Posted on July 17, 2000

• Back when I was in college I took a road trip to northern Minnesota for a “hiking class”. On the way up I caught a display of the Northern Lights. I didn’t know what it was at first. The sky was glowing green and shimmering. It was one of the most incredible things I had ever seen.

  I heard that over the weekend you could see the Northern Lights as far south as Denver (can anyone confirm this?). I really wanted to see the aurora, but unfortunately I live too far south.

  My point? I spent all of last week tweaking “Relics”, trying lots of different stuff. None of the images really struck me as a major improvement though, so I kept at it. Last Friday I heard about the impending electronmagnetic storm and to assuage my disappointment as missing the Northern Lights I decided it would be cool if I added them to the image I was working on. The result, at long last, is entitled “Song of the Sky” and can be found on the New Images page and in the Night Scenery Gallery. The image turned out almost exactly like what I saw that night in Minnesota seven years ago. What do you think?

  I’ve also posted what this image looked like last week before I decided to add the aurora. You’ll find it in the Picklejar.

• If anyone is interested, the folks at Animatek have posted some of the new features they are working on for World Builder 3.0. It’s interesting in that it not only details what is to come (I’m drooling), but it also highlights some of the current version’s shortcomings. I may have to pick up a copy of Max. . .

Posted on July 11, 2000

• Added “Relics” to the gallery. I’m still trying to learn how best to use World Builder’s “Z-Buffer Composer”, and this image is another exercise.

  There’s a version without the cannons in the Picklejar if that it more to your taste. Either way, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts. Do you think the ray-traced objects “stick out”?

Posted on July 7, 2000

• Another Spire City update. I’ve rearranged the city somewhat, and added something which I hope will alleviate the “head tilting” effect that some of you have reported. As always, you can check out the Pickle Jar if you want to check out the history of this image.

• If you haven’t noticed, I’ve cut the price for extending your membership. You can add a year to your membership now for $14.95 and another 90 days for $9.95. I’ll be trying out the new prices this month, and if they’re popular I’ll keep them. Otherwise I’ll just go back to the old price.

  Lock in another year at the reduced price by clicking here.

Posted on July 2, 2000

• After modeling all those buildings, I decided my Spire City needed a more believeable atmosphere. Unfortunately this is not Lightwave’s strong point (unlike a a dedicated landscape modeler like Bryce or World Builder). The sky looked nice but the scene needed some haze to give everything a sense of scale.

  The past few days were spent trying out different approaches. I’m not sure any of them were successful, but a couple of the renders came out kind of nice. One is a day shot and the other is the much requested night version. Both are up for your review on the new images page.

Posted on June 28, 2000

• My second hi-res render of “Spire City” is now up for your review on the New Images page. As you can see, the city is growing. I’m still painting with broad strokes on this one and I’ll be playing around with it some more before the everything falls into place and I start concentrating on little details.

  Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and suggestions so far. Most of you wanted to see a darker image, so I’ve toned down the sunlight somewhat. My mom (of all people) wrote me and said that some bridges would look cool, so I added two simple ones.

  Anyway, there’s still lots to do with this one. Hope you like where it’s going.