Since last weekend I’ve been working on a new render for a contest on Renderosity. I’m currently rendering what might be the final image, it’s been going for almost two hours and from the look of things has at least another hour left.
With the exception of animations this is has to be the single image I’ve put the most work into. It’s perfectly legal by contest rules to use pre-made content but I’ve chosen as much as possible to create all my content from scratch. The result has been a lot of work, but I’ve learned so much doing it this way it’s awesome.
Thing is I’ve been so consumed doing this piece, its like almost taken over. lol. It’s been challenging in several aspects, one is to do something that fits the theme, "Don’t go in There" as well as working within the required dimensions, it cannot be any larger than 800×800. I’ve been thinking though, perhaps rather than constraining creativitiy, having requirements like these may help to facilitate creativity. So it’s all good.
I cannot post the image while the contest is running or risk being disqualified, but I will say that it does involve vampires, yeah I know, I’ve been on a vampire kick lately.
Oh and another thing of special note, the new season of Dexter starts tonight!
I have been wanting to see this movie since I first of it several months ago, it finally opened in my area yesterday, so there was no question I would make the time to see the film some time over the weekend.
The film features guitarist from three generations, Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. Being a passionate fan of Jimmy Page for over thirty years was my primary motivation for seeing the movie. because of that there will be some bias in my comments. I must admit no name recognition of the other two guitarist until now, however did recognize much of their music.
While the movie is not a biography it does have biographical bits as the three men share stories from their respective careers. The film is really about the relationship each have with their art and self expression. Since it does not attempt to focus on biography, it is free to present a much more candid and personal view.
In one of my favorite scenes, Page positions the needle on an old scratchy 45 and his face lights up as the song begins to play. He describes the record as the first that truly spoke to him. I think back to the first time I listened to Page’s music and it’s quite likely my face lit up the same way. In another scene the three are jamming to common riff when The Edge realizes he’s always played the riff using the wrong chord. Page exclaims, "oh shit" as he too realizes the same mistake in his own playing. These guys are human after all.
In fact the thing I most took away from this film was my own realization these guys while idolized to their own degrees, are just real people. It’s all about the love of their art and the expression of their art from their souls. It’s an awesome film.
In case it wasn’t completely obvious I’ve become obsessed with True Blood, major inspiration for the new render I did the other day. I even bought season one on DVD and ended up watching all twelve episodes last weekend. A whole bunch of things make sense now. And I am determined to do an animation that mimics the opening smoke image for the show.
Is there any hope for me? It’s only a TV show. The last time I was this interested in a TV show I was 16 or so, oh yeah I forgot about the Sopranos and Dexter. Ok so I’m not all that much into regular TV but I do enjoy excellent TV.