Artists Feature Jeremy Mowen (Exyle Studios)

fdc674d34505786946f2fd6dbd2Jeremy Mowen was one of the first friends I made in the Poserverse. He was one of those cool guys with an awesome gallery that doesn’t mind slumming with the initiates and sharing his thoughts and knowledge. Getting any sort of feedback in a crowded environ like deviantART is a rare business, especially for those among the endless ranks of lowly newbs, so I always enjoyed talking shop with someone that had a good head start on me. Eventually we moved to exchanging correspondence and WIPs via email and began collaborating on joint projects, all of which have languished long in a mutually agreed murk and may never see the light of day in their fully intended forms.

One of the primary factors in this agreed stasis was Jeremy’s shifting efforts to push out his literary/graphical chimeras before they wither on the vine. The foremost front runner in his undertakings is the Autumn Risen (set amidst a cataclysmic war-torn US), with Revenant emerging out of the frozen wastes of distant UV Prime.

Jeremy primarily works with Poser and Photoshop, but he also makes heavy use of DAZ Studio, Vue, and Reality 3D among others. Whatever the programs used you will notice bold contrasting colours, grungy vivid postworking techniques, strange beings and flawed heroes, big weapons, and lots and lots of wings.

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Artist Feature Sylverdali – Surreal Places

harmony_1_by_syiverdali-d63k4o4Sylverdali is a 3D artist from Sydney, Australia. Primarily she works with Bryce 7 Pro, best known for its terrain and environment production and rendering tools. Bryce is also heavily utilised for abstract and surreal works, which is where Sylverdali’s work is concentrated. I first became aware of her work while sniffing about the Bryce community on DeviantArt, looking for artists who were doing interesting things with the software.

That investigation led to the production of a series of Bryce artist features. In the end I had a list of about a dozen artists I wanted to contact, but of course that was far too many for the sort of articles I wanted to do. Sylverdali was high on that list, not only for her unique and varied (but instantly recognisable) works, but for the fact that in just a few short years she has catapulted from a 3D novice to an inspiring technical proficiency. Come on in and witness the merging of vividly illuminated dreams and familiar realities presented through alien lenses.

Cyborgs falling through ethereal clouds. Bryce 3D rendering by SylverdaliJim Willey: Looking at your gallery on deviantART it appears you just suddenly popped into existence in June of 2012? Is this the case? Did you just pick up Bryce and start serving up beautiful art, or is there significant prehistory?

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Bryce Artist Feature 04: Horo

Haulage VP2 by Horo Bryce 3D render

Haulage VP2 by Horo

Taking a trip through Horo’s gallery at Bryce5 and his personal site is a fascinating experience. The first thing you will likely notice is that Horo is a man of inquisitive nature with broad interests, many of them quite technical in nature, so it is perhaps quite fitting that Bryce and 3D imagery are among his hobbies. He draws from a deep pool of inspiration for his art, with a passion for optics, lenses, HDR images, and space exploration shining through into his work. Like David Brinnen, Horo’s work tends towards the technical and experimental, pushing Bryce to its limits and. Rarely, if ever, does Horo fall back on postwork techniques to cover limitations encountered in Bryce, instead focusing on finding in-program workarounds. Horo’s work is Bryce at its best, and it was with great relish that I had a chance to get his perspective on the program, and its future.

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Bryce Artist Feature 03: Michael Frank

To Earth Reclaimed Bryce render by Michael Frank

To Earth Reclaimed

One cannot fail to be struck with some measure of awe by Michael Frank’s impeccably arranged and ambitious organic wonders. Surreal and other worldly landscapes and creatures loom out of his dreams to tantalise us with their digitised tendrils, enticing us to pause a moment or a minute or longer… maybe much longer, and ponder. Michael’s images speak of futures and realities and overlapping spaces where anachronisms meet with the timeless to exchange notes. His work is undoubtedly one of the most vivid examples that Bryce can be a tool for the creation of beautiful fine arts of the highest quality. It was an honour and a privilege to correspond with and bug Michael Frank for his thoughts on Bryce and how he uses it.

JW: How long have you been a Bryce user and what is it about Bryce that drew you in the first place? Continue reading