Posted on March 30, 2015

I had the opportunity recently to visit Arizona and take in some incredible natural beauty. The desert in the south of the state is different from the desert in the north. This render takes a bit from all of the different regions I visited, and adds a healthy dose of my own fancy.

The landforms were modeled using World Machine and are the first such efforts to appear in my gallery. Likewise, the cacti are my first original efforts modeled using “The Plant Factory“. They appear at different levels-of-detail throughout the scene.

There are quite a few things I would like to change about this scene but I thought it looked nice enough to share as is and it has been too long since I’ve been able to update my gallery. Just rendering at 4K took nearly 72 hours!

I first attempted a 5K render that went for 5 days being lost to an inadvertent reboot. I re-rendered at 4K to save time so that is why I do not have a 5k version to offer at the moment. Run Shadowfax, show us the meaning of haste

As soon as this image is posted I will be shutting down Bucephalus, installing my new GTX 980 and swapping out my old Dell 3007 for as many of my new BenQ 4K panels as I can get to run. I hope to have the rest of Shadowfax assembled and in action within a week or so.

Since there are no consumer UHD+ 16:10 monitors, this might be the last render I create at that aspect ratio…

Posted on March 27, 2015

It’s like Christmas morning ??#ProjectShadowfax

A photo posted by Ryan Bliss (@dblasphemy) on Mar 27, 2015 at 7:02am PDT

PS: NEW RENDER SOON!!

 

Posted on March 24, 2015

Project Shadowfax is now underway!

I’ve ordered the following parts this morning…

• CPUs: 2x Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3 Haswell 2.6GHz LGA 2011-3 (14 cores each)
• Memory: 16x Crucial 8GB (128GB total) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133 (PC4-17000)
• GPU: 1 Nvidia Titan X for Shadowfax and GTX 980s for Bucephalus and Arion.
• Case: Phanteks Enthoo Series Primo
• MB: ASUS Z10PE-D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 R3
• Display: 3 BenQ BL3201PH 32″ IPS LED 4K Monitors
• Boot Drive: SAMSUNG 850 Pro Series 1TB SATA III (SSD)
• Data Drive: Seagate ST4000NM0024 4TB
• PSU: SeaSonic X-1250

The fundraiser was so successful that I’ve been able to purchase a 3rd machine (a Bucephalus clone) that will act as a third renderer! I will be calling this machine “Arion“.

My plan is to have three machines with each one hooked up to a 4K monitor on my desk. The actual machines will be in a room below me in my basement (keeping cool hopefully). Then I can just switch between them and work/render 3 projects at a time!

I will shut the fundraiser down when 48 hours elapse between donations. All funds that I’ve received beyond the initial goal will be used to update my software arsenal and generally help keep DB running for another year.

All support is appreciated but keep in mind that GoFundMe takes around 8% of your donation whereas if you give through my site directly I only pay around 3% 🙂

Lifetime Members looking to continue supporting my work can check out my homebrewed Patrons program or my new Patreon page.

Huge thank you again to everyone who helped with Project Shadowfax!! I will post pics here as the pieces start coming together.

 

Posted on March 23, 2015

I blew past my Project Shadowfax funding goals yesterday with one well-timed email to my Lifetime Members. Thank you!!

What will I do with the extra funds? I have a lot of ideas. Upgrade my software (new version of LightWave 3D, Octane, Helios, CityEngine, GeoGlyph are all on my list).

I would love to move my workstations to a (much cooler) room in my basement and work on them from my office upstairs. I would love for my office to not sound like the deck of an aircraft carrier and be 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Beyond that I might have enough to to build a third machine to house the 48 GB of RAM that I just pulled out of Bucephalus. In short, the extra support will go to good use!! Huge thanks to everyone who donated. I had to order another 500 “Highland Spring” Thank You cards this morning!!

 

Posted on March 10, 2015

So many folks have requested a green Fluorescence for St. Paddy’s day over the years. Why haven’t I done it before? Good question. I just remembered today because I wanted to use a green version of “Fluorescence” for my Facebook Page Profile Pic but saw to my chagrin that I didn’t have one!

Rather than simply shift the hue of the blue version using Photoshop I chose to re-shade and re-render the mushrooms using “shamrock green” (#009E60). Since I went to all that trouble I thought I should probably post the wallpaper for my Members (multiscreens available too!).

Please enjoy responsibly!! Stay tuned for the multiscreen version of “Weirwood” and something new…