Posted on May 20, 2002

• Hi folks. Just wanted to speak up and mention that my next render should be posted in a day or two. In the meantime I saw this picture and thought it cool enough to share with you all.

Posted on May 17, 2002

• I’ve posted a newly tweaked version of “Valley of the Sun”. A lot of you thought the original was too “washed out” by the sun beams and I agree with you about that. There’s a little more detail in the shadows this time, but hopefully it still retains the “hazy morning” look I was going for originally. I’ve put the original version in the Pickle Jar if you care to compare. I think you’ll find the changes are subtle.

  I used to enjoy working with World Builder, but lately it’s become rather painful. I’ve become accustomed to a certain level of instability in 3D applications (going all the way back to Bryce 2), but World Builder is like Nitro Glycerine. I don’t think I will be working with it much until the fine folks at Digital-Element (whom I respect a great deal) shore up the holes.

  I’ll be moving on now to something new.

Posted on May 15, 2002

• As I said yesterday, thanks for being patient with me. My unplanned trip back to Illinois really distrupted my workflow. A took a day to decompress after we got back home and then started in a new wallpaper. The end result is now up on the new images page. Though it’s called “Valley of the Sun 2002“, it bears little resemblance to the original 1998 Bryce render. I just thought the title fit.

  Anyway, I hope you like it. I know the sunlight is a little on the bright side, and I will be trying to tweak that over the next day or so. Feel free to write if you have comments or suggestions.

• A side note: I just read that Bill Peet passed away last weekend at the age of 87. Some may remember him as a Disney animator (Fantasia, 101 Dalmations, Dumbo), but I will always remember him as the author of one of my favorite childhood books: The Caboose Who Got Loose. Thanks for the inspiration Bill!

Posted on May 14, 2002

• Thanks for being patient with me. I’m working on a new World Builder image and (barring any showstopping system crashes) it should be up sometime tomorrow.

Posted on May 9, 2002

• Hi folks. The past week has been pretty rough. My step-mother, Janna, passed away last Saturday after a year-long bout with melanoma. Jessie and I left Sunday for Illinois to attend the funeral and spend some time with my father. We returned to San Diego late last night.

  No doubt some of you have tried to email me over the past week. Unfortunately someone, somewhere, thought it would be fun to send out a zillion Spams with a return address “@digitalblasphemy.com”. My server was overwhelmed by the volume of bounced mail and my email server was down from Saturday afternoon until late Tuesday evening. Any email sent to me during that time bounced back or was lost. Spammers truly suck.

  I had planned on starting a new project last weekend but instead I will try to get started tomorrow and work through the weekend. I can’t say when I’ll have a new wallpaper up, but until I do I thank you for your patience and understanding. My email is working again (I think) so please feel free to write if you have any questions.