iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oh, now this is a LOT of fun! I may change my selections later... www.my9albums.com

Ha! I just learned that the monument at the entrance to Baikonur is known as "The Fisherman", on account of the oustretched arms!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 03/10/2026

This early work of mine was the done right after the 1999 eclipse, and was the first where many colleagues at the day job asked if they could have a copy of my wallpaper! There's a "Zeit" / Tangerine Dream influence there too!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 03/10/2026

Ha! I found a 16 year old attempt to do the inside of a space habitat, that I gave up on. No instancing! The buildings are not too bad, but it was clear it would never handle the vegetation, and render times were horrible.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 03/10/2026

Practicing map-driven surfaces in Lightwave 2026, using an imported monster spider Daz model.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 01/10/2026

OK! I've made a downloadable tutorial / worked example., with all required files It shows how to applied instanced decorations to a Christmas Tree, & change the surface so that each decoration has a separate colour. drive.proton.me/urls/R5H36MF... #lightwave3d 2026, (& recent versions?)

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 28/09/2026

sketchfab.com/3d-models/gh... Free figure of Major Motoko Kusanagi. My adaptation, after i worked out how to extract the posed figure, not the neutral pose. UV textures upscaled x4 Hair colour more purple Mask removed I'm wondering how to render something with texture maps anime style...

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 28/09/2026

Urban Future 7. Stonemason's work is consistently exceptional, all his setting have many great viewpoints. He's the best reason to use Daz, so you can export!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 27/09/2026

This one is about 1 year old now, (where did the time go!). Eagles from Space 1999 flying over a lunar backdrop I extracted from "2001" Lightwave 11.6

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 26/09/2026

#Lightwave3d Handy hint! After VPR, there's buffer options, & after that a single drop down arrow. Here you can turn on things like the Opengl overlay, & put a wireframe on the display, (in this example, a cel shaded final render) Ideal for seeing where stuff is, best of both worlds.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 26/09/2026

More work on the docking area of the BIS Avalon. I'm trying to make it work in Lightwave 2026, and get render times low enough to animate it. I'm getting there at the cost of turning off GI. vimeo.com/1230288862?s... Also a big still:

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 26/09/2026

I tried importing this Daz setting into Lightwave 2026, and seeing how it looked with new surfaces and lighting... Of course, if I'd had the new pipes tool at the time, I would never have needed to buy it! I'm really noticing how many SF scenes are dominated by pipes and droopy cables!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 25/09/2026

I think the cel shaded Tachikoma is done. Download the files here: drive.google.com/file/d/1VoOt... It needs modern Lightwave, made in v2026. Elements can be animated or swapped out, wheels & feet versions included. I'm not asserting copyright, use it as you please. Show me what you do with it!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

Reminds me of the cricket pads on the "Alien" space suits

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

I'm finding some VERY nice noise textures in Lightwave. (These are RMan based, should be available in other software). A lot of noise looks like fractal noise curdled up in different ways. Gabor noise looks kind of mechanical, (lots of options), and warping reminds me of mildew patches of decay.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

I think I've just made the world's most annoying video meeting backdrop.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 24/09/2026

Right! I tried pointing the camera at a Hosek-Wilkie light, and changed the light angle to make a sunset. All light settings at the defaults. Here's the Lightwave 2026 scene file, if you want to play. drive.google.com/file/d/1y0sb... It's not too bad - the limb darkening looks about right.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 23/09/2026

Working on upgrading the Tachikoma, I plan to release it when finished. Changing some rounded areas to bevels, some small details added and fixed. Next animation will have eyes rolling and arms waving!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 22/09/2026

Time to try some #Lightwave3d cel shading I think! The model is an old one and could use some work...

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 21/09/2026

Another example, now with bump connected. Panels was the IFW node I used more than any other.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 21/09/2026

Ooh! Another #Lightwave3d find! There's now a panels node, reminiscent of the IFW2 shaders panels. More options with things like vents, but I don't see how to have different colours for rivets, etc. maybe some node trickery will help?

