Posted on September 12, 2016

Archive

I apologize for getting a bit side-tracked with all of the 360 panoramas. For my latest render I tried creating it as a 360 panorama from the start. This render uses Lightwave’s “dielectric” glass shader to create a “stained glass” effect.

Unfortunately it takes nearly 3 days to render on “Shadowfax” so some optimizations will have to be made going forward.

Posted on August 30, 2016

360 Panoramas!

What started as a fun diversion on my Facebook page has turned into a possible push into the VR world for me. Hope to have more to report on that front soon. For now I’ve rendered 6 360 panoramas that you can check out right here on DB (without having to visit Facebook).

Let the pages load fully and then drag about with your mouse/finger to look around.

Any requests?

Posted on August 19, 2016

The Fire Within

I guess I wasn’t quite done with my cave itch when I posted “Bones of the Earth“. I had the idea here to create a scene lit from below by lava. The snow came relatively near the end but I think it makes a nice contrast.

I may still have an edit or two in store for this one, but I thought it looked interesting enough to share as is. Hope you enjoy it!

Posted on August 9, 2016

Whirlwind

A companion piece to “Thunderhead“. I used what I learned designing those cloud formations to make a convincing environment for a tornado I modeled using The Plant Factory.

I may still tweak a thing or two with this one before I’m finished, but I thought it looked nice enough to share for now.

Compare to the original “Whirlwind” from 2000!

PS: My renders are usually an escape for me from the flatness of Central Illinois, but the foreground in this piece very much embraces it

Posted on August 1, 2016

Thunderhead

I was born and raised in central Illinois, which is very flat country (flattened by a glacier 10,000 years ago), and cumulonimbus clouds are our versions of mountains. I first attempted to model one back back in 1999 using texture mapped spheres. This version with 2016 technology uses Vue’s Spectral 2 clouds.