Blue Lake is really BLUE!

Yes, the next morning Blue Lake in Mt. Gambier was still BLUE! We didn't hallucinate the night before. Well, we did, but not about the lake colour :-}

But let me start off this post with a picture from my youth. My waaaaaaay back when youth! I do believe this'd be 1967 or 1968. We were still in the trailer (yes, I grew up in a trailer but we wuzn't trash!) and I'll have you know that my dad (Superman) built this entire addition to the trailer along with of course all the shelving and storage.

Here's proof (180!) that I was young once.



Go'an, guess which one is me!

Shall we get back to Blue Lake? Why yes, yes we shall.



If you'll be so kind as to notice, it is still a cloudy sky the next morning! And the lake is still of course a vibrant blue.

Did you know that the residents of Mt Gambier all got together one day and built a hugely wonderful (and huge) lookout and retaining wall along the edge of Blue Lake. Yep. It's true. Hey now, would I lie to you? The retaining wall itself is over 200 metres long! And the Rook Tower is awesome!

How did they do it all in one day? Lotsa muscle and know-how!



Yeah, that woulda been a sight to watch!

And just what does this neat Rook Lookout look like? Glad you asked mates!


Don't forget it stretches around 180 metres along up the slope to the right of the picture.

As you may be able to tell from this next shot, it was raining!





The main stairs leading up aren't steep at all.




Especially if you have nicely cut calves like this bloke! Cool shirt, eh?



The view from the top of Rook Tower is nice. Don't need to add a frame to the shot in photoshop, that's for sure!



Shall we just zoom in a bit on the lake as to not have the framing? Yes, we shall.






At this point I just can't resist posting a piece of 3D artwork down by Yours Truly --don't swoon ladies, I'm human!






Oops, it looks much more better at full size!




And let us not forget the whole reason for the trip: Da 12 Ahhhh-Pistols!



No, this is not a stock Interwebs photo. It's a pic by Yours Truly. Go ahead and swoon.

But before we head along The Great Ocean Road (there are only 50 kilometres that are great, trust me!) we need to explore Mt. Gambier a bit. Such as Cave Gardens right smack dab in the centre of hustlin' n bustlin' downtown Mt Gambier!




More soon mates!

More Australian Critter Pictures AND Videos!

Ok, ok. I can take a hint. Sheesssshhhhhh! Y'all are quite obviously sick and, of course, tired of my 3d stuff. Or at least judging by the almost complete and total lack of reaction from everyone whilst I regaled the story of my totally true alien abduction.

Therefore, I will finish up the story in one or 2 more acts. I was going to really string it out if folks were enjoying it, but I think onl2 or 3 of you are --big shout out to Fizzgig!

So, hows abouts I show you some Aussie critter pictures and videos with, of course, my own unique capshuns? If you don't like them, then don't look at them. Oh, and I think I should be able to squeeze in a Conversation with Wifey-Poo too, also.

You know how there are times when you wake up and your hair is so unruly you can't do a damned thing with it? Or if you've been wearing a hat for a while and you get "hat hair"? Yes, you know what I mean. It usually happens when you have an important meeting or interview that day, right?

Well (and that's a deep subject) it can happen to me too! Yep, no joke folk!

This is what happens when you've a few too many homebrews and you pass out on a branch whilst sitting on your butt, naked --for a long time. You end up with what is colloquially known as "branch butt hair"!

You

think

I'm

jolking?

Fotografic evidence!





Of course when your butt hair looks like that and some hairless primate has captured it all on camera to show the world, you really need to climb higher to get away from the jerk.


Having your right buttock and leg still asleep really doesn't help!




Yeeeeaahhh... this looks like it'll support me!




I AM being careful, darnit! You don't see me doing anything stupid, do you? Of course not you stupid primate.




In Oz the critters ALWAYS have right-of-way:





Are you SURE this is my best side? And don't you dare make me look fat!







Damn! WP and I had a perfect conversation and this time SHE was the punny one. Neither of us can remember it now... Sh*t. Anyways, just think of WP and I chatting casually and phunnily back and forth, you'll really laugh cus it was funny so just imagine it.

Or imagine it and put it in the comments.

