Friday, May 7, 2010

3D fantasy art: you want Sindbad? We got Sinbad!






3D fantasy ... Sinbad, no less! You know, I've had a fancy for Sinbad since I was about five years old. Later, I got a big kick out of the movies -- Golden Voyage and Eye of the Tiger. My favorite movie Sinbad would have to be Patrick Wayne, not because he's a great actor (he ain't!) but because he was such, um, pleasant eye candy -- especially as Sinbad.

Lately, I've been going back over some old Mel Keegan stories ... trying to get MK into the mood for plowing through the last stages of each and getting us to the point where I actually have a book to package. (Hello, Mel ... do you hear that sound? It's weeping in frustration! Seriously, at the moment MK has more heaped on on his plate than any human being should ever have to contend with, and I'm not hassling. I'm just rattling the bars a bit. You know what my plate looks like?!)

Anyway, as I said, I'm going back through some old Mel Keegan stories, and I stumble over The Sand and the Stars again. Complete all but about a week's work, y'understand. And it's an 'Arabian adventure' that has nothing remotely to reality. The story was on my mind when I went into today's renders ...

Still playing in The Shrine set (because I can! Wheee! New video card, no ram chips ... I can do this stuff now! Note -- six renders, all ungodly complex with twenty lights and Michael 4 and a forest of trees and shrubs. And I'm zipping around in the set with impunity).

Today I added Michael 4 ... you want Sinbad? We got Sinbad! If you read a little but about the background to the character there were TWO of them (like Robin Hood). One was a 7th century explorer who goes into uncharted waters and fights the monsters that used to live there in those days (!); the other was a 15th century soldier of fortune. The children's stories mix them up, and suddenly you have have an Islamic sailor of fortune in the same time frame with Leonardo, straying off the map and fighting monsters. Um ... yeah.

Anyway, this would be the earlier one. Too early to be Islamic ... definitely off the map, where dragons be. He seems to have wandered northeast and landed himself in a shrine or temple, where it wouldn't hurt to ask to gods for a little help here, if he's ever going to get out of this jam alive --!

Tomorrow, Victoria is about to walk into this set. Join me then, and see what happens when I load up this set with another character, costume and hair, and see what the upgraded system will carry without having a cyberhernia. If it'll carry Victoria 4, I'll add Sinbad's pal ... and for the first time ever, we'll have three characters in a scene, not to mention a huge set and all the rest. Am I deliberately trying to crash it??? No, and yes. I'm pushing, to find the limits, which is not necessarily the same time. Honest.

Join me tomorrow, and let's see what kind of trouble we can get into!

Jade, 8 May