iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I've gathered up about 50 surface presets from my efforts to learn current Lightwave surfacing. drive.proton.me/urls/TC54W86... A mix of my own, and those taken from provided sample scenes. Tinker, pass on as you wish, and please share back any cool modified versions.

drive.proton.me

Proton Drive

Securely store, share, and access your important files and photos. Anytime, anywhere.

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 2h

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... So. Stable genius Donald Trump wants to call it super duper intelligence. But can't spell the name of his own country correctly. "Unites States" Was this an example of AI? Or has he a worse vocabulary than most 7 year olds?

theguardian.com

‘President of the Unites States’: White House’s AI accord includes spelling error

Donald Trump and six tech executives voluntarily signed the document, which included a misspelling, committing to safely developing AI

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Tiangong 1, the first Chinese space laboratory module and a prototype space station, was launched from Jiuquan #OTD in 2011. The module was visited by three Shenzhou spacecraft during its two-year operational lifetime.

Visualization of Shenzhou 9 spacecraft docking with Tiangong 1. Credit: CNSA

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Nick Stevens @nick-stevens.com · 29/09/2026

He seems to deliver a strange mix of the utterly bizarre and the utterly obvious to me…

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The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 29/09/2026

PARISIANS! Come take a look. Take a closer look. There are 30 space sci-fi classics that will be screened over the next 20 days at La Cinémathèque!! Solaris, Silent Running, Moon, Alien, Marooned, Wall-E, 2001, 2010, Interstellar... You should enjoy it for me. Thank you for your attention.

youtube.com

Cinéma et espace, les indispensables - Bande-annonce

YouTube video by La Cinémathèque française

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Justinas Vitkus @justinasvitkus.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Another old painting of a habitable moon entering the shadow of its parent planet. #SciArt #spaceart #astronomy

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Justinas Vitkus @justinasvitkus.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Recent painting of a couple of exomoons. #SciArt #spaceart #astronomy #Exoplanets

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Justinas Vitkus @justinasvitkus.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

I've heard about planet WASP-76b showing hints of optical phenomenon called Glory. It looks like iridescent rings caused by liquid droplets in clouds. In this case the liquid droplets are made out of molten metal in the clouds of this hot Jupiter planet. #SciArt #spaceart #astronomy #Exoplanets

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voyager212 / Mac Rebisz @macspace.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Cassini spacecraft leaving Earth on top of Centaur upper stage. Back in October 2017 I made a series of Cassini themed artworks as a tribute to this amazing mission that gave us most breathtaking images of the other worlds. Painted in Procreate on iPad Pro.

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Simon Roy @simonroy.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

back in 2016 i made a mesoamerican riff on the oneill cylinder/bernal sphere in "HABITAT"- i love every mossy tube city in space

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Luna 19, a Soviet heavy lunar orbiter, was launched from Baikonur #OTD in 1971. The spacecraft studied lunar gravitational field, radiation environment, and made panoramic tv images.

Schematic diagram of the Luna 19 orbiter. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

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

If someone builds a bridge, and the bridge falls down, it;s not the fault of the bridge. It's the company that built it. They are legally liable for what they do with software, just as much as if it was hardware.

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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

I generally fill in my name on forms as "Marketing Target" and give the phone number of the local pizza chain.

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RJB / Mallacore 🇨🇦 @rjb-mallacore.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yeah it isn't as serious as the other anime versions but that is a bit refreshing. Also being more towards the manga I find it isn't competing with SAC which has a very high bar to match. Plus I love the retro art style.

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

I was a bit cautious as apparently it shifts towards the original manga, which could be a bit silly?

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Lewis @siwelthelongboi.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

10s of thousands is probably under by an order of magnitude as well. I've been following SpaceX since about 2012, but I've entirely lost interest in it now, I stopped keeping track of Starship in about 2022. I didn't even know it was launching today

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

Me too. Too many promises broken, too many failures to deliver.

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Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 28/09/2026

The Hubble Cycle 34 science program is set and scheduled to begin November 1! Researchers around the world were awarded more than 2,700 prime orbits—and 31% will lead a Hubble observation for the first time: bit.ly/4xL4Ioj

Large text, Hubble Cycle 34 Approved Proposals, runs atop an image of space with the Hubble Space Telescope body at lower right.

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⭐ ᗰᗩᖇᛕ ᗩ. ǤᗩᖇᒪIᑕᛕ ⭐ @markgarlick.com · 28/09/2026

More fun with my orbital space hotel. Made in #blender. FUN only. Not a serious concept. The barrel-shaped pods are the living quarters. They're detachable in case of damage to the underlying ring. (Although, not sure how much help that will be!) #sciart #spaceart #scifi

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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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Soapy @soapy2019.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

That's a sooper dooper cool coffee table.😃

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Mark Stewart @markstewart2001.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"The Dolphin I Used To Be…" Why we live on "Planet Ocean" rather than "Planet Earth" Read the full micro essay here: markdestewart.wixsite.com/the-metaphor... @seashepherdglobal.bsky.social @wwf.org.uk @whalesorg.bsky.social #conservation #ocean #Taji @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social @peta.org

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

Yes, and not overusing the monster was a key part of making it work. That kind of reminded me of Alien, makes it all the more impressive when you see it properly!

