I used grayscale height maps for some of the terrain. This particular map was for the path approaching the Gate.
The design for Heaven's Gates was hand drawn and then scanned into the computer to create a bump map. Yes, it is reminiscent of LOTR elvish style. I was doodling in that style before LOTR even came out. So there.
I occasionally needed a diversion from working on Pilgrim's Progress. One such distraction was a shapes collection for the old Marathon engine, which I did for a friend's birthday.
I'm not sure what I had in mind for this picture. I think it was for a DVD menu bar or something.
I tried working with photographs as a background for Vanity Fair, needing to create the illusion of a sprawling medieval metropolis. None of this worked, although it led to my discovery of the Surface Replicator in Carrara, which is what I used in the end.
This is an image from Google Earth, taken over Cairo. It was also a texture map for Vanity Fair, before I figured out how to make thousands of low-poly buildings with the replicator. If the buildings were removed from the final render, this is what you would see. The most important contribution that my parents made during this project is the observation that this texture wasn't convincing as a city. And it wasn't, really, especially when seen close-up.
This is the Cotton-Candy Gorilla of the Molasses Swamp. Although indigenous to the Swamp, some wandering clans have strayed as far as the Gumdrop Wastelands. This picture is large enough to be used as a desktop picture.
