Posted on November 11, 2011

After rebuilding my “Octopus’s Garden” file last weekend I decided to step away from it and work on something else for a bit. I hope you’ve enjoyed my Mandelbulber experiments. After the fractals went up I set about correcting some of the issues in my underwater scene.

I’ve posted a new version of “An Octopus’s Garden” in the Members Gallery that moves the sun angle a bit lower, loses about half of the fish from v.2 and adds some strategically placed shadows in the immediate foreground. I hope you like the changes!

Now to get the multiscreens rolling!

PS: Here’s a page I set up listing all of the new dynamic PS3 themes available.

Posted on November 11, 2011

I’ve been spending the last couple of days doing further experiments with Mandelbulber. It’s truly an amazing program (and free to boot).

I’ve added one last new version to the Members Gallery this morning where I’ve moved the camera a good deal closer (this image shows the area I focused on). One of the defining characteristics of fractals is that the more you zoom in, the more detail appears. I suspect that the Universe operates in much the same way.

Thanks for everyone’s patience while I learn something new. I hope to have a final version of “Octopus’s Garden” up shortly. I needed to step away from that one for a bit.

PS: Check out ChronoWall!

Posted on November 11, 2011

And now for something completely different…

Fans of my work know I am fascinated by fractals. They appear, in one shape or form, in just about everything I do. Recently I learned of programs that allow you to explore them in three dimensions and finally was able to dig in and play with one (called Mandelbulber) over the weekend.

My first render is now up in the Members Gallery for review. I call it “Helios“, suggested by my son Jason (5) who said it looked like a sunrise. My oldest son Ian felt it looked more like a Sarlaac.

I rendered it at 5280 x 3295 and the details (IMO) are just astounding.

This is all the result of only a couple of hours playing with the program so I feel like I have only really scratched the surface of what it can do. I would certainly love to figure out a way of exporting the 3D data to other programs. Maybe Bucephalus could handle it, but then again maybe not.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it on your desktop! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Posted on November 11, 2011

I spent the weekend rebuilding my broken “Neptune’s Garden” scene and have posted the updated render in the Members Gallery this morning.

The first change you will notice is the new title. “An Octopus’s Garden” is, of course, borrowed from one of my favorite Beatles songs. It was the title I had in mind when I started the project but my original scene file was corrupted before I had the chance to add much in the way of sea life. Instead I chose a temporary title for the first version (which will remain in the Pickle Jar).

The sun angle is a bit different in this version so there are more shadows. I’ve also tried to vary up the corals in the foreground. There are also quite a few more fish this time around. Maybe too many?

I hope you like the changes!

Posted on November 11, 2011

A few items to report today.

First, I have good news and bad news regarding my latest render. The good news is that I’ve added “Neptune’s Garden” to the Members Gallery this afternoon. The bad news? Let me explain…

I’ve always loved underwater scenes and was thrilled to learn that Vue 10 had a new water rendering engine. I’ve worked on this scene for about a week through quite a few different revisions. Light and color behave differently underwater and this has been a learning experience for me.

My latest render finished this morning and I would say that I am around 80% happy with it. I started in to fixing the last 19% (mostly changing some of the colors on the corals and adding some misc sealife) when tragedy struck. Vue crashed and for some strange reason refused to reopen the scene file that I had just saved 15 minutes before. The backup appears to be corrupted too. What’s up with that?

Fortunately my kids were at school when it happened because I get in trouble when I swear in front of them.

Anyway, I am talking with the folks at e-onsoftware about investigating what happened to my file. They asked me to send it to them but I am not hopeful. I decided to post what I had while I waited to see what could be done about my broken scene. 80% is better than nothing after all. In the meantime I guess I will try to recreate what I can.

Second, I am increasing my regular 20% military discount to 30% in honor of Veterans Day. Active and retired military (of any nationality) may use the coupon code “liberty” to get the discount on all new Memberships and Renewals. The offer is valid until midnight 11/11.

Third, I wanted to mention that I have added two free browser themes for Chrome. You can check them out here. They were coded by Pim Vermeyden last year and have been available for Members only until now. I hope you enjoy them!

Lastly, I have added the “Mystic Halo” Live Wallpaper to the Amazon App Store for Android. It is currently the #5 paid theme and I would love to see it go to #1 (that seems to bring in a lot of sales all by itself). The app is only $.99 and can also be found in the Android Marketplace. Hopefully we will have one ready for Christmas…