Render Engines and a Couple New Pieces

The sun crept further up the sky, harsh light bringing stark contrast to the outside world. From inside the confines of the keep, the soldier squinted his eyes against that light and surveyed the countryside.

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Eh, if I had a story to write about this piece, I would... but at the moment, nothing is coming to mind, despite the fact that there's something story-worthy inspiring about this particular piece (if I do say so myself). Was prolly one of the last pieces I did in Bryce, some months ago actually... tho I just recently brought it into photoshop to clean it some. I like the render engine in Bryce... but my computer doesn't like it quite as much. A image like that, set for printing on letter sized paper (merely), takes a couple of days of pure hardware grinding. Gods forbid if I wanted to actually do anything else with my computer. And during the summer time? Not even a consideration. I've burned though more graphics cards because of over-heating than I care to count.

But. I do like the quality of the render itself. It's a completely different feel than what I get when I render from Studio. The new light set system I got for Studio recently actually highlights this difference, as renders done using them tend to look less real than usual.

Case in point:

Skin quality just isn't difusing right... there's something almost... spongy about it.

Oh, yeah... and kinda off topic... it's a female figure. I know, I know... off the beaten trail for me. But there's something I want to do next year... which means I have to start forging new paths for me today, so that I have enough material.

We'll see how that goes at it goes.

Meantime, I'll try to figure out how to tweak that new lighting set and make it work for me, otherwise, it's back to the old way. At least with certain effects, I -do- like how it works. Alas tho, I'm not looking to do Sci-Fi scenes any time soon... tho with a colour shift, I could prolly use it for other types of scenes... again, will have to play. In the meantime, one past pic... to illustrate the reason why I -like- the set:

No. I haven't been a Battlestar Glactica fan since the first series. Truth told, I wasn't quite willing to give the 2nd series a try... not because of any of the changes they made. Moreso because I like my memories the way they are. For all I know, the changes they made could be wonderful ones, and I might just have missed a chance to love a wonderful series. But, like I said: I like my memories as they are. Why muck with them?

In the meantime, I may call this guy Mark... after a character a friend of mine created when we were about 5 years old and playing. Who knew back then we were roleplaying without books and papers? All I knew is that we were having fun. Maybe one of these days, I'll try to visualise my own character and see what it looks like.

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For now tho, I'm out. Back to work for me.