Posted on December 22, 2011

I’ve just added dual and triple-screen versions of my “Blue Christmas” update. From the feedback I’ve gotten so far it sounds like the twilight sky is bit polarizing.

For my part; I chose to add some color because so many of my Christmas tree wallpapers have been under black skies. I wanted to do something a little different. Maybe Christmas isn’t the time for “different” though. I tend to think that sometimes polarizing is a little better anyway, because it may be a stronger feeling for the people that do enjoy it.

What do you think? Either way I do think a second render will go up before I am completely finished with this one. The multiscreen in particular needs some nip-tucks before I am fully happy with it. I sort of rushed a few things so it would be ready in advance of the Holiday.

Posted on December 19, 2011

I finally managed to finish my Christmas render today and I’ve just added it to the Members Gallery.

This is, of course, an update to my “Blue Christmas” which I rendered first using World Builder in 1999, then again using Lightwave in 2002. This is my first version using Vue d’Esprit.

It would be an understatement to say that this was a difficult render to produce. Without getting too technical I will just say that you can really get yourself into trouble by cranking up the quality settings in Vue. Also, I’ve found the new version of Vue doesn’t even begin to accurately estimate the render time remaining. I don’t want to spoil the Holiday spirit with any further rantings so I will leave it at that.

Fortunately I was able to finish the render (though I had to restart it a few times) and I think it turned out pretty well. I do see a few things I would like to tweak but I might wait until after the Holidays to do any re-renders.

The multiscreen has been rendering on my alternate workstation for the past few days so it should be up shortly. I hope you enjoy the new wallpaper!

PS: Did you know that I offer Membership Gift Certificates?

Posted on December 10, 2011

The first multiscreen render of “Elegy (Winter/Day)” didn’t turn out quite as well as I would have liked. Widening the camera angle left me with an image that was far brighter/glaring than the original single-screen.

I posted it anyway and set about re-rendering it with some new atmospheric settings to compensate for the wide-angle. That new render finished yesterday and I’ve updated the dual and triple-screen versions in my Member gallery.

My new Christmas render is nearly finished (!) and I hope to have it up in the next 24 hours.

Also, my 25% off coupon (good for both new subscriptions and renewals) expires at midnight tonight! Everyone (not just redditors) is welcome to use the coupon code “redditor” to get the discount.

Posted on December 8, 2011

On December 2nd I was sitting and waiting for a render to finish which I decided it would be fun to do an “IAMA” (Ask me Anything) on Reddit.com. Redditor “poker_face” asked if I could “draw” a Reddit Alien (TM). My answer was “We’ll See”, which was taken to mean no.

As my kids know, “We’ll See” can sometimes mean yes. I had a such a nice visit with the Reddit community that I thought it was the least I could do to try my hand that the iconic Alien.

Most Redditors seemed to know me from my “Fluorescence” mushrooms so I thought it would be fun to combine the two. Especially since my Christmas render is still churning. I roughed this out and rendered it on my third-string workstation using Lightwave 10.

I’ve posted this in my free gallery and my Members gallery. I’ve also submitted to the Reddit here (Upvotes will help the entire community see it)

I’m also making good on all of the requests for a Reddit discount. Redditors can use the coupon code “redditor” to save 25% off all Memberships and Renewals until midnight Sunday.

This one is dedicated specifically to Redditor “Rethread”. As requested: Something “warm and fuzzy” for the Redditors.

Christmas Wallpaper Update: This render is still churning away. The good news is that it will go much faster once the radiosity calculations are completed and I can save this calculation for future re-renders. Soon I hope!

Posted on December 5, 2011

I’ve added the dual and triple-screen versions of “Elegy (Winter/Day)” to the Members Gallery this morning. The lightning solution turned out a bit brighter for this version so let me know if that is a problem.

I am still waiting for this Christmas render to finish. Thousands of tiny luminous objects on a 400MB mesh makes for a very complicated radiosity pre-gather…

Lastly, I was floored by the response to my AMA on Reddit last Friday. I only mean’t to write answers for a couple of hours but it turned into an all-day affair with me re-connecting with a lot of fans who, for whatever reason, lost track of my work over the years.

Anyway, I had a blast answering as many questions/posts as I could and may have a little something for the Redditors coming up by way of thanks…