The edge of the Christmas storm

 Christmas 2024 is officially upon us. Family members are starting to gather, and presents haven't wrapped themselves. I've figured out that my wife, Clara, wrapped the presents, leaving me just a couple to do. I'm rubbish at wrapping.

So, Blender activity will slacken off for a few days while volleys of festive cheer fly between various camps. Before then, here is some progress on the competition entry.


Perfect Water

Single unit mostly completed.

I reached a point with the apartment block where I felt I had to move on for a while. I'd come up with the idea of using graffiti to break up some of those walls. I figured out an easy way to apply graffiti without getting into UVs: Just apply them on a plane with a transparent background. It works well, except for some cases where the scene's volumes mess up the transparency.

Let there be cluttering!

Approaching a focus, nearing a point

Lens Sim experiment

On the apartment walls are slogans: "Is this our destiny" and "Perfect Water". These are taken from a Blue Oyster Cult song, the theme of which was the pursuit of perfection, or a cautionary song about global warming, and certainly a component of Sandy Perlman's Imaginos story.

Perfect water

The dark wind braids the waves.
The crazed birds raid the trees. Is this our destiny?
To join our hands at sea - and slowly sink, and slowly think:
This is perfect water, passing over me

I really want to lean into the Blue Oyster Cult references. I'll add their symbol, the astrological symbol for Saturn. Some more graffiti, maybe a reference to the rebel Imaginos.