Posted on February 3, 2000

• Sorry I’ve been out of touch the last few days. Don’t take that to mean that I’ve just been sitting around though. I’ve been keeping myself rather busy in my continuing quest to learn Lightwave, while waiting for my Deep Paint software to arrive so I can properly texture my creations. It arrived yesterday and I’ve only just now started working with it. It looks pretty straight-forward though, so I also managed to set up ScreamerNet on my home network (Lightwave’s “render farm” software). Much to my chagrin, it doesn’t look like ScreamerNet will do much for rendering single frames (like my wallpapers), but you should see it crank through animations. I hope to have some cool stuff to show on you that front soon.

  Of course, I know animations aren’t why you signed up as a member, so I went back to World Builder yesterday with the goal of creating a pleasant floral image (Valentine’s Day is coming up). There are three minor variations on this image now available in the Pickle Jar. I chose one of them for the New Images page, but the choice was completely arbitrary. If you like this image, then I would really like to hear which of the three you prefer, because I can’t decide.

  For those of you not interested in flowers, I’ve updated “To Be”. If you don’t like the additions, you can always find the first edition in the Pickle Jar.

  Speaking of which… I’ve also posted three early versions of the “Chamber” design that later became the background for “To Be”. The whole thing really grew out of me wanting to design a “Fire Pot” which would actually spew fire (using Particle Storm and Hypervoxels). You can see my first attempt in the Pickle Jar in an image called “Blue Fire”. I decided after that to try out orange fire, and that lead to the image I’ll informally call “First Chamber”. I added “Mr. Zard” for scale. Good thing too, because I can claim that it is his magic causing the firepots to levitate slightly off of the floor 🙂 I may do another render of this image with every firmly grounded….

  What’s coming up? Look for “final” versions of “Pagoda” and “Neptune’s Garden”, for some new space imagery and an updated “Conjunction”. Look for a few more “double-wide” wallpapers, and finally, look for some prints to be available before too long. I also plan to start annotating my images and create more intuitive indexing system for my search engine (search by subject, date, colors, software used, etc). I have a lot of other ideas too. Stay tuned!

• A significant anniversary passed a couple of days ago and but I was too busy to notice. One year ago February 1st was my first day without a “real job”. It seemed like a very risky proposition at the time and I keenly remember the butterflies in my stomach as I tendered my resignation at the old job. Without going into specifics, I can safely say that it was the best decision I ever made. Thank you all for making my dream a reality!

Posted on January 28, 2000

• In case you are wondering, both “Neptune’s Garden”, “Pagoda” and “Avalon” are all on hold temporarily. I discovered, after much trial and error, that my Lightwave objects were not compatible with the texturing system used by World Builder (Lightwave Objects do not have UV maps assigned). I have some software on the way which will remedy that situation (and do much much more), called Deep Paint 3D.

  So I’ve been spending this week practicing my Lightwave skills. There hasn’t been much in the way of complete works to show for it (sorry), but I thought this latest one came out kind of nice. I call it “To Be”, and you can check it out on the New Images page or in the Pickle Jar.

Posted on January 24, 2000

• The final version of “Neptune’s Garden” is starting to take shape, but we’re not there yet. You can see where I’m at by downloading the fourth render, which I just posted this morning. You can click the thumbnail above or go to the New Images page. The revision history is available in the Pickle Jar.

Posted on January 22, 2000

• A newer render of “Neptune’s Garden” is up for your review. You can still view the first version in the Pickle Jar

Posted on January 21, 2000

• A slightly new look on the member’s home page today. As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I’ve added small thumbnail links to my latest four images. They are arranged by date from left to right with the newest image always on the far left side. I’m still working out which images I will post there (given that I do revisions in a non-linear fashion). You’ll always find the extra versions in the Pickle Jar.

  Currently the newest image is “Neptune’s Garden I”. I spent most of yesterday working with World Builder on my first underwater image of the year, and this is the result. There are still some things that I’m planning to add, but I thought this was nice “resting point” and that you would like to see a preview. Your comments, as always, are appreciated.