Posted on February 28, 2021

Hideaway

I hope folks don’t think the scene is too dark, as the sun has yet to rise and all the light is from the clouds. Most of the light in the scene is in the background but I did try have some foreground illumination. I just got a new monitor however and it’s very bright so your mileage may vary.

Trying a different way of rendering big puffy clouds in Vue here. These are VDB objects and they render a lot quicker than Vue’s built in clouds. I happen to think they also look better in certain instances. They will be part of my work flow going forward.

Let me know what you think.

Posted on February 22, 2021

Daedalus Animated

Here’s a looping animation of Daedalus I rendered that’s suitable for use in meeting backgrouds or as an animated wallpaper…

On desktop, right-click and select “Loop”

What do you think? More animations??

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!