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 I use an outdated Dell Pentium 4, 1.4GHZ, running Windows XP.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.
Comments (18)
peedy
Excellent image and lighting. Love the terrain! Corrie
shingleboot
Beautiful scene
bebopdlx
As always Mark, fantastic work.
shayhurs
Know that feeling! Since Inspire 3D won't work on a Win 7 system and my copy of Lightwave is not working, I'm back to Square One on rendering. Since an "upgrade" on LW is "on sale" at $500 and I'm still not employed, I'm going to give Houdini HD Apprentice at try ($99/yr for "starving artists", unlimited resolution and I can export HD quality animations if I shoose). Houdini is what a lot of the CGI in Avatar was created in. FYI, the "Cortez" saw first light this evening. Win 7 Pro, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of Raid 1. Hope to start loading apps and rendering in about a week (doing an update to Hyperion from XP to Win 7, so I'll use PC Mover to push things to Cortez, update Hyperion to Win 7 Pro, then push them back to Hyp II and make the Cortez the new Aggememnon.
giulband
Fantastic well done image !!!
Greywolf44
Beautifully crafted space scene. I like!!!
saphira1998
cool
retepk
Superb.
choronr
You have not lost your touch; this is a strikingly beautiful picture. I know what you mean with the fast moving pace/aging issue. I've personally elected to slow down and learn some of the more important stuff with Terragen 3 with the help of a friend - result: fewer images created, much longer times between images created and hopefully, better quality of scenes.
skyvendik
Great!
Hubert
Classic SciFi. Great terrains and mats!
Danny_G
Nice work Mark, classic image
EyeOfTheBeholder
Great work,awesome background.
Savage_dragon
You know I love it... still.
Thelby
My-my, what an Extraordinary Piece of Body of Work! From the sandy foreground to the Amazing Background you have created something quite Unique and Very Stunning to look at!! Big Congrats on an Excellent Job!!!
ia-du-lin
Fantastic sci-fi image, wonderful terrain, great atmo and colors, like it!!
moat
Splendid!
e-brink
Excellent style. Really great sci-fi landscape work.