Posted on October 15, 2010

I’ve added the autumn installment of my “Gotham Garden” series this evening. Originally I rendered this as a sunset scene but found that the orange sky and the autumn leaves did not contrast enough.

That version will make its way into the Pickle Jar shortly. Now to set about producing the multiscreens asap!

Thanks to everyone who took advantage of my 25% off special (to celebrate my 25,000th Facebook fan). The coupon is now expired, but we’ll see what happens when I reach 30,000…

Posted on October 14, 2010

In honor of my 25,000th Facebook fan I am offering 25% off my yearly memberships and renewals for the rest of today. Use coupon code “facebookdb”. Huzzah!

Posted on October 13, 2010

“Highland Spring” is one of my most complicated scenes (it contains hundreds of billions of polygons) so adding realistic clouds for a summer version really knocked the render times through the roof.

I tried to mitigate this with my first attempt by making the clouds fairly opaque (the more you can see through the clouds the longer the render), but the final effect wasn’t quite up to par with the original.

Back to the drawing board and, two weeks of render time later, I’ve posted my final version of “Highland Summer” this morning. I’ve tried to make the clouds more wispy and “fog-like” and I’ve strengthened the shadows from the higher cloud levels. The clouds, I think, are the most realistic I’ve attempted to render (detail crop here).

It feels strange posting a summer picture while the leaves are falling outside my window, but I’m sure my fans down-under will under enjoy a timely seasonal wallpaper for a change. I will try to get the multiscreen version of this going ASAP, but it will probably be a while. More renderers would speed up this process for me…

The first two renders will remain in the Pickle Jar for your perusal.

Posted on October 11, 2010

A few items to mention today.

First, I’ve added the dual and triple-screen versions of “Starlight Grotto” to the Members Gallery this morning.

I’ve also added an alternate “Starlight Grotto” to the Pickle Jar.

Lastly, I’ve added 14 new designs to my DecalGirl selection. They are a mix of older pieces and newer stuff. Let me know if there’s anything missing that you would really like to see.

I have a few more renders nearing completion (all of my CPUs are running full-steam ahead now) so stay tuned!

Posted on October 3, 2010

Added “Starlight Grotto” to the Members Gallery today. This one started out as a Vue d’Esprit lesson with my son Ian.

While working on it with him I saw the possibilities as a wallpaper. I worked up my own version and Ian said I could post it as long as I told everyone the original inspiration was his. So here’s our very first “collaboration”. I hope you like it!

Just a reminder: Today is the last day to use my $5 off coupon. You can sign up as a new Member for as little as $10 or renew for a year for only $7. The coupon code is “FIVEOFF”.

No, I haven’t forgotten Autumn. While the Grotto has been rendering on my main machine I’ve been working on an Autumn project on my laptop. Hope to have it ready sometime this week!