Posted on July 7, 2000

• Another Spire City update. I’ve rearranged the city somewhat, and added something which I hope will alleviate the “head tilting” effect that some of you have reported. As always, you can check out the Pickle Jar if you want to check out the history of this image.

• If you haven’t noticed, I’ve cut the price for extending your membership. You can add a year to your membership now for $14.95 and another 90 days for $9.95. I’ll be trying out the new prices this month, and if they’re popular I’ll keep them. Otherwise I’ll just go back to the old price.

  Lock in another year at the reduced price by clicking here.

Posted on July 2, 2000

• After modeling all those buildings, I decided my Spire City needed a more believeable atmosphere. Unfortunately this is not Lightwave’s strong point (unlike a a dedicated landscape modeler like Bryce or World Builder). The sky looked nice but the scene needed some haze to give everything a sense of scale.

  The past few days were spent trying out different approaches. I’m not sure any of them were successful, but a couple of the renders came out kind of nice. One is a day shot and the other is the much requested night version. Both are up for your review on the new images page.

Posted on June 28, 2000

• My second hi-res render of “Spire City” is now up for your review on the New Images page. As you can see, the city is growing. I’m still painting with broad strokes on this one and I’ll be playing around with it some more before the everything falls into place and I start concentrating on little details.

  Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and suggestions so far. Most of you wanted to see a darker image, so I’ve toned down the sunlight somewhat. My mom (of all people) wrote me and said that some bridges would look cool, so I added two simple ones.

  Anyway, there’s still lots to do with this one. Hope you like where it’s going.

Posted on June 27, 2000

• As mentioned last time, I am working on a new cityscape. I’ve posted my first hi-res test render on the New Images page for your review. Unlike “Gotham 1999” I’m trying to model each building individually instead of using clones, so this one is taking a little more time than my average wallpaper. Gotham ’99 used maybe three different building meshes, this one has over 12 so far.

  I plan on adding a lot more to this image. The ocean is really just a placeholder and I plan on adding more architecture to the scene, along with better atmospheric effects. I’d also like to see a few flying craft zipping about here and there. Maybe some billboards…

  Anyway, the gist of what I am saying here is that this image is in the rough stages. I’d love to hear your comments on it though.

Posted on June 25, 2000

• Stars are pretty easy to make when they are far away. All you need is a white dot or maybe a little lens flare. Up close, however, they’re a little more complicated. Still, I wanted to give it a shot and you can see the result in “Stellar“, my latest upload. It can be found on the New Images page and in the Planetscapes gallery.

  I thought about adding more elements to this one, but in the end I decided the “simple look” made the best wallpaper. I think the biggest challenge was making a “realistic” looking star that didn’t blind you when you looked at it. Anyway, what do you think?

• Vue d’Esprit simply refuses to render a 1600 x 1200 version of “Overlord“. I’ll try again when they update their beta.
• Coming up next: a new cityscape. Stay tuned.