Turning water into ice using Terragen Basic

As some of my regulars may have surmised, I have not always been down unda in the land of eternal summer, warm water, beautiful beaches, and scantily clad bikini bimbos. And I sure hope Wifey-Poo ain't reading this...

Anyways, I'm from the land of eternal darkness, extreme cold (even in the "summer"), where everyone lives in igloos and dog mushes to work.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I have sort of a passing acquaintance with ice. As in I know what it looks like in various forms and settings. This knowledge naturally leads me, of course, to 3d work.

As in, how the heck to get the water in Terragen Basic ver0.9.43 to look like a frozen over fiord? It's fairly easy to get snow and ice on the ground using various surface mapping layers, but what about freezing the water?

I've even checked out some online galleries to see if anyone else had done --nope. Although I'm sure someone has, I just didn't feel like wasting more than 45 seconds searching.

So I kinda played around with the water on the computer screen to see if I could make the ocean/bay/lagoon look frozen.

Of course I could --duh, otherwise I wouldn't be telling you about it.

I wasn't really concerned with the mountains, snow, clouds, or sun. My main attention was on the water.

Here's what I ended up with. Two pics, one is straight out of Terragen and the other is after I did some post work with Irfanview. Lemme know which one looks better as far as the ice goes, PLEASE!







Just click on each to embiggin them, no worries. For those of you up in "winter wonderland" regions lemme know what you think, ta.

Now for the nuts n bolts of the water settings in case any Terrageners stumble upon this post. Tell you what, how's about I just upload screen caps of the water settings? Much easier than doing a bunch of typing.











Don't worry about a serious post like this becoming a staple (OUCH! It went through my finger!) of this blog as I'll soon be returning you to your regularly scheduled sillyness.

In fact, I've modeled my 3d zombie body with my head on it and am ready to run amok through the corridors and caves of the A.S.S. --Alien Space Ship-- while searching desperately for brains to eat as I was still an undead, brain-eating zombie at this point.

So, like, stay tuned, eh?

Tropical Sunset Photo UPDATED

Go ahead and click on it to embiggin it. It's 1024 by 768, made for a 4:3 monitor.





Oops. Forgot to do a bit of post-production cleanup... here ya go, compare to the one above.



Yes, it is 3d. I wasn't going to post it cus I kinda messed up on the clouds (or LACK THEREOF) on the left side of the sky and I put waaaaaaay too much algae on the beach. For those of you in the tropics, you'll notice that the size of the sun is too small for the size of the reflection. But dang did I NAIL those sunset colors! And I got the shore foam of the ocean right this time. Took about 2 hrs to make and 32 minutes to render.

As I said, I wasn't going to post it but Wifey-Poo insisted. She obviously either A) didn't see the errors or B) was stroking my fragile ego.

Personally, I like it when she strokes other things of me besides my ego.

And I'm just about done with the lettering detail on the outside of the alien ship that abducted me so in the next post you'll find out the callsign of the ship!

Alien Abduction Act IX --Promotional Teaser

Yup, we still aren't inside the alien ship. Why not? Well, ummmm, the interior of the ship is still being designed and the 3d of Yours Truly (don't swoon ladies, I'm human) is not done yet. But the aliens are! Except for their leader of course.

To tide you over till the REAL Act IX, I have some stills for you. This first one is the interior of the ship. It's a total 3d environment so you'll get to see how much fun I had as a zombie smashing alien heads and eating their brains.




As I said, it's a full 3d enviro so it'll be loads of fun for us all! My model is already done except for the head mapping. Yes, my head (and the rest of me --use your imagination!) will be all 3d'd. Had to slick the hair back cus hair will be added later, just needed the head shot to get the mapping. Here's a quick screenshot of the process.


Ain't I purdy? I tried to get my best crazed zombie dave expression. How do you think I did?

I also have a present for you for putting up with this story for so long. Just click on the pic below to embiggen it to 1200 by 900. Feel free to use it as wallpaper, no worries.





This is the first time I've tried making 3d landscapes. Not too shabby for a first try. I didn't do any shoreline detailing, still gotta figure that out. And I went with fairly generic clouds too. That image took over 30 mins to render at full size on this ole P4, btw. At 1200 by 900 it's a 4:3 ratio (if you made it past 4th grade mathematics you'd already know that) so it'll fit a standard square screen monitor. Hope you like it.

More soon, I gots to go work on dinner now.