Posted on February 23, 2007

• Added “Crucible” to the gallery this morning. It took quite a bit longer to complete than I expected due to some of the volumetric effects I tried. Even with my new machine, volumetrics take an unacceptable amount of time to render in Lightwave. Unfortunately, you don’t know what you are getting in Lightwave until the render is completely finished (unlike Vue which displays the full-size render in progress) and it took a few long multi-day renders to get the final product I wanted. Anyway, it’s up now and I hope you enjoy it.

02/21/07

• Yes, I am still alive and I am working on a new wallpaper. For better or worse I will have it up before the end of the week. I’m just not happy with it at this time.

• I’ve been receiving quite a few emails asking if I will be working on animations for use with the new Windows Vista (Ultimate) “Dreamscene“. At this very moment I am installing a Vista on my old workstation for use as a testbed (I’m not ready to install it on my main machine yet) and I will explore the possibilities.

  The main issues are: Render times (already my single frame wallpapers take far too long to render so I can’t really imagine rendering 60 or so frames), and development time. I have always tried to balance developing “cutting edge” content (multi-screen wallpapers, etc) with the time it takes to develop wallpapers for the majority of my members (single screen, static images). Basically, I’d rather not spend a lot of time and resources working on something that only a small percentage of my Members can use. As more and more users start using animated wallpapers however I will shift more of my attention to developing them.

02/13/07

• I just wanted to let you all know that I’m still alive (snowed in at the moment, but alive) and I’m busy rendering a new “Planetscape” wallpaper. It’s a pretty complex piece (even my new machine is chugging a little bit) and the full size render will most likely take between 24-36 hours when I start it. I hope to be ready to render sometime today or tomorrow and I hope to have it up shortly after it’s finished. Unless, of course, I see something that needs changing…

02/03/07

• I’ve (finally) finished rendering the dual and triple-screen versions of “Cloud Canyon”. I’ve posted them in their respective galleries and on the new images page.
• I’ve consolidated all of my previous news postings onto one page (they were turning into a tangle of different linked files). Having them on one page should make it easier for me to keep this page short and current. The link to the previous news postings (going all the way back to 10/99) can be found at the bottom of this page.
• It’s been a while since I’ve posted any pictures of the kids and I know some of you have been asking. Here’s one of Jason taken a recently (he will be 9 months old in a couple of weeks), and here’s one of Ian showing his support for our favorite football team.

01/27/07

• My experiments with Vue 6 continue. I’m really trying to master the new atmospheric system. The render times are still kind of crazy but I think the results are worth it.

  My latest render, “Cloud Canyon”, is now up on the new images page. I will see if I can post multi-monitor versions sometime next week. Enjoy!

01/20/07

• Thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments on “Planitia”. I really enjoy reading your feedback! Some of you asked if I could do a blue version, but I think a blue sky would look too much like our own. My goal with “Planitia” was to do something “out of this world” and that is why I chose green over blue.

  Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from opening the file in your favorite photo editor and shifting the hue to your liking.

  I’ve posted dual and triple-screen versions of “Planitia”. I’ve also updated the “non-widescreen” versions to fix some composition issues. The versions I posted on 1/17 looked a little cramped on the sides (due to how they were cropped from the widescreen original) and the new renders should look better if you are using a 4:3 screen.

01/17/07

• My last few wallpapers have been somewhat normal (tropical sunsets and snowy forests) so I thought it would be nice to start 2007 with something a little wild. I’m satisfied that Vue 6 is great at simulating Earthbound environments, but I wanted to see how it would do with something more “out of this world”. The new render, “Planitia” (def.), is now up on the new images page.
• If you are a fan of George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” series (I’m a huge fan) you might be interested to hear this. I couldn’t be more stoked!