This is an incredibly old set of my art! This chronicles 1998 to 2008 for me. This is back
when I used to work in raytraced offline 3D programs, and rendering a single frame usually took 5 minutes to 36 hours.
I now work in realtime raster 3D, so I get on average between 1/60th to 1/100th of one second to make something a lot prettier
not only display, but also be interactive. Shaders, once so mysterious to me, are now things I routinely code.
I've never been all that superb of a modeler, but I enjoy 3D painting, scene composition, and more recently have gotten into motion
capture and animation. I'm also a big fan of working with the post-processing stack, as well as using custom shaders to break out of the
shackles of current-gen PBR and toy with heightened-reality lighting.
You can see a lot of my work on Arcen's Youtube channel, including the occasional instructional video.
Renderings from April 2008 onward. Little content so far, but will grow as I happen to go through sprees of graphical creativity. These images were rendered in Vue 6 Infinite, a much more powerful rendering program that is new to me as of this series. Those models that I created were modeled in SketchUp 6.
Renderings from October 2007 through March 2008. These images were rendered in Carrara 6 Standard Edition (some with terrains from Geocontrol 1), both of which are new to me as of this series. Those few Hexagon models were created in Hexagon 2.2.
Renderings from May to October 2007. This work was all done on a substantially-faster 2.4 GHz Pentium D. The images are mostly from Bryce 6.1 or Photoshop Elements 2.0. Some of the modeling was also done in SketchUp 6 and Hexagon 2.2. A few images were also done in the Vue 6 PLE and Apophysis 2.02. All of these programs are new to my work as of this series.
Renderings from November 2004 through mid 2006. The more abstract pictures were done completely in Photoshop 7, while the landscapes were done in Bryce 5 or Terragen 0.9. These landscapes were NOT post-processed in Photoshop (that's how much the quality of the 3D renderers improved). This is my fourth gallery to include abstract pieces, and it is my first gallery to include landscapes rendered in the newer version of Terragen.
Renderings from September 2003 through March 2004. All of these were created in Photoshop 7. A very few were based on original images that were then greatly distorted into something more abstract. The "special effects" of lightning, fire, flares, etc, were done using the Genesis 2 VFX filter plugin for Photoshop. Various freeware filters were also used in addition to the built-in Photoshop filters. This was my first major gallery to be entirely based on abstract pieces, rather than primarily on landscapes.
Renderings from July to November 2002. These were mostly done in an earlier version of Terragen (0.6, I think), or Bryce 5. The better Terragen images were all post- processed in Photoshop for color and clarity, and to remove the artifacts that this earlier version of Terragen was noted for inserting. This was also my first work to be done on a new 1.8 GHz computer.
Renderings from December 2001 through November 2002. Most of the landscapes are done in Bryce 5, while the abstract pieces are done in Photoshop 7. The people were designed in Poser 4, and were a new addition to my repertoire at the time. Also notable are the snow effects in Blizzard Rimes, and the wave effects in Hurricane Cometh, both of which were done natively in Bryce 5. This was my first gallery to use Bryce 5, and so the quality and size of the images is much larger, and foliated trees are a new addition. This was also only my second gallery to include abstract pieces.
Renderings from June 2001. All of the images were rendered in Bryce 4, and some post- processing was done in Photoshop 6. Notable effects include new ways of using lighting, as well as fine-tuned rain effects, which I had been working on for a while prior to this. This series is my first major use of Bryce 4, and you can really tell in the increase in detail of many of the lighting, water, and reflection effects. Nevertheless, the weather effects were something that I had been experimenting with since Bryce 2, and I don't think the upgrade to Bryce 4 had much of an impact on my ability to render those.
Renderings from April through June 2001. Mostly Photoshop 6 was used, but some Bryce 4 was also used. This was my first gallery to include abstract pieces built in Photoshop, and it includes many that are still my favorites out of all my abstract work. The abstract work was a bit of a departure for me, but I enjoy it's ability to let me simply explore colors and patterns and form. A lot of my later work features the abstract more heavily. The few Bryce images here were done near the end of this series, and were my first work with Bryce 4. These were also done on a faster 1.2 GHz PC.
Renderings for my first finished (but unpublished) novel, CAYENNE. The grayscale images were named after chapter titles, and were all done with just the basic filters in Photoshop 5. The image of the Sceptre was done in Illustrator 9, and the Bryce images were all done in Bryce 3D.
Renderings from 2000 and before that were shown at a November 17, 2000 showing of my art at Enloe High School. The 22 numbered pictures were displayed on monitors in a computer classroom for viewing, and bookmarks were given out based on the four templates at the bottom. Prints of some of these pieces were sold to students and staff, and several are still on display at Enloe today. Moody Corner is in the library, and several prints and bookmarks are in Mr. Lyttle's classroom, among others. This whole event was made possible by Julia Williams. Most of these images were originally rendered in Bryce 3D, except for the few that were rendered in Cinema 4D or Truespace 4. All of them have been heavily post- processed in Photoshop 5.
Remastered Renderings from April 2001 through July 2002. All of these were pre-existing images with the exception of the ParkArt CD cover, and all of these were remastered in Photoshop 6. Most of the added special effects were done using Genesis 2 VFX. Some of these really aren't that great, but you might find them to be an interesting study in what can be done to a rendering during "post processing."
Renderings from June to August 2001. These were all done in Bryce 3D, Photoshop 5, Cinema 4D, or Blender 2.0. Many of the images were post-processed in Photoshop to some degree. I read about the open source renderer called Blender in a magazine, and the few images in this series were the only result of my experimentation with that tool. I simply found it too complicated and time-consuming for my use as a hobbyist. It's very feature-rich, though.
Renderings from November 2000 to April 2001. Photoshop 5 and Bryce 3D feature. I got engaged around this time, and that theme features in this series several times. The "Forgotten Tides" images were ones that I did as an homage to Virt (http://virt.vgmix.com/), a video game composer/remixer who created music for a fictitious game by that name for use as his demo. Rendering once again became easier at this point, as I upgraded to a 500 MHz computer.
Renderings from July 16-17 1999. These were all created in Bryce 3D during a mammoth 16 hour session of designing and rendering. These were done as fan art for the classic SNES game Secret of Mana, and were intended to go in a fan-created remake called Secret of Mana Forever. While SoMF never got off the ground, I did create a few of my favorite renderings during this process.
Renderings from January to December 1999. Most of these are still using Bryce, but this is where I started branching out into Cinema 4D and TrueSpace 4. This was also when I moved up to Bryce 3D from Bryce 2. The increase in the level of detail and complexity of the scenes is evident, I think. I also upgraded my Pentium 75 to a Pentium 150 around this time, so it started taking me vastly less time to do the individual renderings. This is also part of the reason that a lot of these images are antialiased, whereas images from prior series often were not.
Renderings from December 1998 to January 1999. I was getting a lot better with Bryce 2 at this point, and so was focusing more on the artistry of it rather than just the technical details. As a result, some of my more memorable scenes originated in this series. There's a life to "Loss" and "Fall" in particular that supersedes many of my later works.
Renderings from August to November 1998. Once I understood the basics of Bryce 2, I quickly moved into trying to create scenes that were more meaningful to me. All of the images in this series depict locations and events from AWAKE, a novel that I was writing at the time. There are many reasons that novel never made it, but it provided an excellent setting for a lot of cool renderings.
Renderings from July to October 1998. These were all done in Bryce 2, and were the first images I ever did in a serious 3D rendering engine. I had done a bit of prior modeling work in little freeware programs from the mid-90's era, but Bryce was a whole new experience -- the level of detail and realism was like nothing I had ever come across before.
