Hello there.
If you have been a long time reader (oh, so you are the one), you may have noticed I was pretty quiet for almost exactly a whole year. 2013 was a very intense year for me, personally and professionally.
We released Helios for Vue (click that link up on the main menu for more) and just last month we released GeoGlyph for World Machine (another link, right up there). We also overhauled QuadSpinner.com (oh what the hell, here’s the link: www.quadspinner.com) and made some major changes internally as to how we manage and release products – more on that later.
We also worked on a couple of AAA game titles, which was a very satisfying experience. Yes, there are games out there that have Helios in them.
In any case, I’m back. I plan to be more active on the blog.
Thanks for sticking around!
Some environments I was involved with for the Battlestar Galactica prequel. If you haven't seen it, you can watch it online on YouTube. Was pleasantly surprised to learn that some of QuadSpinner’s materials were being used even before I joined the project.
Blood & Chrome screengrabs via Machinima, owned by SyFy/NBCUniversal.
SpeedTree is becoming very addictive! I’m preparing assets for a series of jungle renders and after creating this custom variant of the Ceiba tree, it was difficult not to make a scene just for this tree.
The tree model consists of 2.8 million polygons and the OBJ weighs about 252mb. 
"Secluded deep inside the largest island of the Starfall archipelago, this waterfall hides some of the island's most carefully preserved secrets."
This is an image in a series entitled "The Isles of Starfall". It is about a mysterious island with a mix of ancient mythological artifacts and cutthroat pirates. The focus is on environments, and telling a story through them without the need for visible characters.
The scene was created in Vue, with some modeling (flag, rope, wooden poles) in 3dsmax. The foliage is a mix of SolidGrowth trees and custom SpeedTree models.
This is one of my more complex environments and took a couple of months (about 80 hours) to finish. My partner Cynthia Najim and Vue legend Eran Dinur gave me crucial feedback and support in creating this image. Marek Mihok helped me a lot by lending me his eyes through just about every iteration of the image, and constantly kept encouraging me to make it better.
A very large part of the research for this image (and the series) was done on several trips to Costa Rica. The large Ceiba trees (with the vines) are from the Central American rainforest.
A larger sized version can be seen at my CGPortfolio.
I’m working on the next three scenes in the series and will post WIPs soon.