News Update
It’s been a while since my last update so I thought it was about time I let you know what’s going on in my life.
I’ve finally moved into my new house and finished unpacking, actually, my wife and son unpacked while I watched 
My daughter ‘Gemma’ has given birth to our second granddaughter ‘Faith’ and she’s absolutely perfect, just like her sister ‘Sadie’.
I’m feeling pretty weak at the moment and I’ll be going into hospital within the next couple of weeks for another blood transfusion. If only I was a vampire I could get it myself whenever I needed it
In-spite of my poor health I’m still able to create some art and I hope to continue to do so for as long as possible.
The site continues to attract more visitors and it’s getting around 350 hits per day.
I recently went to see the new ‘Predators’ movie and was rather disappointed. The problem for me was that none of the characters were very likeable and so I didn’t really care whether they lived or died. It could have been so much better and I feel that this was a waste of a chance to make something really worth while and special.
Well that’s it for now.
Tony
Insight on my Latest Artwork “The Trading Post”
I thought you might be interested in seeing this animation of the untextured version of the model ship used in my picture The Trading Post.
The ship is composed from various primitives for which various compound operations like subtraction and union have been utilized. Boolean and ProBoolean were used for this particular model. Essentially this means that the shape of one primitive object can be subtracted from another resulting in a unique shape.
I also used the FFD transform and Edit Mesh modifiers to refine and tweak various parts of the mesh into the desired shape by pushing and pulling control handles. Each of the four arms of the ship were constructed in this manner.
I applied some basic textures to the model for rendering, however the majority of textures and weathering were added during post work in Photoshop along with the planets, moons, stars and atmospherics. I found that working this way gives me far more control over the finished artwork and it’s fun to do too .
The mesh was created using 3D Studio Max and then rendered in Vue 7 at 7400 x 4000, although the demonstration animation was rendered using 3D Studio Max.
I spent around eight hours on the post work in Photoshop and much of that time was spent on getting the diffused effect and adjusting the lighting. Unlike the majority of my pictures I wanted this piece to be soft with pastel shades – similar to the film: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
I hope you have found this post of interest.
Bigger – Better – Faster!
Welcome to the new and improved website, I think you will approve of the changes. The site was established in 2006 and has become more and more popular so I thought it was about time to give it a makeover and thanks to my son it has surpassed all of my expectations.
Not only does the site look better but it is easier to use and it has some really cool features such as: full screen horizontal viewing, slide show, pretty links, RSS subscription, tags, archives and the site is now a blog with blog and image search. The site has been reprogrammed from the ground up and because of this it runs a lot faster.
There are some new images that did not appear on the old site so it’s worth checking out the galleries.
We will continue to improve the site over the next twelve months and welcome any suggestions, criticisms or observations.
This has been a really busy month for me and apart from my art and another short stay in hospital for a blood transfusion, I’ve been packing ready to move into a new house, I’d forgotten how stressful moving home is!
Thank you all for your interest and continued support.
Tony Hayes
Update
The site has now passed the 400,000 hit mark and I’m delighted that more people are visiting the gallery every week.
Due to circumstances beyond my control I am unable to accept any commission work and I have closed my poster sales accounts.
My health is still poor but I continue to create artwork although not as frequently as I used to.
Thanks for reading.
Happy New Year!
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends and visitors a happy new year and I hope that 2010 will be a good one for you.
As for me the last couple of years have not been good as my health has been very poor and I was not expected to live to see the new year but I’m still here, alive and kicking and my new granddaughter has given me a new lease of life (check out the latest photo of her).
I now look forward to the coming year with the hope of better things and thank god I’m still hear to enjoy my family, art, friends from around the globe and the promise of another granddaughter due to arrive in May.
Have a good one.
Merry Christmas!
I’d like to wish you all a happy Christmas and a creative new year.
This year has been a particually bad one for me due to ill health and as many of you will know, I almost died in hospital.
So for me the best thing about this Christmas is that I’m still here and still creating images but most of all I will be with my family over the festive season especially my grandaughter Sadie who I love to bits.
I have finally completed a deal with the UK poster company ‘Print Erotica’ and they will be offering many of my images that other printers won’t handle due the adult content.
The quality of there work is first class and they offer box-framed canvas prints ready to hang at really competitive prices.
As with all of the companies I deal with my printed artwork is logo-free.
As you may have noticed, I have also created a selection of T-Shirts, mugs, mouse mats and ties and they are available at Zazzle.com
If you see a picture that you’d like on a gift item please drop me a line and I’ll organise it as soon as possible.
I appologise for the site being down for a few days last week but it was out of my control as the host was transfering my data into a new server and it took longer than expected.
Well thats about it for now. Enjoy your Christmas but please don’t drink and drive.
News Update & Photo of my Studio.
I was delighted to receive a message from Zazzle informing me that I have been awarded ‘The star of excellence in artistic design’ and have been featured on the Awesome Zazzlers front page for the week.
I thought some of you might like to see my studio/den so I’m posting a photo of it below.
Have a great week.
I’m still alive!
It’s been a long time since I was well enough to go on my computer, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to let you know the situation.
I have just been released from hospital following a three month fight for my life – in fact my family were told to expect the worst.
Somehow I managed to pull through but I am still very weak and it will be some time before I’m well enough to begin creating art again.
I would like to thank the many well-wishers who took the time to ask about my fate and to all the people who I know were praying for me.
I had some brilliant news while I was in hospital, my daughter Gemma gave birth to my first grandchild ‘Sadie’ – I’m a grandad!
So as they say “Watch this space”
AOM at Renderosity!
To my surprise and delight, I’ve been voted Artist of the month for June at Renderosity I didn’t even know I’d been nominated but I would like to thank everyone who voted for me, I really appreciate it.
It’s been a while . . .
Ok, so some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been around for quite a while. I’ve been very ill and still am and I’ve found it hard to do anything creative.
I have just uploaded my first image in weeks and although it isn’t brilliant, at least I have produced something at long-last. I hope it won’t be too long before I’m back on form again.