Australian Flora and Fauna Pictures

Plus a few other pictures. Why? Why not! It's my blog and I can put any pictures of anything on it. So there.

Firstly, how's abouts some closeup pics of roses? Everyone loves roses, right? These were taken right after a rain shower and I tells ya that you just gotta click on them to embiggen. It. Will. Be. Worth. It.

Download, use as wallpaper, tell your friends, no worries. Full size they are 1600 by 1200.

Firstly is a peach colored rose with dew drops.





Seriously, Puh-Leeze click to make it bigger. Pretty please?

Here's a red rose with dew drops. You can magickly make it a full size of 1600 by 1200 picksuls too! Feel free to purr-loin this photo too, no worries.





And just how about this bloke?

G'day mates! Didja know I gots bi-knock-you-lar vision?



Now, at this point I do feel the need to add a slight editorial comment/advice for me blog blokes and blokettes way up north. In Alaska, of course.

Didja all know that very soon you will be looking at this and feeling the minus 60 degree Fartenheight temperatures that inspired this photo?


Please click to make it slightly larger. And it's another freebie from Yours Truly --don't swoon ladies, I'm human!

It was made in Bryce with 6 different terrains. The terrains were all made in Terragen Basic and exported as 8-bit .sgi pngs, imported and played with in Bryce to make the mountains. Lots of atmospheric effects too. I'm pleased. It looks DAMNED COLD!

See, she agrees with me.

Don't even THINK of moving me to that climate!



I shall now go take a nap as that seems to be one of the myriad things I'm good at. Plus I like taking naps... Hello little nap, where shall I take you?




Perhaps I'll take one over here instead.




Nope, changed me mind. This is the bestest nap-taking spot!

3d Stuff and A Sore Butt!

We'll get to the 3d stuff, but first you get to hear about my bruised and sore butt.

Did I do this to myself accidently like wiping out on a bicycle? No.

Did I do this to myself on purpose? No.

Did I pay someone to do bruise my butt? Yes.

Was she tall, statuesque, and have big Ta-Ta's? Yes.

Did it involve her elbow? Yes.

You all should have all the information you need to make an educated guess in the comments. Just keep it clean --just kidding about that last part!


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I have some new software arriving for my Birthday. I share the date with a washed up actor from a 70's buddy cop show and also with a not washed up actress from a late 90's and 00's sci-fi tv show. Any guesses?

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Whilst waiting for my new software (Bryce 7 Pro with all the obj imports and all the other bells n whistles, and the full version of Millennium Dragon 2 for DAZ which includes the chinese dragon) I played around with World Machine 2 --the free, basic version-- to get some erosion effects on a terrain that I then loaded into Terragen.

I'm pretty pleased with how the renders turned out. Just click on a pic for a 1280 by 800 version!

First, a view from the magic helicopter 5000 metres above the ridgeline that is 500 metres above the frozen water --also know as ice.




Then the magic helicopter drops down to 1000 metres above the ridge.




And then the magic helicopter runs out of fuel which of course causes it to crash onto the ice. But not before this final picture was taken:





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I've never been accused of having a big mouth, but there are times it'd come in handy...

Playing with water in 3D *updated*

You can do a surprising amount of stuff with just the Terragen basic program. I was playing around with water settings this morning and was very pleased with what I came up with.

I'll be adding some critters to this with DAZ next.

Click to embiggen the image. It's scaled to fit a widescreen monitor if anyone wants to use it, no worries.








Obviously, it's hard to see the edge of the water cus the shore foam blends into the snow. So I then lifted the snow to higher elevations only --and made it thicker. You can really see the water now!





However, there is a HUGE scale problem! The water definitely does not match the scale of the mountains. Since I wanted to keep the water the way it is, I decided to do a eroding and excavating! I also thickened the snow again and brought it down below the water depth.

Presto! We now have a bunch of icebergs and the scale now matches the water.







Pretty cool, huh?

I think these are extinct now...

I saw this bloke at one of the glacial entrances to the Harding Icefield back in '48. I'm surprised the photo turned out as well as it did considering it was a gloomy, overcast day.

I think they've all headed way further north now as all the glaciers have been retreating and these critters really need ice and cold temps to thrive.

Anyone else ever seem em? Titanium just got back from Harding, I wonder if she saw any of them...

You'll also be happy to know that I had one of the first widescreen cameras way back then so the photo is the perfect size for someone's widescreen computer monitor.

Just click on this picture to embiggen it and feel free to save it, no worries!







What? Don't you believe me?

It Needed a Critter

There's something rather fun about 3d artwork. Would you like to know what it is? Too bad, cus I ain't tellin'!

Well, ok, I'll squeal for you...

Lighting

Yes lighting. You can do SO MUCH with the proper lighting. And, of course, knowing how to drive the software you are using.

Shall we revisit the 3d sunset? Do you remember this?




Well, I decided that the scene needed a critter. But what type of critter, thought I? Hmmmm, dolphins jumping? Pelicans soaring? A shark devouring a person?

Decisions, decisions...

I finally decided upon something different.

In order to do what I wanted I needed to use Daz along with Terragen. I'm still learning Terragen and I've NEVER made anything in Daz (but I did beta test a tutorial) so I wasn't sure I'd have time earlier today to make what I wanted and still get a nap in. As it turned out, I didn't get my nap.

What saved me (as in this didn't take all day) is the fact that I know 3d lighting very well. I mean really, really well. And I'm also very good with surface specularosity, reflectivity, refractivity, coloring, and such like.

