Sanctum (Night)

Posted on April 7, 2026

For the night version of “Sanctum” I thought it would be interesting to get a little fantastic with the vegetation.  I’ve long been a fan of glowing water lilies and decided to try them here.   A more natural scene with fireflies was suggested but I was afraid they wouldn’t add enough light to the scene. 

Anyway, consider this scene to be experimental.  I’ve rendered a number of different versions over the past few days and this (finally) is the one I liked the most.  Time to move on. 

Creating night scenes with Blender vs VUE is taking a bit longer than before because the lighting setup is very different. I’m learning though should it should take less time in the future.

Let me know if you think it should go in the gallery or the pickle jar 🙂

Sanctum

Posted on April 1, 2026

With Winter coming to an end I’ve been feeling the need for something verdant on my desktop and it’s been a while since I created something lush and green.   It seemed like a good opportunity to further explore how to use Blender to assemble the types of scenes I used to make using VUE.    As always my goal is to create a peaceful space within your monitor where you can forget your troubles, let down your guard, and be completely at ease.

Thunderhead (Night)

Posted on March 24, 2026

It was always the plan to do a night version of my new “Thunderhead” render.     It was a bit tricky figuring out how to illuminate the scene using only lightning bolts and starlight.   I’m sure some folks will say the scene is too dark for their monitors as the colors on my Samsung G9 are pretty bright and vivid.   

My first version of the day scene featured a sailboat in the foreground.  In the end I decided to go with the leaping dolphins.   It seemed like a good idea to add the boat back here with a little lantern light to provide some contrast. 

Which version do you prefer?

Thunderhead

Posted on March 20, 2026

I was born and raised in central Illinois, which is very flat country (flattened by a glacier over 10,000 years ago), and cumulonimbus clouds are our versions of mountains.  When I was a kid spending time on my Dad’s farm I would watch them billow and grow on the horizon to massive heights, sometimes blotting out the sun.  They fascinated me to the point where I once seriously considered becoming a meteorologist.

I first attempted to model a thunderhead back in 1999 using Bryce3D’s texture mapped spheres.  In 2016 I attempted one again using Vue’s “Spectral” clouds.   This latest version uses VDB clouds and Blender’s Cycles renderer.    It builds off of the work I did to create the scene for my new Gazebo render.   Some folks mentioned they missed the dolphins in that render so I’ve added them back here.

Tyche

Posted on March 13, 2026

My updated version of “Gazebo” started out with me learning how to create and render a gas giant planet in Blender.   I’d considered posting this render first and then sharing the Gazebo project as it developed, but decided instead to wait until everything was ready.    I did learn some interesting techniques for creating gas giants that may not be immediately evident when seen from a distance so I hope you all enjoy this close up look at the planet.

Tyche is the Greek goddess of fortune, chance, providence, and fate.