Posted on August 5, 2007

• I’ve posted one more revision of “Of All Places“. I’ve changed the ripples back to how they were in the original (but sharpened the reflections) and removed the wayward tree root.

• I’ve registered my RSS feed with Feedburner (which is now a part of Google). Part of their service is they will provide an email notice when I update my RSS feed. Now those of you who miss my email update list can register an email with them and get an email delivered to you whenever I update my RSS feed (which is basically whenever I post a news item here).

  I really like the simplicity of running an RSS feed, and I never liked the pitfalls of running large email lists (hundred of bounced emails, unintentional spam blacklisting, etc) so I think this is a good compromise. Post below if you have any questions or comments.

Read Comments(7)

Posted on August 4, 2007

• I’ve posted an updated version of “Of All Places” on the new images page. This one will replace the previous version posted on the 1st. After reading some of the suggestions, I’ve changed the water, added some roots at the bottom of the tree, made the leaves a little greener, and a did couple of other minor tweaks.

  I’ve cleared out the ratings (and comments) for the previous version if you care to rate the image again.

  I hope to have a multi-monitor version up in a day or so and then move on to something new.

Read Comments(50)

Posted on August 2, 2007

• I’ve added 1920 x 1080 versions of all the 2005 images to the gallery this morning. I’ve also added a zip file of all the 1920 x 1080 images to the downloads page. I should also mention that the 1920 x 1080 images will scale down perfectly to fit 1366�768,1280 x 720 and other 16:9 widescreen resolutions.

  How do you tell if you are running 16:9? First get your screen resolution, then divide the width by the height. If the quotient is ~1.78 then you are running 16:9 and should use the 1920 x 1080 images (tell your OS to “Stretch” the image if your screen width is smaller than 1920). If the quotient is 1.6, then you should use the 1920 x 1200 images (or 2560 x 1600 if you have a 30 inch widescreen monitor).

  Along the same vein I want to clear something up regarding the image sizes in the gallery. It’s true that the 640 x 480, 800 x 600, and 1024 x 768 options are gone. It may interest you to know, however, that I never actually offered files with those resolutions. I used HTML height and width elements to display the 1152 x 864 images at the lower resolutions. Now that I am not using a separate HTML page to display the files, I can no longer offer the lower resolution viewing options.

  If you are using 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768, please allow the 1152 x 864 image to load and set it as your wallpaper. If you are using Firefox, select the “Stretch” option. If you are using IE you will need to set your Display Properties to Stretch the image to fit. I’m sure there are similar settings on other OSs as well. The images will have the same quality you have been used too (since you were actually downloading the 1152 x 864 file all along).

  I hope this all makes sense.

Read Comments(6)

Posted on August 1, 2007

• I added “Of All Places” to the gallery this morning. It’s another learning project for me using Zbrush to create caves and add detail to my tree models. I know this one won’t be as highly rated as “Circumpolar” (none of my other images are either) but I am prepared for that. If I was going to wait until I was sure that I could top “Circumpolar” I probably wouldn’t post another image for a few months.

  Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I may tweak a thing or two with this one in the days ahead so be sure to check back.

Read Comments(50)

Posted on July 28, 2007

• I’ve made a few changes to the gallery pages this morning. I was in the process of uploading my first batch of 1920 x 1080 images (I’ve only completed the 2007 images so far) when I decided that it would be a lot simpler if I removed the “viewing page” step and instead link directly to the image files.

  Now you can right-click on the size link of your choice, select “Save As” and download the graphic without having to load it into your browser first. The main reason for the change is so I can more easily add different resolutions to the gallery in the future without having to rework a lot of code. There might still be a few bugs around so let me know if you see anything strange.

  I’ll be adding more 1920 x 1080 images (suitable for use on HDTVs, and as background for our Xbox360 and PS3 consoles) in the weeks ahead.

• I’ve added pages so you can see the Top Ten rated “Day Sceneries“, “Night Sceneries“, “Abstracts“, ,”Planetscapes“, and “Interiors“. In case you’re curious, the “Night Scenes” the most highly rated (on average).

Read Comments(20)