Posted on March 1, 2010

• I added “The Forest Citadel” to the gallery this morning (the original “Forest Citadel” is here). It’s been in the works since early February but took a lot longer to render than I expected (due to all of the volumetrics no doubt).

  The render was taking so long, in fact, that I moved it to my alternate box and worked on other projects (“Blossom” and “Take Two” for example) while it was running. Stay tuned because I have another landscape in the works that should be up soon.

  It should be a good week to be a DB Member (expired Members can renew here with a discount).

  Enjoy!

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Posted on February 22, 2010

• I’ve added the dual and triple screen versions of “Blossom“. I hope you like the expanded view!
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Posted on February 21, 2010

• I received an email this morning from a Member telling me that my download menu (the dropdown list) made it impossible for him to download my images. His ISP (Vodafone) was intercepting the requested graphics and recompressing them before displaying. Very similar to what AOL used to do with their “browser” back in the day.

  I’ve received a number of comments about the new dropdown list actually. Most people are of the opinion that it was simpler when every resolution had a link (allowing for right-click downloading). For my part, I like how the dropdown list doesn’t take up a lot of space on the page but I can see that it is a lot easier to right-click and download the sizes you want rather than loading them all in the browser window.

  After reading the email this morning I realized that a compromise had to be made. I’ve brought back the text links on the image preview pages (like this one), and I’ll keep the dropdown list for the thumbnail gallery pages (like this page). I hope this works better for everyone.

  Still working on a multiscreen “Blossom” and my newly adjusted scenery render is chugging away on my alternate box. Stay tuned.

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Posted on February 19, 2010

• I’ve been working on a scenery wallpaper for the past week or so and I had hoped to have it ready before now. It’s been rendering and rendering and showing very little progress. It’s getting into “Enshrouded” territory now and that’s unacceptable to me. I will have to go back to the drawing board and rework some things to make it render faster.

  When it became apperent to me that the scenery would be an epic render I decided to move it over to my alternate box and work on something new. I fired up an old friend, Xfrog, for the first time in many years and started playing. The result, “Blossom“, was rendered in Lightwave using Fprime and G2. You could call it a direct decendant of my “Cobalt Daisy“.

  On a technical note, Worley needs to release a 64-bit G2. This scene barely fit under 3 GB of RAM. “Blossom” took 12 hours to render at 2560 x 1600 using Fprime, which means it would have taken 12 days using Lightwave’s built-in renderer. Fprime can really speed up renders, but even it has limits and it seems I was born to push them. I may try a different version using LWs Nodal textures.

  I wouldn’t call it a perfect render by any means, but I thought it looked interesting enough to share with my Members while I do further tweaks. I should have my new scenery wallpaper ready before too long as well. No ETAs, just letting you know that it is in the works. Have a great weekend!

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Posted on February 13, 2010

• I’ve added dual and triple-screen downloads for Members running 1680 x 1050 monitors today. There are over 140 dualscreens and 45 triple-screens available. I’ve also added files to fit three 1920 x 1200 monitors. Zip files are available so you can download them all quickly.

  I’ve been doing all of this Photoshop work while my new render chugs away in the background. No ETA on the new render, but just wanted you to know that it’s in the pipeline.

  Lastly, people seem to have been having fun refreshing my front page to see the random images. Awesome! To make it easier I’ve added a link to the side that will send you randomly into my gallery. Click it again when you are ready to load a new random pic. Enjoy!

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