them
to catch and reflect light, mimicking the grainy and disorderly appearance of glitter.
