New season of photography

There is something about the arrival of spring this year that has given me the “itch” to get started with this years photo season. . .  I’m not sure what it is. . .  Maybe it’s because this winter seems to have lasted months longer than normal – obviously it didn’t really, but it sure seems that it had. . . 

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Getting back to basics. . .

I’m going to try to do something creative this weekend. I’ve been spending WAY too much time following politics and getting caught up in all the rhetoric. It IS an addicting thing to follow, but for me at least, it can be quite stressful as well, to the point where I sometimes actually get angry at what’s being said. Well, I’ve got to get away from all that for a bit, get back to basics and start modeling, texturing, and rendering again!!

Updated Blog and Gallery Theme

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the themes to my blog and gallery sites. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first time I’ve ever changed the themes!! 🙂 Anyway, I found this nice theme on the WordPress site and decided that I like it and that it fits in better with the purpose of my site. The old look was getting to be tiring, and it was too dark. Hope you enjoy your stay!

Clothing modeling and texturing using ZBrush

Below is a link to my latest work in progress. . . I’m trying to learn how to model clothing in ZBrush. I’ve started out with a “zero posed” DAZ figure inside ZBrush, and then creating the clothing on top of the model. It’s a fairly time consuming affair but I think it’s working out quite well. At the very least I’m beginning to get the hang of ZBrush now!!

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New Rendering Computer – Dell XPS 730x H2C

Well, my computer finally died last week. I say finally because I had been babying it along for the past few months – fixing this, upgrading that. But the other day, it failed to start – sometimes it would get to the windows login prompt, other times it would only get to the bios splash screen before dying, and now the last time I tried it there’s nothing displayed on the screen at all. . . No safe mode. . . No booting from the Windows Install CD. . . 

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AVG versus VIPRE – My “unofficial” review

First off, let me make it clear that my review is not an official endorsement towards either of the products mentioned – but rather a fairly detailed account of my experience with them both.

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Vue vs. Carrara

For what ever reason, I think I’ve become addicted to 3D software! Over the course of a few years I’ve collected various applications: Bryce, Poser, Amapi, Hexagon, Modo, Carrara, Truespace, Shade, and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting.  The latest addition to my “collection” is Vue 6 Infinite (with Vue 7 Infinite in route via UPS!!!).   (www.e-onsoftware.com)

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Band wagon e-mail causes

I’m sure you’ve all seen these pop-up in your inboxes from time to time from well meaning friends who were considerate enough to CC you along with 50 more of their friends and acquaintances. The problem with most of these, no matter how good their intentions are, is that most people don’t stop to research whether the message they’re propagating is factual before they jump on the “band-wagon” and forward it on to the masses. 

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Mega hard-drive crash!!

I’ve been the better part of a week now trying to rebuild my computer! Last Tuesday my hard-drive crashed on me forcing me to re-build (Thank goodness for regular backups!!). Everything was pretty good until this past Monday (yesterday) when while doing a diagnostic of the hard-drive it crashed again!! 

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Modo Videos. . .

Well, I managed to get Modo 302 installed and running last night. I then “fired up” the training videos and re-discovered something that I had forgotten, which is;  I really don’t like trying to learn something from videos, especially those videos that I have to play on my computer.

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