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Jodrell Bank @jodrellbank.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Two months on from the announcement about Jodrell Bank Observatory's future funding, almost £50,000 has been raised thanks to your generosity. While discussions continue, no solution is yet in place. Help protect Jodrell Bank with a donation: donate.manchester.ac.uk/p/jodrellba…

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GrahamTG @grahamtg.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Still down the GiTS rabbit hole, watching the series on Amazon( recommended) and re-reading the book. "Thermoptics" rendered in #Lightwave3d and kludged in Photoshop. Does it work ? Not really but it was seriously fun to do and that's all that really matters these days 😊 #Scifi #ScifiArt

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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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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Periodically on my spaceflight advance planning history blog No Shortage of Dreams I post links to related posts in chronological order. Here is one such post containing links to posts on proposed Apollo-derived post-Apollo space programs, 1965-69. spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2020/07/chro...

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 28/09/2026

These are what the clouds on Jupiter look up close. The small patches of white are cloud tops, soaring above the main, colourful cloud layer. Image from NASA's Juno spacecraft during its 38th close approach to Jupiter on 29 November 2021, processed by Kevin Gill (@kevinmgill.bsky.social)

A complex, swirling pattern of lighter and darker clouds. One large system, angled to the upper left in this scene, is a tawny brown colour and is elongate. Another, more circular storm system is at lower centre, and is a grey–greenish colour. The background swirls are various shades of grey to blue; small, white features dot the scene.

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Don Davis @ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Sunset of September 27, 2026 was an epic spectacle whose intensity and beauty were memorable. The cloud ceiling had a wide opening toward the West that admitted Sunlight which underwent progressive color changes as it briefly in turn illuminated layers of otherwise invisible cloud textures.

The Sunset of September 27th, 2026 was one of the greatest visions the sky has ever opened up and revealed to me. It was a sunset like few I can remember in many years. I knew early on what was likely as a heavy cloud ceiling was opening up far to the West with the underside textures in that part of the cloud ceiling catching the light early on from the distant sunlit clouds.

Vast connected cloud formations were in turn bathed in the last sunlight which progressively turned from a golden to orange to very red, in as pure a spectral filtering of Sunlight as I can recall seeing. One layer of cloud formations after another caught the light as the rays steadily angled upwards. The most distant yellow gold clouds were dazzling, like incandescent molten gold that defied photography. Lower layers were bathed in the reddest light that contrasted in hue with the more orange colors in the illuminated parts of the broken cloud ceiling above. Wide areas of the field of view were thus illuminated, appearing and fading one after the other like a parade of vast apparitions coming and going.

The last lit clouds gave up their lurid radiance reluctantly and with a very red final flourish. But the brilliance was still happening, withdrawing beyond the Western horizon as Earth's rotation carried us into the realm of the night. The Sunset lit clouds far away were still in itself illuminating clouds nearby. From their altitude the brilliance and colors along the horizon hundreds of miles away dominate the ambient lighting. This brought an extended 'echo' of the Sunset as every cloud surface facing West shone with that fading lurid glow, like a long slowly fading piano note after a great symphony.

I have seen many hundreds of Sunsets and sunrises, but something about this one struck me as almost like a kind of religious experience. Awestruck wonder and numbly bathing in the experience while periodically trying to preserve a visual record.

An all sky frame of the Sunset of September 27, 2026. Canon 6D with a fisheye lens. I now shoot most such sequences aimed straight up to show the entire horizon. Unfortunately due to a technical issue this became the first frame of the time lapse sequence, but I did get the extended 'afterglow'.

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Lewis @siwelthelongboi.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you'd told me this was a model shot from the era I'd have believed you.

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

Thank you! It's kind of why I spent months (a long time ago) trying to recreate 2001 shots. YouTube commenters accuse me of thinking I'm better, I just want to learn from the masters!

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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

Another one for lightwavers: Here's a systematic workflow to tell where the noise is coming from. docs.lightwave3d.com/2025/removin... The article does NOT cover best practice in surfacing or lighting, but It will certainly help you narrow things down.

docs.lightwave3d.com

Removing Noise Workflow | LightWave

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GrahamTG @grahamtg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm tired, it's been a long week, and I'm making silly mistakes. A colour tweaked version 2 before I head off to bed.

A small blue spider-legged robot (a Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell) crouches in a beige corridor beside a glowing pale-green panel, peering with large round eyes toward an open hatchway further down the hall. Yellow hazard stripes and a "LEVEL 01" sign mark the wall above. Text in the corner reads "Tachikoma".

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Virgopunk @virgopunk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I don't think O'Neil was ever more 'off the chain' than in that series. Agree with Chris W., it needs a black and white reprint.

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CiCi @cici6923.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Damn right! I still have this copy somewhere (don't ask what happened to the rest of the collection, its too harrowing).

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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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Pedro Nunes @pedronunes.net · 26/09/2026

Anything can be improved by adding one more pipe.

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