Posted on September 18, 2015

I’ve added a version of “Core World” rendered specially for single-screen systems (ie: most of them). It’s strange that Vue and Lightwave both behave different when I change the aspect ratio of my scene. If I design a multi-screen scene (15360 x 2880) in Vue and then reset the camera to 5120 x 2880, it will keep the horizontal FOV and add open up the top/bottom of the frame. If I do the same in Lightwave however it will keep the vertical FOV and crop the horizontal. It makes things a little tricky when creating multiscreens out of single-screen scenes and vice versa.

Posted on September 15, 2015

“Core World” is new in the Members Gallery this evening. With this piece I am imagining what the sky might look like on a world near the galactic center, without all the interstellar dust that darkens our own view of the galaxy.

I rendered the background using Lightwave and the foreground is Vue. Like most of my post-Shadowfax projects, this one was conceived and rendered first as a multiscreen. The single-screen version is a crop of the triple-wide frame, but I will probably render a dedicated single-screen version soon.

My first version (with the golden sky) took nearly 180 hours to render on Bucephalus while the gallery version (with a sky which brings out more the colors in my stars) took only 48 hours on the same machine. The difference? I increased the “world diameter” (moving the horizon further away) and used a flat plane rather than a displaced surface for the water.

Which do you prefer?

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Posted on September 11, 2015

It occured to me not long ago that while I have wallpapers for several holidays, I have neglected one very imporant holiday: Your Birthday. Now, I don’t like to render food (or have it on my wallpaper) so I tried to think of something else.

I hope you like what I came up with. I put it together on my laptop while Shadowfax rendered the first draft of another new Autumn piece I am working on.

Of course I am posting it because it is my own birthday today (YAY!). To celebrate I am offering the new wallpaper for FREE today for anyone else who shares my birthday (or has one coming up). Enjoy!

Posted on September 7, 2015

I’ve added an updated version of “The Golden Hour” to the gallery this morning. The changes are subtle, mainly I’ve varied up the foliage color and added a few taller trees to the mix. I also set the “atmosphere quality” settings much higher than the first version so the light beams should be less noisy. The downside is the image took 3 times as long to render.

While the render was churning on Shadowfax I shifted over to Bucephalus and started a new project. I hope to have it up in the next few days so stay tuned!

Lastly I wanted to mention that there’s FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING in my Society6 store for today only (edit extended to 9/8/15).

Posted on September 1, 2015

A couple of items to mention this first day of my birthmonth. First, I’ve added a new render to the gallery this morning. It’s called “The Golden Hour” and it is the result of many hours learning the ins and outs of “The Plant Factory“.

It is an incredibly powerful addition to my 3D arsenal. I just need to spend a few hours every day trying to learn exactly what everything does. This piece is the result of one such exploration. The trees looks quite alien, I agree, but I wanted to see what that would look like rendered. It should be a splendid season ahead for fans of my Autumn renders!

I will most likely most another version of this in the near future but I thought it looked interesting enough to share as is. Let me know what you think!

I’m also thrilled to announce that my 2016 Digital Blasphemy Wall Calendar is now available!

For the first time ever I am going to send free signed copies to my Patron, Sponsor and Guardian Level Members (current Members upgrade here). If you are a Guardian Member you can tell me which images you want for each month. I will have it made custom for you, sign each page, and send it out free of charge.

Check back in a day or two to see “The Golden Hour” updated. I’m just getting started!