Posted on June 14, 2012

A few items to mention this evening.

First, I’ve added “Dragon’s Gold” to the Members Gallery this evening. It’s a Father’s Day pic (in a non-traditional sense) that I put together as an off-shoot from a commissioned piece that I am working on. Not sure if I am going to do the commission or not but I think this is a nice by-product. I hope you enjoy it!

I also wanted to mention that I have added 2880 x 1800 images to the gallery in anticipation of the new “Retina” Macbook Pros. I’ve added over 120 of them with JPG and lossless PNG versions available. You will find the download links at the bottom of the “Single Screen” resolutions or you can download them all in a Zip file from my Downloads page.

Lastly my “Summer Renewal Special” ends tonight at midnight. Members interested in adding time at a discount can save 25% offby using the coupon code “summertime”.

Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you enjoy “Dragon’s Gold”!

Back to rendering multiscreens now…

Posted on June 11, 2012

A few items to report today.

First, I have added a few Pickle Jar versions of “Building Blocks” afternoon. They are my early attempts at “hybrid” mandelbulbs.

You may notice that I’ve moved the Pickle Jar images up the preview page (above the download links) so they should now be more visible.

I also wanted to mention that I’ve been working this afternoon on streamlining my mobile site. Have a look and let me know if anything strange on your device. The mobile site is essentially a stripped down version of DB formatted to look nice on smartphones and tablets. Some folks have mentioned that they like the “basic” nature of it even better than my full site.

Lastly, I think that maybe I was a bit hasty when I decided to never again offer a coupon special. So many folks have been asking about “the next special” that I may need to reconsider.

I am going to try offering specials again from time to time but only to my Members for renewals. My military, education, and returning Member discounts still apply for non-Members.

Members interested in adding time at a discount can now save 25% off until midnight 6/14 by using the coupon code “summertime”.

Posted on June 7, 2012

Added “Building Blocks” to the Members Gallery today. For the past 6 months or so the only program that wouldn’t crash my MacBook Pro has been Mandelbulber. This is a render I put together while waiting for “Gotham” to finish processing on Bucephalus.

The goal here was to explore “hybrid” fractals which combine up to 6 of the different 3D fractal types. What do you think?

Posted on June 6, 2012

I mentioned last time that the only way to move forward with my “Gotham” render was to redo the clouds. They were simply too expensive to render. I’ve spent the past few days exploring ways of making them render faster. I also wanted them to look more cloudlike and less like smoke.

My second version is now available in the Members Gallery. I know there are going to be quite a few people who will prefer the first version and that’s fine. I thought it was pretty cool myself when I first put it together. Unfortunately it just took too long to process. It will remain in the Pickle Jar available to my Members for all time.

This new version took around 24 hours to render. A lot better but still a long time. Let me know what you think!

Speaking of long renders: I ordered myself a new “mobile workstation” yesterday to replace my wonky MacBook Pro (black screen of death every 15 minutes). It should ship out next week and be here in time to meet up with the extra RAM I ordered from Newegg. I’m looking forward to working on new projects while my renders are cooking!

If you would like to help me pay the bill for the new machine please think about purchasing a Membership, renewing one, or purchasing a gift for someone else. Did I mention my prints? Thanks!!

Posted on June 2, 2012

Not long ago a fan sent me an aerial photo of Chicago at night under a blanket of clouds. I really liked how the city lights cast a glow on the underside of the cloud deck.

That photo served as the inspiration for an update to my 1998 “Gotham” wallpaper which I’ve added to the Members Gallery this morning.

Here’s the 1998 original (rendered in Bryce using a single terrain and some creative “shading”).

Here’s the 2012 update using Vue d’Esprit’s Ecosystems and volumetric lighting.

I might try another with fewer clouds, as I think they came off a bit heavy in the final render. Aesthetics aside, this one took a ridiculous time to process so any future renders are going to have far fewer clouds.

What do you guys think?

I also wanted to mention that I’ve added a couple of new t-shirt designs to my Zazzle collection based on my “Portals” wallpaper. One uses the square version that I rendered for tablets and the other uses the narrower version I rendered for dualscreens.

You can see the rest of my t-shirt collection (plus a few neckties designed by Jessie) here. I will let you guys know if/when Zazzle has their next big t-shirt sale!