Who is 'Markal'?
Markal is Mark Edwards who lives in Mississippi – originally from Indianapolis, Indiana. I retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2003 after 23 years and decided to stay here in the warm gulf coast south along with my wife, two daughters and three grandchildren.
How long have you been rendering/doing computer graphics?
My last five years in the Air Force I designed and developed computer-based training. We used PhotoShop, Flash and even wrote code in HTML, so I guess I started in the late 90’s. My terragen work began in 2003.
Do you have traditional art experience?
No real art experience just the standard art classes in high school and college.
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What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a collaboration with a Bryce artist…he is making a ship for one of my space landscape images. Learning Terragen 2 and possibly Vue may be in the works soon.
What software/equipment do you use and why?
Software used is Terragen .9.43, PaintShopPro 7 and LunarCell. I use an outdated Dell Pentium 4, 1.4GHZ, running Windows XP. I was going to upgrade but, this very large screen HDTV deal fell into my lap so I had to upgrade my other love…. watching Blue-Ray movies…first. Hopefully I’ll upgrade to a quad 4 before the end of the year.
What do you think your best piece of work is and why?
One of my latest favorites is Rigel III. The foreground is a stone BMP overlay I applied in Terragen…. the shading and shadows were in-line with the sun angle and it worked very well. The only post work was the LunarCell moons and I think they also add a realistic touch. It still amazes me how computer graphics can make an imaginary place look so real and believable.
Why do you like to work with 3D software?
It’s a fun hobby for me and when I focus on the work it carries me away from the hustle and worries of this world.Â
Who/what inspires you?
All the wonderful artists here at ReRo are great inspirations. National Geographic Magazine, NASA and all the space missions has also influenced and inspired me. Of course our creator….Almighty God….the greatest artist of all.
How has this online community (Renderosity) enhanced your work, relationships, and learning?
Not only comments but also other artists sharing their files have helped me grow artistically by leaps and bounds.
Parting Comments / Advice to other Artists?
I try to focus on what I love. I have a passion for Space Art so 99% of my work is Space art. Some may think I need to branch out and explore other areas but I say branch out to what….something I don’t love? Go with what you love and your rewards will be many.
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Comments (17)
SIGMAWORLD Online Now!
Excellent image!
mikeerson
sorry, i'm into poser, can't help ya... but... I do want to say this is your closest image of home compared to all your distant planets. I like it.
Savage_dragon
Cool render. Dig the soap sud clouds. ")
WeeLaddie
Don't dig the "soap sud" clouds (Ok for toony type scene is all). They do need some more work. Check settings of examples of more natural looking clouds; Edge definition, lead-in scale, etc. Also ground on hills to the right look too sandy all the way up to the top. Grass and soil coloured surface layer there will fix that. I'm guessing you have generated a Heightfield, but didn't check the Auto generate checkbox on its pop-up window on previous saves, and then when you went back to a previous save it didn't generate. That's all I can think has happened off the cuff.
Kattey
Strange, but I like clouds a lot :) But water is a bit bleak for such brightly lit scene, IMHO Still, like the picture :)
DreamersWish
I like the overall look of the scene, but the clouds and the water somehow do not fit. I do not know this this particular TG program so I am unable to give advice on what to do. Wonderful concept though!
Danny_G
Mark this image has great potential, I can't give you any tech advise as you are venturing in unknown territories to me, what I can say is you will sort it out, can't wait ! Keep on man ;)
artgum
I knew once you got going with this, you'd really dig in. The clouds look funny- but then, they also look kinda cool, like "Yellow Submarine". Maybe reduce the scale of the reeds and keep going with this one- it's a great scene Mark!
choronr
Mark, I know how you feel; but, these comments mean a lot. Each venture will unfold with new learnings and tips from others that help. I've noted that you may have done the 'seed' with the water shader making it darker and not looking like the original you started with. I would suggest you mark down the numbers of the seed when you begin so you can go back to it if needed. The scale of the cattails could be a bit smaller; and, you might try some displacement on them. The sunlit side of the sand looks OK to me; but, the bushes look a bit dark and could probably be re-colored. The composition of the picture is perfect - sky, water and land in good proportions. The dirt, stones and those under water look good. Keep on buddy, you're traveling uphill a lot faster than I did.
X-PaX
Very nice image Mark. Well done.
lumi
great landslace, I like your clouds a lot!
scifibabe
Wonderful job on this. Great landscape and clouds. Beautiful building in the background. Nicely done work.
LightDrop
Great work man! Sorry for can't give any hint to TG2 - I have installed it, but I'm to lazy to learn really at the moment and not have the patient to wait for that render-times... AND I love V 0.9 and his oldy-charme^^ ;-))
kasalin
You are also a wonderful TG2 master
LindaMcC
Beautiful scene and lighting..and I like the point of view very much. You are brave to use such a variety of objects, and you did a superb job of them, including the placement. Love the water. Really impressive work.
Thelby
Except for the scale of the cattails, this is really nice!!!
starfire777
Excellent image and sky!!!