The somewhat-biased POVRay FAQ says that "POV is a 3-dimensional raytracing engine. It takes information you supply and simulates the way light interacts with the objects you've defined to create stunning 3d pictures and animation. In addition to the process known as 'raytracing,' newer versions of POV can also use a variant of the process known as 'radiosity' to add greater realisim to scenes, particularly those which use diffuse light such as the fluorescent lighting you might find in an office building.

"The capabilities of POV are very extensive. This is no toy, it can render complex images which are impossible using many commercial packages. POV can simulate many atmospheric and volumetric effects (such as smoke and haze) which are very difficult to duplicate in any but the best commercial programs."

I generated both static and animated images using POVRay.  The static image makes use of the cone, sphere, and disc constructs and highlights reflection and checker surfaces, among others.  The animated image adds fog and a torus.   More importantly, the clock variable is used to rotate the camera, spin the disc about the y-axis, and spin the sphere about the z-axis over 80 rendered frames.

See the POVRay source for the static and animated (1.8 mb) images.