Posted on February 15, 2008

• I’ve posted a new version of “The Promise of Spring” this morning. The changes are mostly minor: I’ve widened a light beam a tad and I’ve also cleaned up some of the “floating twigs” that were in the original. One significant change is that I’ve added some blooms to the tree foliage.

  The version posted on 2/12 will remain in the Pickle Jar.

  Hopefully the changes meet your approval and I can get busy rendering the multi-screen version.

Read Comments (124)

Posted on February 12, 2008

• Thanks to everyone for being patient while I got my latest render sorted out. It’s finally done rendering and I’ve posted it up on the New Images page. There are a couple of rendering errors that I will be cleaning up in the next day or so, but I felt it was “finished enough” to post tonight. Please judge it on the “big picture” as I will be replacing this render with a cleaned up version shortly.

  It’s called “The Promise of Spring” . I’ll leave its inspiration up to you.

  Was it worth a nearly monthlong wait? Only you can decide. I made some mistakes which made it take longer than it should have. I know now that soft shadows + volumetric lighting = ridiculous render times when using Vue d’Esprit, so I will endeavor to find a different solution in the future. Beyond that, I hope that you enjoy it and it serves to remind you that winter cannot last forever.

Read Comments (124)

Posted on February 11, 2008

• I had wanted to post my new wallpaper this morning, but instead I have to post another sad update on what has become a cursed project. The long render that I had referred to way back on 2/1 finished last week but in the end it didn’t look like something I could post. It just didn’t turn out right.

  I should have stopped it sooner, but I kept hoping that the render was simply dealing with a particularly “hard” part of the image and would eventually speed up (as I’ve seen happen often).

  Once it finally finished I decided that I needed to rework a couple of things and try to do a render that would take a lot less time (especially since I was going to have to work up a multi-monitor version in the future). I promise to never let a render go that long again folks.

  The new version started rendering on the 8th and I woke up this morning fully expecting that it would be ready to post. Instead I found that Vue had crashed (most likely as it was working to display the final render) and I am going to have to do another 2-3 day re-render.

  If my head wasn’t already shaved I would be pulling out my hair at this point.

  I know you all have been waiting a long time, and I am sorry. I wanted it to be done this morning. The re-render should only take another couple of days and (unless it crashes again) I will post it straightaway.

  Once again, I’m very sorry about all of this! No one wants this project to be done more than I do.

Read Comments (47)

Posted on February 1, 2008

• Ok, obviously I was too optimistic last time about my progress on my latest project. Just to update you all: The image is complete (and has been for a while now) but it is taking forever to render. I’m thinking there is a bug within Vue d’Esprit which causes very slow rendering when subsurface scattering and radiosity are used. If the image weren’t 2/3 finished I would have canceled the render and tried something else, but I’ve gone this far and now I want to see it through to the end. Hopefully it will be worth the wait!

  No ETAs for you this time. It will be up just as soon as it finishes rendering!

• In happier news, it’s Jessie’s birthday today. While it may seem that this site is mainly about me (since I’m the one who posts here), Jessie has a huge influence on what goes on at DB. I made a little comment thread below so if anyone wishes to say “Happy Birthday!” they can do so there. Happy Birthday baby! I love you!!

Read Comments (60)

Posted on January 25, 2008

• One of the things I did while I was out-of-action last month was set my computer to render print sized versions of some of my favorite 2007 images. While I’m waiting for my newest project to finish rendering (hopefully it will be done sometime this weekend) I’ve uploaded the images to my Zazzle gallery. Feel free to check them out if you are looking for something new to hang on your wall. There are five new prints available, specifically: “Song of the Sky” (2007 version), “Indian Summer”, “Spring Creek”, “Biodome Sunset”, and “River Valley”.

  Be sure to check back in a day or two for another update…

Read Comments (13)