Posted on August 18, 2001

• I’ve added some “Picklejar” versions of Starbirth. They are numbered from 1 to 4, chronologically. Each are interesting renders by themselves and would make decent wallpapers. In fact, I was tempted to post the image at each incarnation. I waited a day, worked on it some more, and the result is the image I posted on Wednesday.

  I’ve also made a “double-wide” render (3200 x 1200) for those of you who use two monitors. You’ll find it in my tiny “2X” folder in the picklejar. I don’t have a dual-monitor system myself, so I can’t really test this out. If anyone wants to send me a photo of their setup, I’d appreciate it. I only ask that you wait until Tuesday to send them, since that is when my DSL is scheduled to be turned on (fingers crossed).

• Jessie and I drove up to L.A. on Thursday to catch the last day of exhibitions at SIGGRAPH. We sat through some demos of Lightwave 7, and from what I saw I’m glad I purchased the upgrade. It should be arriving sometime next week. I saw a lot of software that I wanted to buy (Maya…).

  The highlight of the day for me was meeting Alex and Igor, the programmers behind World Builder. Alex scolded me for using too much Vue d’Esprit lately and I promised to get back to learning the new version of World Builder. I was deeply flattered when he told me that I had “mastered” the software. Quite a compliment, I thought, coming from the guy who designed the software.

  All in all we had a great time (except for the traffic in L.A.). Thanks to the folks at Right Hemisphere for sending me a free pass to the exhibits. I just recently downloaded their Lightwave plugin for Deep Paint 3D and I’m looking forward to learning it.