But I'm sure I'm boring you by now, so how's abouts I just give you the NEW sunset with "The Critter" in it. As is per usual on the large sized pics, just click on it to embiggen. It's 1280 by 960 and should resize itself nicely to use on a 4:3 screen for a wallpaper. If you have a widescreen then make sure you use a good program to resize it without the picture getting "the jaggies". I recommend Irfanview. It's free. It's very very very very very good.

Oh, would you like to see the sunset with The Critter? Of course you would. Here you are:






Last night I made stuffed squid tubes for dinner. Actually, everyone else had chicken... But I had my stuffed squid tubes!

The stuffing was brown rice, prawns, red bell pepper, seaweed, shrooms, garlic, chilli peppers and a lemony-wine sauce. I was happy.

Alien Abduction Act X... Zombie dave Aboard The A.S.S.!

Butt before we get to that, I have some things I need to get off my chest --like this tattoo that says "I love you, man!".

Y'all 'member last post? Oh, c'mon, the one where I used lots of swear words and was all pissy.

Ah yes, you do remember. Good.

I have been hoping that someone, anyone, would comment about it. Butt no, not a single one of you did. Did any of you try to tell me to lighten up? No. Did any of you offer a shoulder to cry on? No. Did I lose/gain any readers? Nope, not a chance --well, I may have lost some.

Did anyone realize it was one big, bloody joke???????? Not just No, butt HELL NO!

Witch brings me to my next thingy-doo-dad that I was tagged with a while back (just trawl through the last 10 posts or so and you'll figure it out): Just Another Thing You Won't Learn About Me By Reading This Blog!

I'm a nice guy.

Really, I am.

No, seriously! I am!

When BIL (shall we just call him "Mike"?) got his Masters degree just who do you think had the video recorder set up on the tripod so that MIL (shall we just call her "mum"?) could see her youngest obtain serious accolades? Yup, Yours Truly (that's me, don't swoon ladies as I'm human) was not only doing the duties but he also took Mike to a celebratory lunch at a high-class pub afterwards.

Every week I do a mechanical once-over of mum's wheelchair.

Wifey-Poo gets massages whenever she needs them.

I give rides to strangers. Yes, I really do. There was one time when I was dropping off WP and mum at the doctors office when a very lost Nigerian gentlemen asked me for directions to a side street in the area. Once I made sure that WP and mum were fine I tried to direct him to the street in question. I could see that he was not going to be able to find his way so I gave him a lift to not only the street but to the house where he needed to go.

I also fetch items off of high shelves in the grocery store for little old ladies and gentlemen. In fact it has sorta become a habit that when I see someone elderly stopped in the aisle looking up that I do ask if they need anything from up high. 9 times out of 10 they do.

I took Mike grave-robbing so many times for the research of his PHD that I still respond to calls of, "Hey, Igor!"

The last time we moved house it took A LOT of trips in a rental truck. Guess who did the driving and moving without too much bitching? Yup, Yours Truly.

I've stayed up all night for a week keeping an eye on mum when she was going through a "bad patch".

I've rescued orphaned, baby mouses.

And if any of you ever decide to come down for a visit I can promise that you'll have a place to crash at, be fed gourmet meals (unless I'm cooking --I JOKE!), hang out in the pool, have loads of good home brew, and I'll even pick you up from the airport --or the beach if you came by boat.


So do ANY of you really think that I was really swearing and bitching like that in the last post?

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Next topic...

Pretty birdy picture! I'm sure all my regular readers will immediately recognize this bloke...

Those are some really, seriously, cool-looking claws!




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As my regulars will also know, I like playing around with 3d programs. Been doing that for almost ten years now. I am, however, still trying to get good glacial ice with, ahhhhh, inexpensive (free) programs. But I do have sunset colours down quite well as the beach faces westward here and we are about a mile from it.

What do you think of this?




Here's a contest for you:

Did dave, Yours Truly (don't swoon ladies, I'm human), make this sunset in 3d? Or did he actually take this photograph? Or did he shamelessly steal the image from an online source?

The first correct answer in the comment section wins something. Don't know what but I'm sure the winner and I will come to some sort of arrangement.

And now what you've all been waiting for...


Alien Abduction Act X My arrival onboard the A.S.S.!!!!!!!

Just a quickie recap for you, the name of the alien craft is A.S.S. which, of course, stands for Alien Space Ship. Well, what else could it mean? Perverts. And remember that the rego of the A.S.S. is C4P-PFP2012 and in my zombie state at the time I had no idea what that meant.

C'mon, as any zombie I was just wanting to eat some brains!

In case you have joined me late, here's a quick pic recap!







Which, of course, brings us to my stealthy arrival in a corridor of the A.S.S. This was just before I materialized --please note the A.S.S. is parked above Oceania!


And then there's a bright flash!




And I slowly start to materialize...

Hmmmmm, something appears to be slightly wrong with dave...






Yes folks, my smashing of the pyramid atop my house with my lightning-charged sledgehammer whilst in my zombie state had caused the alien transporter beam to become totally discombobulated! It had somehow taken my awesome brainpower and shoved it into my muscles!

And just what type of aliens would I find aboard the A.S.S. rego'd as C4P-PFP2012? And would there be any brains at all for me to eat?

Those 2 questions (and probably lots more) just might be answered soon so STAY TUNED to this channel!

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?