Posted on April 20, 2011

A Member asked recently why I hadn’t made an Easter picture since 2003 and I didn’t have a good answer. I guess I thought I had made as good an Easter Egg picture with the original Ostereier as I possibly could.

Anyway, I recently tried to open up my 2003 scene file (to do a higher res render) and was horrified to see that some of my egg objects were missing. As I looked at the incomplete scene I started playing with a few of the eggs that were left and after a while I guess I had redone them all.

The resulting render is a little on the trippy side, but I guess it is 4/20 after all…

Hope you enjoy it!

Posted on April 19, 2011

I’ve posted my revised version of “Tropic of Thetis (Nightfall)” in the Members Gallery this morning. I had been trying to get the surf to glow as well but in the end it didn’t look as good as I had hoped (took too much focus away from the top of the screen).

This new version tones down the clouds and adds a bit of haze to the horizon (so the islands are more visible). There’s a couple of other minor changes as well. The original version, as always, will be available in the Pickle Jar. I may add these extra versions in the days ahead.

You will also notice that I’ve changed the watermark on my images. Nothing major, just removed the “.com”. I hope the new watermark still looks ok (and not too noticable) on your screens. Let me know if you have any problems.

Posted on April 18, 2011

Happy Monday everyone! A few items to report this morning. First, with Easter fast approaching I thought it would be a good time to feature my one and only Easter wallpaper in the free gallery. I call it “Ostereier” (a German word) and it turned out so well I haven’t made another Easter pic for the past 8 years (not the real reason).

If you enjoy it please have a look at a few Zazzle products I put together here.

Members: I’ve tweaked my gift certificates a bit to reward you for sharing my work. I have added a $10 1-month gift certificate and I will now add time to your Membership for every gift purchased.

I will add 30 days for every 1-month, 90 days for every 1-year and a whole year for every Lifetime gift. Gift certificates are discounted when you purchase more than one. Just be sure you log in before you use the form so my system recognizes your username.

Lastly, both my machines are hard at work rendering my updated “Tropic of Thetis (Nightfall) and “Dolmen”. I hope to have both up very soon. Stay tuned!

Posted on April 13, 2011

Shortly after I posted “Tropic of Thetis” a number of Members suggested that I should try a night version. It has sort of become a tradition around here that I complement a bright wallpaper with a dark version. It’s fun for me to explore how a scene can totally change given the time of day so I am happy to oblige.

For “Tropic of Thetis (Nightfall)” it was suggested that “bioluminescence” would look interesting so I tried my hand at adding some to the water and the flora. I still have some improvements I would like to make to this render but I think it looks nice enough to share as is. I hope you enjoy it!

Posted on April 12, 2011

I’ve swapped a few items out of my future workstation build. I’m thinking now that I will go with a SSD boot/application drive and a RAID 10 setup for data. I’ve also chucked the Quadro 4000 in favor of a GTX 590 (if I can get my hands on one). I like that it has 3 DVI onboard and it looks faster than the Quadro.

I would love to hear suggestions for a quality SSD (over 250 GB). The one I picked looks nice but I am no expert. Basically I want a machine that will last me another 5 years.

Anyway, I’m getting close to pulling the trigger and I wanted to thank the Members who have helped with donations. I really appreciate the support! Be on the lookout for a night version of “Tropic of Thetis” that is a little bit different…