Posted on February 19, 2021

Daedalus

These were the kinds of renders that I enjoyed creating with Lightwave before they stopped updating the software and it became tedious to use. There’s a lot to re-learn with Blender but I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on it and I think the skills I’m developing will really improve my future landscape renders.

2/21: Here’s a short animation I rendered to test out some things in Blender…

Posted on February 4, 2021

Accelerator (2021)

My learning with Blender continues. After I created “Fabrica” I knew I could use the same technique to update one of my favorite Lightwave renders from the ’00s and in the process do a deep dive into Blender’s polygon modeling, UV editing, particle system, shader editing, volumetrics, animation and lighting systems.

I’m also getting used to a new renderer (two of them actually) that can use either my CPU or GPU. Most sources say using the GPU is faster but then most of those sources don’t have a machine like “Rochallor“. That said, working with Blender has seriously made me want to upgrade my 2080TI to a 3090. If only I could find one for sale 🙁

Update: 2/13…

After creating the animation it was more evident than ever that the particles were not casting any light open the scene. I had thought to move on but instead I decided to do one more version and see just what sort of shading I would need for the particles to do all the lighting. This new version has no light sources other than the particles themselves wherein the first versions I “faked it” using point lights.

NEW ANIMATION…

Posted on January 27, 2021

Philomath

My brother and I were raised by a single-mom who worked long hours as a nurse. We did not have money for all the latest toys but she told me often that “I will always buy you a book”. She spent a considerable amount on a set of encyclopedias that I read pretty much cover-to-cover.

Her guidance shaped me into a “philomath” (lover of learning) and this render is dedicated to her in the same way that Portals is dedicated to my Dad. She bought my first PC which I used to create my first renders. She’s nurtured and invested in my creative spirit at every turn. Her library isn’t quite as orderly as this one however 😀

I should note that the title has a bit of a double-meaning because this is the my first render in my gallery created using “Blender”. This is a fairly simple image but I’ve had to re-learn a LOT to create this. I still have much to learn!

Posted on January 18, 2021

Fabrica

For a while now folks have been asking that I rework one of my earliest abstracts. That one is particularly tough to recreate though because it’s actually not a 3D render at all. It was one of my first attempts at visual artwork on the computer and I used a set of 2D filters in an early version of Photoshop. This was before I had a copy of Bryce and knew anything about 3D rendering.

The first step creating a new 3D version was for me to learn how to create a convincing “woven” mesh. Fortunately I found a method using Blender that produces pretty excellent results. This particular render is my practice with that method.

Obviously I need a lot more practice but I’m sure this method can be used to create lots of other interesting effects 🙂

Posted on January 14, 2021

Siblings

This is a bit of a warm-up exercise after a week or so away from rendering. I noticed recently that my son Ian has been using other wallpapers on his machine. He told me my work was “too high-res”, which I took to mean he’s looking for something more minimal. I certainly can caught up sometimes in adding too much detail so consider this render to be a study in restraint 🙂

In a normal year Jessie would have dragged me away from the computer for a trip or two. That didn’t happen last year and if I was home chances were I was rendering. I told myself after posting my last render that it was time for a break. This will be my 24th year running this gallery so I’ve learned how to monitor and maintain my creative batteries.

I may linger with this scene for a bit so stay tuned 🙂