Posted on June 29, 2002

• “Daybreak”, my latest render, is now up on the new images page. Sorry this one took so long but, as I’ve mentioned before, World Builder (in it’s current form) is not the easiest program to work with. In fact, this will probably be my last World Builder image until the fine folks at Digital Element come out with their new 3.2 update. Sorry for venting my frustration here. I hope you like the new wallpaper.

Posted on June 28, 2002

• My new image is taking forever to render. I’d hoped it would be ready to post this morning, but it’s been going since 8:00 last night and at this rate it will probably be done sometime tomorrow.

  One trick I’ve learned regarding World Builder is that it is far more stable if you render using only one processor. The upside is the render actually gets finished, the downside is it takes forever.

  You can get an email notification when it gets posted by signing up for the mailing list.

Posted on June 25, 2002

• The response to “Newborn” has been so positive that I’ve decided against making any further changes. I’ll let it stand as is. I started working on a new project a few days ago and I think it’s coming along nicely. I’m using World Builder so the final rendering is proving to be somewhat tricky. The render will crash halfway through and I have to start over again. Regardless, I hope to have something up within the next couple of days.

Posted on June 19, 2002

• I received quite a few emails regarding my previous post. It would seem that most of you agree with me that quality matters more than quantity. The response was truly overwhelming. Thank you to everyone who has expressed support.

• As I mentioned last time, my next project was going to be of a scientific nature. The day I posted “Null” I got a letter from an astronomer at JPL. She informed me that she and some of her collegues were big fans of my artwork. It was truly a chest-puffing moment of pride for me. I imagine these guys must be pretty hard to impress.

  Anyway, the nice lady was writing to ask if I did requests. Normally I’m happy to listen to all requests but I never promise anything. This one, however, really piqued my interest. She wanted to know if I could depict a very young star, not yet burning hydrogen. She explained it thusly: “One thing that is characteristic of all young stellar objects at this stage, as far as we can tell, is that they are not only accreting material, but they are blowing some of it back out in the form of jets that emerge along the axis of rotation.”. She supplied a link to some Hubble photos taken of these young stars.

  So, that is the story behind “Newborn“, my latest addition to the gallery. There are still some things I would like to tweak in this image so don’t be surprised if you see another version before the end of the week. Hope you like it!

Posted on June 16, 2002

• Happy Father’s Day to you dads out there! Jessie and I just got back from spending the weekend at a “Catholic Engaged Encounter”. It’s a three day closed seminar designed to teach us all about how to have a successful marriage. It is also a prerequisite to having a wedding in a Catholic church (which is the only option for Jessie). I’m not Catholic but I found it to be an eye-opening and generally helpful experience. Now that it is over, I’m glad we went. I’m going to decompress tonight and then get busy working on my new render tomorrow.

  This latest one is taking longer than usual for a number of different reasons. The most important being that it is a request from a scientist to depict an actual phenomenon. I want to it look as realistic as possible. Trust me. If I can put what’s in my head onto the screen, you will like it.

  This brings me to another point. Every time more than seven days pass between new renders I get a bunch of nasty emails from members complaining that they are not getting their money’s worth. Looks like I need to clarify things.

  This is not a “Wallpaper of the Week” club. The subscription works like this: your initial membership payment covers access to everything in my gallery for the amount of time you purchased (1 year, 90 days, or Lifetime). All of these images are available for preview on the free site so you cannot say you didn’t know what you were getting. From time to time (at whatever interval is comfortable for me) I will post new images. I do this because I enjoy creating art, I want new people to sign up and I want you all to keep renewing your memberships (or else I don’t eat). These new images, though, are available for free to existing members. I do not charge you extra for them.

  If, when your expiration date rolls around, you decide that the new images I posted (and the frequency with which I posted them) were valuable to you then I ask that you renew your membership. This way you always know what you are paying for, and I am comfortable knowing that no one feels cheated. Capiche?