Glasses demo

Artwork created in 2004

Renderer: POV-Ray
The POV-Ray scene file is available here (Public Domain).
Cinema 4D and OBJ files are also available for the pitcher and the ashtray.
This image was originally created as a demonstration scene for some objects modelled with Rhino (glasses, pitcher, ahstray) for Closing time, with a Cinema 4D dice modelled later.
Because the update of Oyonale was overdue and nowhere in sight, I recycled the image as an illustration for the POV-Ray article in Wikipedia, where it became a Featured Picture and Picture of the Day on August 2, 2006.

Because this image is featured on several Wikipedia pages, it has been the subject of several discussions on the internet, for instance on discussion on Reddit and Digg. Here are some points I'd need to clarify:

No, it's not made with Photoshop. It's amusing how many people now just assume that everything is photoshopped. If you don't believe me, just download POV-Ray and the image source code (the latter released in the public domain) and run it yourself!
Yes, this is not state-of-the-art photorealistic computer generated imagery. There's a lot that could be done to improve it from a photorealistic standpoint, but that was not the purpose. It was just a quick-and-dirty demonstration scene for POV-Ray featuring some old, simple models that I wanted to give away. It just happened that some Wikipedians thought it nice enough.
The technology is raytracing + radiosity. Focal blur is camera-based (using the basic POV-Ray implementation, no choice for bokeh etc.) and is the major culprit of the long render time. No post-process of any kind.
No, no matter the tool (and I've been using other and better renderers for a while now), creating images like this is never done by just pressing a button and letting the machine work. This was a quick job but it still took a lot of tinkering to get right.