Posted on May 29, 2007

• Just wanted to update you all on what’s been going on. We’ve had an eventful week in the Bliss household. . .

  Last Wednesday Jason celebrated his first birthday! Hard to believe it’s been a year already, but he’s now toddling about like a little boy. Here’s a couple of pictures from his party: one with me and one with his Mommy (looking rather tuckered out).

  Shortly after that we packed up the kids and drove 600 miles to attend Jessie’s brother’s wedding in Arkansas. We had a great time and the kids really enjoyed being with Jessie’s family. The driving part was a little tough though. 10 hours of driving with small children is not for the faint of heart. We got back late last night and only now is my sanity starting to return.

  Now I’m setting my sights on getting back to work. I’ve been working on a multi-screen version of my “Chamelea” update, but I’ve not been happy with the results. I may have to table it for a brief time and come back to it after I’ve worked on another project.

Posted on May 21, 2007

• I was looking at the new “Latest Comments” page and saw “Chamelea” up near the top. “Chamelea” has always been a favorite of mine from my early days, but looking at it now I couldn’t help be see a few things which I thought could be improved. I put together an updated version which is now up on the new images page. Definitely don’t judge this one by the thumbnail (the thumb doesn’t look very good). It needs to be seen in hi-res.

  Perhaps I should have left well enough alone, but I thought it was an effort worth making. Let me know what you think.

• Late Update: Some of you thought that the face could use a little more definition. Easy enough. I’ve posted an updated render.

  I should also mention that the figure in this image is nude (as she was in the original) so you might not want to view the image if you are at work. I’ve tried to be as tasteful as possible, but I don’t want anyone to get into trouble!

Posted on May 20, 2007

• I’ve added dual and triple-screen versions of “Hidden Falls”.

Posted on May 19, 2007

• Well, it looks like “Siteadvisor” is in the process of retesting my site. According to them it will take six weeks for the test to complete. During that time my rating has been changed from “Red” to “Yellow”, hopefully it will be green ASAP. Thanks again to everyone who spoke up on my behalf. I’m quite sure it was your voices which got their attention.

• I’ve been reading the comments on “Hidden Falls” with great interest. I knew the waterfall would be an issue. Some of you wanted to see it with some motion blur and I can understand that. Unfortunately, I created the waterdrops as a static object and not as a particle animation (Vue doesn’t have a particle system). I did try animating the waterfall object but for some reason I was never able to produce a pleasing motion blur effect.

  Long story short, the waterfall (this version at least) is as good as it is going to look. Perhaps in the future Vue will have a particle system and I won’t need to use a workaround. Thanks for all the suggestions though!

  Speaking of suggestions, I thought you all might be interested in the images with the most recent comments. This is how I’ve been keeping track of which images (out of the hundreds in my gallery) have recent comments and I thought you might like to read them too. Thanks again everyone!

Posted on May 15, 2007

• A few items to mention this morning. I’ve just posted a new wallpaper, “Hidden Falls”, in the gallery this morning. I can’t count the number of times people have written me asking me to do a waterfall, but I’ve always been a little be afraid to try one. Waterfalls are rather tricky to create in 3D as a still image. I decided to give it a go however and I hope you like the result.

  Second, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has written me expressing support in regards to my “Siteadvisor” troubles (see post from 5/8). There have been so many emails that I couldn’t possibly respond properly to them all. I especially appreciate the folks who took the time to create a “reviewer” account with Siteadvisor and put in a good word for DB. Apparently they have heard us and have said they will “re-test” my site ASAP. Hopefully they will get it right this time.

  Lastly, a few of you recommended that I have a place where Members could share their thoughts about the Members Gallery with non-Members. I think this is a pretty cool idea so I have set up a comment form (similar to the one I use for the images in the gallery) so you can do just that. If you enjoy being a Member and would like to give a “testimonial” then you can do so here. If you would like to read what other Members have written you can do so here. Once there are a few up there I will post them on a page in the Free Gallery. It’s completely optional, but would really help offset the “bad press” this Siteadvisor thing has caused. Thanks!