Posted on July 15, 2015

For the past few weeks I have been saying to anyone who would listen that my old Membership system was going to change. When I started the Members gallery as a way to support my artwork in 1999, everyone pretty much wrote checks for their bills every month and auto-payments weren’t the norm. Times have changed. As more and more businesses have gone the auto-payment route over the years, it has now become all too easy to neglect payments that aren’t automatic (such as renewals to your favorite wallpaper site).

My new “Indefinite” Memberships should solve this problem in the long term. The prices are so low, however, that I am going feel some pain in the short term. If you are a Lifetime Member and really want to help out, I encourage you to sign up for any of my Unlimited plans. There’s a special “Lifetime Plus” level just for you guys, but you can purchase any level you like (your account will always be marked as “Lifetime) no matter what.

Here are the new Membership prices and plans. A lot of folks asked for yearly plans to avoid currency conversion charges. Each plan has monthly and yearly renewals.

Each plan has the same access to my files. The only difference between them is the signature glow and the signed print/thank you cards you receive. What if you still have 2 years left on your account? Your “days remaining” are frozen when you sign up for one of the new plans. They are returned to you if you cancel.

Non-Lifetime Member Without a Membership Plan

Regular Lifetime Member

↓ NEW MEMBERSHIP LEVELS ↓

This is a basic way for Lifetime Members to keep throwing in a little bit of support on a regular basis. Lifetime Members can choose any of the levels below as well.

Lifetime Supporter Members will receive a signed Thank You postcard and Lifetime Members who purchase any of the higher plans will receive a signed holiday card from the Bliss family while they are active.

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A Member (or Lifetime Member) subscribing on an indefinite plan. Memberships do not expire unless canceled.

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Plus Members Will Receive a signed Thank You postcard

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Donor Members Will Receive a signed Thank You postcard and a signed 4×6 print and a signed yearly holiday card from the Bliss family.

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Patron Members Will Receive a signed Thank You postcar, a signed 5×7 print, and a signed yearly holiday card from the Bliss family.

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Sponsor Members Will Receive a signed Thank You postcard, a signed 8×10 print, and a signed yearly holiday card from the Bliss family.

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Guardian Members Will Receive a signed Thank You postcard, a signed 11×14 print, and a signed yearly holiday card from the Bliss family.

Posted on July 11, 2015

Added “Valley of the Sun” to the gallery this afternoon. With this piece I was trying to learn how to properly texture my World Machine creations inside Vue d’Esprit. Like all of my “post-Shadowfax” projects, this render was designed first and foremost as a multiscreen wallpaper so I will probably have to go back and create something special for the single-screen majority.

You will notice that my Membership options have changed. Renewals too!

You can now get started as a DB Member for as little as $5 a month, with higher options available for folks who want to really help support my work. Yes, that’s a bit more expensive than before. I am hoping that if enough people sign up for the new options I might be able to bring on someone to help manage the site so I can concentrate more on the artwork.

Please let me know if you have any questions!!

Posted on July 9, 2015

With this new version of “Ring of Fire (Night)” I’ve replaced the “fake” glow of v.2 with “real” volumetric light. The effect is a lot more immersive and creates a nice contrast with the moonlight. Triple-screen users gets a bit of lightning on the right screen.

This one took nearly 28 days to render on Bucephalus. It simply wouldn’t have been possible for me to produce this render without Shadowfax!

Members please have a look at my new renewal options here. You can now upgrade your account to “Unlimited” status here and never have to worry about it expiring! CC only at the moment. PayPal coming soon!

Posted on June 30, 2015

With the New Horizons probe quickly approaching its rendezvous with Pluto, I thought it might be fun to imagine just what it might find when it gets there.

I used to model all of my planets using Lightwave, but for this one I chose Vue d’Esprit because it has great options for adding a thin atmosphere and visible relief on the planet surface.

This piece isn’t intended to be 100% scientifically accurate, but rather a fanciful (and hopefully artistic) view of Pluto from its moon Charon.

I hope you enjoy it! I may do a second, strictly single-screen, render of this next because I designed the scene as a wide frame multiscreen first. It took nearly 2.5 days to render at 15360 x 2880 on Shadowfax!

Posted on June 17, 2015

Equip your diamond pick-axe because the DB Sandbox Challenge is here!

The past two Minecraft challenges were (IMO) huge successes. So much so that I thought I should make it a yearly event.

While first two contests focused primarily on Minecraft, I am opening it up this time to any sandbox game.

The rules are pretty simple…

Browse through my gallery, pick an image, and recreate it using your copy of Minecraft or ANY OTHER SANDBOX VIDEO GAME!

Compose and post a screenshot that looks as close to my original as possible.

Submit your entry using this form

DB visitors will pick the winners based on their image ratings.

IMPORTANT:If you are a DB Member you can choose any of 800+ my images as your subject. If you aren’t a Member I would ask that you choose from my free images.

The contest has always been Minecraft based in the past but this year I’d like to open it to up to other “sandbox” games. If enough people enter I would like to have prizes in multiple categories along with the grand overall winner.

Some other sandbox games and level editors…

• LegoWorlds
• Garry’s Mod
• Space Engineers
• Unreal Engine
• Unity
• Cryengine
• Contact me with more!

Some Past Winners…

Prizes (starting point: these are subject to change):

• The Unobtainium Pickaxe

  The Grand Prize winner (chosen by my expert jury) will receive a Lifetime Membership to DB. I will also try to render something you built as a DB wallpaper (if possible) using my considerable tools and post it for the world.

• The First Prize winner will receive a 1 year Membership to my gallery.
• Honorable Mention will receive a 1 month Membership.

I am providing these prizes as a baseline but folks are free to donate more. Simply address a gift certificate to rbliss@digitalblasphemy.com and include Sandbox Challenge in the comments.

Spread The Word!!

Encourage your favorite Minecraft YouTubers to enter and film their entries. Who’s really the best? Which game or platform is most suited to this sort of challenge?

Page short link: http://bit.ly/1rNMYSQ

Tweet #dbsandboxchallenge

Here are the prizes, rules and instructions on how to submit your entry.