Posted on August 21, 2012

Added “Sierra” to the Members Gallery this evening. I dreamed this scene up as a counterpoint to “Highland Spring” where you could have a look at the bottom of the valley.

The high amount of blurring in the water lead to this one taking nearly 80 hours to render at 3277 x 2048. There are a few tweaks still I would like to make (the render I’ve posted was actually a “first draft” of sorts) but I thought it looked nice enough to share as is.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Posted on August 15, 2012

Quite a few of my Members were (rightly) disappointed that my multiscreen version of “Year of the Dragon” was cropped in such a way that most of the clouds were hidden. I have tried to set this right with the dual and triple-screen renders of the night version.

The render ended up taking 79 hours (those clouds are expensive) but I hope everyone is happy with how it turned out!

I also wanted to mention that from now until 8/19 I have set my education discount to 30% as a “Back-to-School Special”. Students, teachers, assistants, tutors, custodians, librarians, administrators, crossing-guards and anyone else involved with education at any level and in any country are eligible to use the coupon code “learning” for both new Memberships and Renewals.

The coupon works on the honor system so feel free to use it if you feel like you qualify. Thanks to everyone who helps educate the next generation!!

Posted on August 11, 2012

Quite a few Members have requested that I try a night version of “Year of the Dragon” so thought I would give it a shot.

Some suggested that I add aurora, fireworks, and other night lights to the scene but, after trying a number of these, I thought it worked best with just the stars and planets.

I hope you like it! Let me know what you think in the comments thread.

Posted on August 10, 2012

I’ve added a “work-in-progress” update to 2003’s “Arboreal” to the Members Gallery this afternoon. I’m not completely happy with where it’s at, but I think it looks nice enough to share while I make my adjustments.

This is another piece that I put together on my “Asfaloth” mobile workstation while Bucephalus was rendering “Year of the Dragon“. I can’t tell you how nice it is to be able to work on projects while my main workstation is busy rendering!

Anyway, this one will surely see a revision or two in the days ahead. Let me know what you think in the comments section. Have a great weekend!

Posted on August 9, 2012

I apologize for the delay in posting the multiple-monitor version of “Year of the Dragon”. I set the scene to render at 7680 x 4800 when I left on my recent trip down to Texas but found upon my return that it had crashed halfway through. My intention had been to source the multiscreen from the larger, poster sized render.

I set up a new 7680 x 1600 version of the scene and started it rendering yesterday morning, but it still shows another 24 hours to go. Rather than having everyone wait even longer I decided to take what I had from the crashed render and create a dual and triple-screen versions from that.

As always, some compromises had to be made to fit the scene into a wildly different aspect ratio. Let me know what you guys think…