About me: I'm SoftMist aka L.A. Rickard aka just plain old Lori aka hey you. I've had "some" college training in the traditional arts and graphic design (translation: quit before graduating). I've been freelancing off and on for years as a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. I'm a certified underacheiver with no ambition, but I have a love affair with CG and 3D in particular that I just can't drop. I'm not up for accepting commisions at the moment. That would imply an obligation, and I take my obligations seriously, and I'm just not up for anything serious at the moment, heh, heh! Requests or suggestions -- sure maybe, but definitely no commisions right now. Most of the artwork on this site can be found elsewhere in wallpaper sizes at either ACETOURER.COM (if you're into bikes and babes) or My DevArt Account for the other stuff. If for some strange reason you want to use my artwork on your own website, I don't have a problem with that as long as:

1.) you download it to your own server and not link to my artwork directly (and send me a link so I can bask in the glory of someone actually liking what I do)
2.) you do not post it on a porn or hate site
3.) and most importantly GIMME CREDIT for cryin' out loud! This stuff is under copyright ya know! (and a link back would be nice, but not required ^_^)

My tools of the trade: My main computer at the moment is just a home computer, nothing special. It's a Dell Dimension 8400 with P4 processor 530 with HT Technology (3GHZ, 800 FSB), 1 gig RAM running WinXP Pro. My first graphics program was Paint Shop Pro 5 (using version 9 now), it was fairly cheap -- helluva lot cheaper than Photoshop -- and it got a LOT of use! I used it as a weapon to terrorize my family and friends with manipulated photos and off-the-wall animations. The first 3D program I came across was POV Ray. It's a freebie, which certainly caught my attention at first, but I soon lost interest with all that coding you had to do just to see your typical 3D orb floating above your typical black and white checked infinite plain. Then, within the depths of AOL's 3D groups I found animations done with Poser.Wow, I was impressed, that's what I wanted to do! When I first discovered Poser it was available as a demo download, as was Bryce. Poser's ease of use is what got me started. Now at this point I have to say a few things about Poser because 99% of the 3D modeling world look down upon it. Poser is aptly named because that's what you do with it -- you pose people. It is like a theatrical stage and you are the director. Basically you get your actors and props together, put them where you want them on the stage, set your lights and camera and then render. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's basically what you do with with Poser. The 3D modellers that look down upon it do so because you can't really do any 3D modelling with it, so therefore anything created with it is not truly your work. What bullshit! Would you tell a movie or theater director that their work is not valid because they didn't build the set, sew the costumes, apply the make-up, and do the acting themselves? Of course not. Poser is a fairly inexpensive program that is great at doing what it was designed to do. Just don't expect to do any modelling with it ;) I've used Bryce occasionally for about a year or so, but I can't really get into it. I've seen some people do some fantastic images with Bryce, but mainly I've only used it for landscapes and settings. At the moment I'm concentrating on learning Maya because I want to learn 3D modeling from the vertex up. It's a good professional grade program, and while I can create very individualized pieces with programs such as Poser and Bryce, they do have their limitations. I love learning new things, and there's just something about making an object come alive on the computer that really floats my boat, so I guess I'll keep it up for a bit longer. What's next? Who knows. Flavor of the moment is illustration (for fun, not profit). Whilst I'm learning Maya, I'm still using Poser and all my other tools to satify my urge to illustrate books, anime, games or whatever tickles my fancy.

Interested in trying 3D for yourself but don't have the megabucks for all the cool programs? There are a boatload of freebies out there for you to try until you decide for yourself if it's for you or not:

Daz Studio is a free program much like Poser, and you can find tons of free models, accessories, and tutorials at Daz 3D, Renderosity, or Runtime DNA just to name a few.

Terragen has a free version landscape generator.

Maya Behold the vertex! Try it for free!

POV Ray (Persistence of Vision Raytracer)

3D Canvas

GIMP GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.