Working with custom infinite procedural terrains, function editor, and material editor.  Also, using one of my own custom atmospheres.  Minor postwork in Photoshop (level adjustments).

A big thank you to the folks over at Cornucopia 3D for selecting “Borderlands” as a Cream of the Crop.  It is currently being featured on the front page of that site and has been added to the Cream of the Crop gallery.  C3D also asked if I would be able to create a tutorial of “Borderlands”.  I did take some work-in-progress screenshots in Vue during the creative process, so a tutorial will hopefully be coming soon.

Winter Sunset prints and accessories are now available along with exclusive Winter Sunrise prints – only on DeviantArt!

Prints, postcards, magnets, mugs, and more are perfect gifts for the Christmas Season.  Get yours now from my DeviantArt store!

Winter Sunset has a total of 3,693,516,132 Polygons (not kidding) and Vue reported that I was using only 35% or my entire system resources!  To give you even more of an idea how amazing this is – every plant/tree is grown differently, soft shadows are enabled, and the one directional light (the sun) is globally effecting everything in the scene.

The Winter Sunset image* rendered in approximately 3 hours 46 minutes.  Really not that bad for how much Vue 6 had to calculate in this scene.  After the image finished rendering, I changed the lighting and contrast a tad in Vue’s Post-Render Options (removing some of the lens flare that had glared a little too sharply).  Moving to Photoshop CS3, I finished off the image by adding a slight overall blur, the widescreen frame, and my signature.

Enjoy!

*Prints of Winter Sunset will be availble shortly along with a print of Winter Sunrise, exclusive to my gallery on Deviant Art (Winter Sunset modified ever so slightly, but completely changing the time of day and mood).  Check my blog or subscribe to my rss, as I will post again when the prints become available.

Hope you all have a wonderful 2008. Happy New Year!

Thank you RDNA for the great contest and fantastic prize!

I created Knight of Shadows with Poser (character/props), Vue (lighting/foliage/atmosphere), and Photoshop (2d drawings/border/signature).

Over 11 million polygons total in scene. Used the Poser Shader Tree to render character.

Check out what other artists had to say:

• Really nice touch with the illumination effect – Kev
• Superb imitation of infrared vision! – David Potente

Enjoy!

Colorful leaves fall from trees,
The day is cool, but the birds sing in the high treetops,
The sun shines brightly from the afternoon sky,
One last glimpse of summer before winter.

I created Indian Summer for a contest on C3D – didn’t place, but am very satisfied with this image. After the render, I did a few minor color adjustments in Photoshop. Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Hazem Zoom’s Lamborghini Murcielago is too cool a car to keep sitting in my hard drive.

In Vue 6, I first set up the HDRI environment (take a look at this post here to refresh yourself on HDRI). Since I only had one photo to work with (and it wasn’t a panorama), the background image was stretched and blurred quite a bit. So, I created a single-sided vertical plane and mapped the image to that. I worked with the mapped photo texture a bit to make the colors brighter/more intense. I placed the Lamborghini in the foreground and the sign between the car and the photo. Since I’m using an HDRI environment, notice how the buildings/lights from the photo reflect on the cars’ reflective surfaces. Also, the lighting in my scene was created to look exactly like the photo’s lighting.

After the 5h10′59″ render, I moved into Photoshop. I painted some colors and designs on the ground to match the photo with the 3d and also adjusted the lighting and added some glow to finish off the image. Enjoy!

CrimsonTongue, the “official” bloodman of the False Shadowlands. After going in, nobody comes out…

I created this image for a Dream/Nightmare contest online, and then also uploaded it to a contest at Runtime DNA called, “Utterly Shocking”. (Warning: this image is very violent and has lots of blood.)

This was a very memory-intensive scene – almost all of the figures and props in this scene were imported from Poser. But with my new machine, I bet I could’ve squeezed in a few more. After setting up the scene and lighting in Vue 6, the image rendered in about 1 hour 30 min.

Trying to match the image with the idea I had, I ended up doing alot of postwork in Photoshop: lighting adjustments, blood, signature, etc.. Thanks for looking!

My new computer is up and running and I’m having a blast with it! I now have so much power at my finger tips, I don’t know what to do with it all, lol. Here’s the specs of my new box:

Windows XP Pro x64
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
4Gb of RAM
nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 640Mb
250Gb, 400Gb HDs
Antec Basiq 500W PSU
MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
DVD-ROM, DVD Burner
Wireless Card
Antec 900 Case
X2GEN 22″ 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
(And an old ViewSonic 19″ CRT Monitor for a dual monitor setup)

My new system has worked wonders with Vue – faster renders, faster OpenGL, etc.. One of the most noticeable changes is how I can maneuver around my multi-billion-polygon scenes with barely any lag at all. Also, I can be rendering an image and playing a very graphical intensive game at the same time. Just amazing – I’m loving it.

So, Last Cutting was my first scene with my new system. After setting up the scene, it rendered in around 4 and a half hours. In Photoshop, I brightened the scene a little and added the border and signature. Enjoy!