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 20/09/2026

I recently found Neil Young's "Prairie Wind", don't know how I missed that when it came out. Way away from what II normally listen to these days.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 20/09/2026

Issue No. 2, 1958 of the magazine *Science and Life* Sputnik 1 on the cover.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 19/09/2026

More experiments with the new Lightwave cable builder, this tool is exceptionally good, and well thought out. Not only are there a load of handy presets for connectors, but it is REALLY easy to add new ones. Power plugs, hose nozzles, you name it. I've added an Apple connector & guitar jack.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 19/09/2026

Trying out the new Lightwave 2026 cable maker, in this case using the chain link style. This is also a good object for trying out materials. The results remain fully editable after building, which is effing amazing.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 19/09/2026

Soviet Poster "Overtaking Time"

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 18/09/2026

I imported an old Lightwave scene to 2026, got TONS of noise Various tips on dealing with the hot pixels, (fireflies), had minor improvements, apart from LD-DEFLY, which cleaned but mushed it up. As it uses strong GI, I tried upping GI samples from 1 to 8. Bingo! I've not seen this tip elsewhere.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 17/09/2026

"The little turtles are looking at the Moon and the Earth through the porthole of their spacecraft. An artistic interpretation of that very journey aboard the ‘Zond-5’ spacecraft." (The turtles were actually glued to posts, to stop them from moving around).

Illustration from Pavel Shubin’s book *The Moon: History, People, Technology*.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 16/09/2026

**** me, I was not ready for "deathslop" to become a real thing.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 15/09/2026

Noted! Can you be more specific with the PBR? As you may have seen, that small bot was just a few maps, this is how I connected them up. Other parameters I twiddled at random.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 14/09/2026

Then you show them the UR-700!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 14/09/2026

An old one, a collaboration with David Hardy, Colliers Moonlanders by me, background by Dave, a bit of front projection to get the shadows rendered on the backdrop, and provide indirect light.

CGI spacecraft composited onto a painted background.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 14/09/2026

Mini-bot rerender, at higher quality with glowing eyes. LW 2026 practice.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 13/09/2026

I've found where the Lightwave 2026 glow went! Now NOT in the surface properties, only in layout as an Effects / image filter. See attached screenshot - pick a surface, tick the "include", and radius / strength settings seem the same as before.

Screenshot catching the required GLOW settings.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 13/09/2026

More wrestling with Lightwave surface / lighting / render settings. Noise in the highlights...

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 13/09/2026

This was a serious proposal for a direct ascent crewed Moon landing, getting the LEK heavy lander there using a whole bunch of upper stages strapped together. Model and renders by me.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 13/09/2026

The steampunk robot in a detailed HDR environment is proving VERY useful for experiments with lightwave surfacing.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 12/09/2026

I'm using this cheap Daz steampunk robot to practice the "new" Lightwave surfacing system. The shadow catcher is really handy too!

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 12/09/2026

Does anyone have advice on cleaning up images like this please? Basically a high res scan of a poor quality print. Best I can manage is to downsize a lot.

Leonov Sokolov painting of a Jupiter probe.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 12/09/2026

Artist unknown, portrait of Yuri Gagarin

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 12/09/2026

This was posted by an AI lead on Linked In as an example of vibe coding... Zero factor authentication.

Account Verification

We have just sent the code 435841 to your
phone number: xxx-xxx-6521

Please enter the code below to access your
account:

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 12/09/2026

Best Star Trek crew, wrong answers only.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 11/09/2026

"It's yours Mankind" Soviet propaganda poster.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 10/09/2026

I've long thought that the biggest mistakes in the 50's on what was next were: a) Assume many people, like an Antarctic expedition. b) Assume rockers would be made in bulk. I'd say that the Soviet tendency to treat rocket production like missile production, was a big problem for them.

Colliers illustration of an antarctic expedition, err, nope, Mars.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 10/09/2026

Anatoly Artsebarsky, Sergey Krikalev, and Helen Sharman photographed in 1991 I've attached 2 versions of the photo, the original was small, the larger one here was AI enlarged.

Ai enlarged. Nicer if you don't look too closely, but unnaturally smooth.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 09/09/2026

Perspective free views of the BIS Moon Lander, with legs up and down. All by me.

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