And so it begins!

 
I've been accepted to the Blender Market as a creator. Next stop, create the first product and get it accepted.

Rocky pathway

There's a lot of work ahead! 

Website is live

 After what felt like having all my teeth pulled out, the website is now finished and live. For reasons beyond me, a necessary token DNS record that is required to prove my ownership was deleted. I followed a Squarespace support page that instructed me to delete old records. No system function could detect that the record was missing and no way for Google to regenerate it. Thankfully, Google support was pretty good when I finally got access to it.

Issues quickly resolved.

Home is where the index is...

Gallery

The reason for the investment in time and money is the requirement for an online portfolio to sell on Blender Market. At this point, it has wider benefits. It's been too long since I had a proper online presence beyond this and other Google-hosted blogs.

Terrain Map Pack 2025 (Volumes 1-x)

The next setback is that the Blender Market team takes 1-2 weeks to approve me. I am confident that I'll get it, although I may need to produce some proper collateral and samples. I should provide an entry-level pack that is free to download. I should also break the maps into many very low lost packs rather than sell the job lot, although I could maybe make that an option. Still, I can use the extra time to get the pack completed.



Next up...a model. I will finally create a space vehicle for sale.

Terrain Map Pack samples

Terrain Pack 2025 - deadline extended

 Busy week! I've encountered a significant road block, though: I've set up a website for my required 3D portfolio, but I'm currently unable to update its DNS records because I need to use Google Workspace tools but I'm currently locked out of my Google Workspace -- probably caused by being logged into my regular account and maybe a mismatched 2-tier-auth phone number. I should hopefully get this sorted in a couple of days.

In the meantime, I'll carry on the work and create more terrains and masks.

Terrain Pack progress

The Terrain pack is progressing pretty well. However, I've looked into the requirements for submitting products to Blender Market. Apparently, you need a portfolio. That seems weird. Do all product developers have them? I guess they need to if they are a Blender marketeer. 

So I'll need to put something together before this work can be "productised".

Rural Valley

This is quite satisfying because it's one of the few terrains that incorporates both the lowlands and highlands in the same mesh. I think that I'll do another where the highlands are a bit more gentle, then incorporate a separate mountain terrain in the background. Snow-capped Alpines are a bit cliched, but it's what the punters want.

Small Form

I may need to generate some custom PBR materials that I can generate example screenshots. Otherwise, I'll need to credit the third-party materials used in examples (which won't be included in the pack).

Terrain Pack 2025 in production

 I've spent most of my time in World Creator creating terrain height maps for this commercial pack that I hope will be good enough to sell.

I've given myself until Friday to complete the terrains. I think I'll select the twelve best, or something like that.

Terrain Pack 2025 samples

Radio Silence...

 There's been an unusual gap in this blog. I have to be honest. The main reason is Orcs Must Die: Deathtrap. I have a weakness for tower defense games and this series has always been particularly addictive to me.

Some 3D work slips through...

Mostly, I have been honing my World Creator skills. I've generated several terrains, and I'm pleased with an evident levelling up of my sculpting/terrain generation skills.

8k mountain

fallen mountain close-up

Ridges

Ridges 2

Order: no contact...

 I'm very disappointed with SCAN. The email I received on the day of the order thanked me for securing my 5090 system. In what way can it be said that I secured anything, given that 48 hours later, I still don't have an update.

I was told on Saturday that someone from the build team would get back to me today. Still nothing, though. However..

I logged into the SCAN.co.uk website to see if there was any additional information, and there was:

On my order page, they have an estimated despatch date for the middle of March. SIX WEEKS! SIX! WEEKS! I've been thinking about this order for nearly a year; I can, in fact, wait another six weeks. Although I'm still not happy about the way this was handled. Still.... having a target date makes me feel a lot better.

Terrains

I've started using 2D stamps in World Creator. This applies pre-made terrain height maps to terrains. You can add several and merge them in interesting ways.