Posted on November 15, 2008

• Ok, I think I’m done tinkering now. As I mentioned last time, I wanted to rework “A New Dawn” using some of the new tools available to me in the latest version of Vue d’Esprit (released just last week). The new version is up now (the old version will remain available in the Pickle Jar).

  What’s different? Most noticably, the water now has “real” waves rather than being a flat plane. Beyond looking more realistic, the new waves (I think) can be animated which opens up some new avenues for animated wallpaper.

  I’ve also replaced the clouds with Vue’s new cloud technology (“Spectral 2.0”). This took quite a bit of tweaking, but I think these clouds look a little less chunky than the old ones. The lighting is also a little better (IMO) in this version, with a bit of the left side of the cave visable.

  All in all, I’m very pleased with the new version of Vue and I can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned to some brand new scenes. Expect a multi-screen version shortly and then it’s onward and upward.

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Posted on November 12, 2008

• Just wanted to let you all know that I had to spend the weekend in the hospital for a nasty stomach bug. I’d been suffering from it all last week, but late Friday night it hit me hard and I had to seek treatment. I’m feeling a lot better now though and I’m back at the computer again.

  I had a multi-monitor version of “A New Dawn” ready, but this morning I thought I would spend a little time and try to render the scene using some of Vue 7’s new features. Vue 7 has better looking clouds and water and I think I can make some nice improvements to the scene before moving on. I’d also like to see if the new clouds handle the switch from single-screen to multi-screen (a bug in Vue 6 which I have mentioned before).

  Thanks for your patience. Hopefully the results will be worth it.

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Posted on November 5, 2008

• I’ve added a new wallpaper to the gallery this morning and, for once, I didn’t have to agonize over a proper title. I’ve called this one “A New Dawn” and I think it’s fitting for the day after a historic election in the US. I hope you enjoy it.

  In other news, e-onsoftware released a new version of Vue d’Esprit yesterday. I’m downloading the upgrade right now and I hope to dig in later this week after I get the multi-screen renders of my newest wallpaper up.

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Posted on November 1, 2008

• A couple of items today. Yes I am working on a new wallpaper (actually I have a few going right now) and I hope to have it up early next week.

  I also wanted to mention that Zazzle has extended their 40% off discount on calendars until Nov 10th. As below, enter the code “CALENDARSAVE” at checkout to get the discount.

Posted on October 25, 2008

• Just a quick heads-up, it looks like Zazzle is offering a big 40% discount on all of their calendars from now until Halloween. If you’ve been waiting to purchase your Digital Blasphemy 2009 Calendar (with pages from Oct 2008 – Dec 2009) this may be a good time!

  Simply enter the code “CALENDARSAVE” when you check out.

  You can see my entire calendar collection here.