Posted on March 10, 2011

I’ve added “Corona” to the Free Gallery this morning, replacing “Canopy Creek (Autumn)”.

I’ve also added “Facebook Comment” boxes to the free gallery images (on a trial basis). This means if you are currently logged into your Facebook account you will be able to leave comments “as yourself” on my free image pages. Seems like a great way to hear from as many people as possible without having to deal with anonymous posters.

This is on a trial-basis only and comments on the Member images (including works-in-progress) will still be recorded the usual way. Now if I can only figure out how to get the link to go straight to the comments (below the download).

A number of you have made donations to help me finance the workstation upgrade I mentioned on 3/3. Thank you!!

I’ve set up a page from which you can make a donation if you like or keep track of how much is donated so far ($14035.97 since 3/3!).

Donations are completely optional (I would much rather you purchase a Membership or renewal) but I thought I would put up a form for the Lifetime members or folks who would like to help out without becoming a Member.

Thanks and I will post here when I’ve narrowed my hardware options further!

Posted on March 8, 2011

I’ve added the dual and triple-screen versions of “Arcana” to the Members gallery this morning. The different camera angle worked well for the “Inner Workings” multiscreens so I thought I would try it again here. The original single-screen has a bit of an unconventional angle so I moved the camera down to ground level for a more intimate view on the scene.

I’ve also added a crop of the new camera angle for single screen users in the Pickle Jar.

03/03/11

My recent render-times have made it painfully clear that I need some new hardware. In the past I have purchased pre-built systems but this time I am looking to assemble it myself. To that end I have begun a list of components at my favorite online computer store.

As you will see from the list, I am stuck between using a 4U “barebones server” as a starting point, or purchasing the case/mobo/psu a la carte. One system would use SAS drives and the other SATA 6GB/s (I have listed both).

I’m not certain I trust SSDs enough yet. I know they are fast though.

Both systems would use dual six-core Xeons running at 3.46 GHz and would use at least 24 GB of RAM. 48 would be nicer of course…

Anyway I would love to hear in any advice you guys might have on this setup. Also I am thinking of opening this up to sponsorship so drop me a line if you are interested.

Otherwise I will rely, as always, on memberships, renewals, and donations.

Thanks and check back for the “Arcana” multiscreens shortly!

Posted on March 2, 2011

I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the volumetric effects in my first “Arcana” render so I went back to the drawing board yesterday. The particle effects were a little overwhelming in the first version so I cut most of them. I also added some fractal sorcery courtesy of Apophysis.

What do you think of the changes? You’ll find the original version in the Pickle Jar for comparison.

Posted on February 28, 2011

I’ve always been a sucker for magic and fantasy. Some of my earliest renders attempt to capture this. For whatever reason it has been a quite a long time since I’ve tried anything “magical”. After doing a little CRPG gaming this winter and purchasing a new version of Lightwave the time seemed right to dust off my spellbook.

The result is “Arcana” which is new in the Members Gallery this morning. This one took about 10 days longer to produce than it should have. The volumetrics were simply too much for my current machine. One render locked up at 66 hours and (after I dialed back the quality settings a tad) the final render took 155 hours. Amazingly it only took something like 10 minutes to render without the volumetrics. I will not wait that long for the multiscreen version.

Anyway, I hope the wait was worth it. For my part I have not been sitting idle while this rendered on and on. I have two other projects going on my other machines so March looks to come in like a lion…

Posted on February 23, 2011

I had hoped to have my new project ready for you over the past weekend, but my renderer locked up after 64 hours into the process (with but 9 left to go) and I had to restart. The scene file was saved so only time was lost, but it still stung.

It is humming along again and looks to be ready sometime in the next 24 hours.

In the meantime while you are here I would invite you to browse through the gallery and rate a few images if you haven’t done so for a while. First log-in here and then as you browse the gallery only the images you have rated will have an input form.

I certainly don’t expext anyone to rate more than a few at a time. It does help me out though as my newer work only makes my “Top Rated” lists when they have at least 100 ratings. Let me know if you have any questions in the “Site Comments” thread.

Thanks so much and please check back in the days ahead (or follow me on Facebook or Twitter to get updated in your “stream”). I think this one will be worth the wait.