Posted on August 7, 2009

• A couple of items to mention this morning. On the wallpaper front, I’m stirring a number of different pots at the moment. I have two new Vue d’Esprit projects going and I am putting the finishing touches on the “final” version of Fluorescence (2009). “Enshrouded” multi-screen is still rendering on my quad-core box and shows no sign of being finished any time in the near future. Sorry guys, I guess I made it a little too complex.

  I recently upgraded Jessie’s (and the kids’) 5 year old computer to one of those all in one touchscreen models. It’s pretty nifty. The machine runs at 1366 x 768, as does my little laptop. Setting it up I discovered, to my horror, that Firefox is not as good as IE at scaling down my 1920 x 1080 images to fit the screen (I did some quick comparisons here).

  To rectify the situation I have added 1366 x 768 as a resolution option for all of my most recent work (some 175 images). You should see the new download option next to the thumbnails. Or you can download them all at once in Zip file.

  Stay tuned!

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Posted on August 3, 2009

• Took a little break this weekend. Jessie took the kids to Arkansas to visit her family and I drove up to my 90s hometown Iowa City for a couple days of hanging out with old friends. I feel much refreshed. Jessie and the boys return this evening (I’m ready) and all is well.

  I’ve added the dual and triple screen versions of “Fluorescence (2009)” to the gallery this morning. I played around with a number of different configurations when designing this one and I hope you guys enjoy what I finally settled on. It seemed a waste not to put anything in the extra frame(s).

Posted on July 29, 2009

• I’ve posted an updated version of “Fluorescence (2009)” which eliminates the “pixie dust” that was floating around. I was on the fence about that myself before I posted it so I’m not too broken up about removing it. I have also posted a dedicated 16:9 version (not a crop) for people using HD monitors.

  A number of folks have been requesting different color versions. I’ll try to get to these shortly!

Posted on July 28, 2009

• I was messing around with Twitter last week, wanting to update my Avatar, and I decided to open up Lightwave and render “Fluorescence” in the size I needed. Well, I started playing around with the scene and made a couple of tweaks. One thing lead to another and I ended up doing making quite a few changes. The result is now up on the new images page.

  I didn’t change the mushrooms themselves, though I did play around with them in Zbrush. I decided that I liked the original geometry. The ground is new though and I’ve added some volumetric /dof effects which may or may not be controversial 😉

  Anyway, I know this image is a favorite of a lot of people and is probably my most well known piece. I don’t take changing it lightly. I hope you all enjoy the updated version, and if you don’t then remember that the previous versions aren’t going anywhere.

• If you missed my post about the new Pay-it-Forward program please read the news post below. I have updated the program so you may now purchase multiple gifts at a time and I’ve added a PayPal payment option. Thanks!

Posted on July 27, 2009

• I’ve added a “Pay it Forward” program to the Members Gallery. It basically allows you to purchase a 1, 2 or 3 years renewal for a complete stranger. The user is picked at random (only users with less than a year remaining are eligible) and an email is sent to them with a notice that their account has been renewed. I’ve even lowered the renewal prices by a few dollars to make things a little more interesting.

  No information about the buyer is given to the recipient, and no information about the recipient is given to the buyer (though each is welcome to make a post in my “Pay it Forward” comments thread). So watch your emails folks, you just might be the recipient of a random act of kindness. If so, I hope you will consider paying it forward.

• I currently have two projects going. One is ready to post, but is a reworking of an older image. The other is something new that isn’t quite ready. I’m still trying to decide which to go with first.
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