Posted on February 3, 2016

Circumbinary

I’ve been meaning to update my “Trinity” scene using Vue for a long time now but the trick was the figure out how to get two light sources to affect the coloring of the sky (Vue only allows for 1). I think I’ve figured a good workaround using a volumetric light.

I chose to use alien plants (which I modeled using The Plant Factory) in the foreground this time and I’ve left out the little person. Since the viewer was one piece of the eponymous “Trinity” I’ve chosen a new name for this piece. “Circumbinary” is an astronomical term for a planet orbiting a binary star.

Members might recognize white-dwarf as the same that has been my “work-in-progress” for the past month or so. I’ve finally found a use for it 😉

Posted on January 28, 2016

Starlight Woods

As I mentioned yesterday, I had another render going on “Shadowfax” and it finally finished up this morning. “Starlight Woods” is the last in a series of renders that started with “Silent Night” in which I’ve been learning the intricacies of plant modeling using “The Plant Factory”.

Where my “Sunshine Tree” stood alone I thought it would be fun to create a moonlit forest of “starlight trees”. I think it turned out nicely, except the ground fog took far too long to render.

If you are tired of glowing spheres on branches I think you will enjoy my next render which is making the move to my main workstation today 🙂

Posted on January 27, 2016

Pomology

“Pomology” is new in the gallery this morning. I thought the same Plant Factory modeling techniques that I used for “The Sunshine Tree” would make for an interesting abstract wallpaper.

Each instance is slightly different using Vue’s “Solidgrowth” randomizing tech. Hope you enjoy it! I have one more wallpaper in this series finishing up on Shadowfax right now so stay tuned!

Posted on January 12, 2016

The Sunshine Tree

The Bliss family took journeyed out of the frozen waste of Illinois to sunny south Florida over the holidays. This sheltered Midwestern farm boy was astonished to find fruit growing on trees during the “dead of winter” and this new render is my paean to “stored sunlight”.

This one went through a few different versions before I chose to post anything and one of those early renditions is available for download in the Pickle Jar. I haven’t decided if I like the glowing plants in the water below the tree and they may be gone in the final version. Let me know what you think!

The new version of my iOS app is now available!

This new version (2.1) has bug fixes and new features to bring it in line with the web gallery.

• Better error reporting (no more asking for your login again for failed downloads)
• Image titles in the gallery
• Download Progress Indicator
• Post your comments and ratings
• Choose which resolution to download (previously limited to square iPad versions)
• Choose a photo folder for your downloads

Let me know what you think! If you like the new version please help me out by leaving a rating in the App Store. The more and better ratings the app recieves the more chance it will end up featured by Apple somehow (fingers-crossed).

Again, huge thanks to DB Member Jeff Richards for helping me with the iOS app. We had a personal project coming up in the months ahead (and a new baby arriving very soon!) so the Android version will have to wait until late Spring. It is in the works though!

Posted on December 23, 2015

Silent Night (Merry Christmas 2015!)

I had wanted to have this one finished last week but as I was getting ready to post it I felt like it needed a couple of updates.

In the past I might have just posted the first version and then the updated one later, but I’ve come to realize that you only have one chance to make a first impression. I wanted this one to be as perfect as possible when I posted it so I made my changes and hit the F9 key one more time.

Fortunately the render finished before Christmas! I had my doubts that it would finish on time with the mist that I added over the water and the higher resolution trees in the foreground.

I hope you enjoy it and that you all have a safe and happy Holiday!!