Posted on November 8, 2016

Approaching Asgard (Night)

Almost immediately after I posted “Approaching Asgard” I started getting requests for a night version. The scene in the book took place during the day but I won’t let that stop me from reimagining it as a nighttime scene. Here’s my first crack at it. Let me know what you think!

No one asked but here are…

My Thoughts On The 2016 Election:

As a rule, I don’t talk politics on DB. I’m not going to start today. No matter the result of the election, half the country was going to feel like it was headed in the wrong direction.

I’m most sad that we are so divided and the divisions have only gotten more rancorous thanks to hyperbolic social media flame wars and partisan “news” outlets. Go out today (hopefully every day) and be nice to someone who you know doesn’t share your politics. Know that you aren’t going to change anyone’s core beliefs with a tweet or a post. Right and left are both striving to improve our country; they just have different ideas on how to accomplish it.

I am proud to have fans from across the entire political spectrum and whether your candidate won or lost, know that I will be here for you when you are tired of the real world and need an escape.

Posted on November 6, 2016

Approaching Asgard

Every so often I’ll be reading a good book and a particular description or scene will stick in my head. “Highland Spring“, “Temple of the Leaf“, “The Winter Rose“, “Fire Made Flesh“, and “Arrakeen” are examples.

“Approaching Asgard” was inspired by a scene from the third installment of Pierce Brown’s excellent “Red Rising” trilogy. I won’t describe the scene further in case you haven’t read it yet. The scene describes one of the main characters approaching a fortress on a “floating mountain”.

You may recall that when I posted “Class M” I mentioned it being a warm up for a particular scene that I wanted to render. Here it is 🙂

I hope you enjoy it even if you haven’t read the books.

Posted on October 26, 2016

Attempt No Landing

My very first experiments using Quadspinner’s “Geoglyph” plugin for World Machine resulted in a set of fractured terrains that brought to mind (for me) the surface of Europa. I actually created this one before “Alpine Autumn” but it only finished rendering on Bucephalus just recently.

After adding Jupiter in the background I thought it would be fun to pay homage to one of my favorite science-fiction films. I hope you enjoy it!

Posted on October 23, 2016

Alpine Autumn

This piece started out as a learning exercise using Quadspinner’s excellent “Geoglyph” plugin for World Machine. The background mountains and foothills were modeled using this software.

Unfortunately my render bogged down unexpectedly around the 2/3rds mark and I paused it to work on another idea. Unfortunately when I tried to reload this project the scene file failed to open. Grrrrr!

Fortunately I had saved my render in progress and was able to use a few tricks to finish it off. Unfortunately this means I don’t have any scene data available to render a multiscreen, winter versions, further revisions, etc.

I hope you can enjoy it as is though!

Posted on October 20, 2016

Cogito Ergo Sum

While looking up at the stars one recent evening I had the idea that if you were to look directly down on someone floating on a calm sea at night, they might appear to be drifting in space. I liked the idea so much that I paused my Autumn landscape render (which is very nearly finished) and set about crafting it.

“Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think, therefore I am) is a companion piece of sorts to The Dreamer. The boat and the boy are the same (though altered slightly for this scene). Where the action in that render takes place beneath the surface of the water, this piece uses a reflected sky. I hope you enjoy it!