The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller

: rendered at 12,000 X 9,000 :

Last year I wrote about who I thought was the Star of Redlands…

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12/5/2005 || 11:38 pm
Star of Marquette High School

: rendered at 10,000 X 7,500 :

My Alma Mater… As stated before, I’d like to donate this one

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12/4/2005 || 11:30 pm
Star of Woodson High School

: rendered at 10,000 X 7,500 :

Hmmmm, when doing series such as this one, I’m realizing I don’t have enough to talk about when it comes to the rendering itself. It’s like once I have used the imagery for the first time, I don’t have much else to say about the next rendering that uses the same imagery. The only exception is when there is some geographic identifer that makes rendering A different from rendering B. Such is the case for this recent batch of from the Star Series. Its like I can talk for hours about them as whole, and have in the past, but unless I use new imagery or projection I don’t have much to say after the first rendering. I guess I need to think why I am making the renderings a bit more thoroughly.

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12/3/2005 || 5:20 pm
Star of the George Washington University

: rendered at 10,000 X 7,500 :

So I have made quite a few quilt renderings lately. To be honest, these multi-planar maps are my favorite to make, and because of this, I tend to make more them compared to the rest of the projections I’ve worked on.

Beginning with this rendering, I am going to relate the star of to education (be the star of your school!), and the next few will be dedicated to schools. Up next is Woodson High School in Washington, DC and following that will be my alma mater, Marquette High School. Ideally, I’d like to donate prints of these to the schools.

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10/30/2005 || 11:46 am
Star Series - BETA

Beta release of the Star Series Image Overlay KML file for Google Earth.
Click here to download the zipped up KML file

Instructions:
Unzip the file, drag starseries.kml file to your desktop, and double click on it to lauch Google Earth

Once loaded into Google Earth, the layer will download the maps from the Star Series hosted on my website. On the Places Panel the folder titled “Star Series” will be placed. Clicking on the triangle next to the folder you can expand and collapse the contents of the folder. By clicking on the “Send Comment” link, the blog entry in which the map is referenced will load up in the Google Earth web browser allowing you to leave a comment on my blog. By adjusting the transparency of the map overlay, you can find the area on the ground which was as a guide.

The Alpha release will have icons instead of overlays to facilitate the navigation of my maps. Within each icon will be a link for the overlay of the map.

Known Issues:
Due to large size of the maps, Google Earth might slow down considerably after they are loaded.
Google Earth’s browser is based off of Internet Explorer and my website does not show up as how I’d like it to.

Please provide me with feedback!

3/20/2005 || 9:38 pm
Star of Baltimore

So I found out after looking very closely at the embedded signature I added to the source imagery of Baltimore, and after two renderings, I realized that I spelled my name wrong! NIKOLLAS SCHILLER… I have subsequently deleted and rerendered the scenes. I think I might keep the “Abstract Baltimore” the way it is with the mispelling, because afterall, it’s supposed to be Abstract. In other news, on saturday I framed two more of my renderings, and I must say they look wonderful on the wall!

2/10/2005 || 10:00 pm
DC Molecule

I used the same source image as I used for my last rendering and mapped it as a texture on to the “star of..” series template and then I animated a fly-through…looks pretty good. So good that I included not one, but threee screen shots of the animation.

Image Links to Flash Player:

2/2/2005 || 4:45 am
Star of Europe

This rendering turned out well, but I still like Star of the Middle East slightly more. There isn’t enough color variation in this rendering, but as with the rest of the renderings, I can’t wait to get it printed out. Yesterday I discovered that I can get a $1,000 grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, so I’m definitely going to write up a statement of need in the next couple weeks!

1/27/2005 || 11:01 pm
Star of Denver

Looks like I made another beautiful creation! Of course the 1200X800 pixels above do no justice for the original 20000X15000 pixels, but the way the aerial photograph was captured gives some beautiful symmetry. The straight grid streets line up nicely, and the shadows of the late day photograph make the buildings look larger than life. I already know who is getting the first print of this one

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There have been two prints of this map. The first was given to Joseph Kerski, Geographer at the USGS in the spring of 2005 and the second was sold during the fall of 2005 to a relative of former professor.

1/18/2005 || 11:03 pm
Star of the Middle East #2

This is my first redesign of the “star of..” series. I added two more rings and now it almost looks like a molecule! I think its absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to get it printed!!

12/13/2004 || 1:01 am
Star of DC

I realized I hadn’t made a “star of..” DC yet! So I used the template and slightly changed the way the image is mapped on to the surface and I kinda like the way it turned out. What’s even better is the new computer I got from work (1.7 mhz w/ 512 RAM laptop) can churn out a rendering in a fraction of the time! This means more posters and faster turnaround. However, I am still figuring out how I am going to port all the files from the laptop to the my iMac…

11/20/2004 || 3:48 pm
Star of Saint Louis

I snagged this satellite image of downtown Saint Louis from the National Map a long time ago, but for some reason Bryce would not accept it. I ended up tweaking the image the “right way” and now I have another satellite image to use for my renderings:-) I actually want to make a special rendering with this image when I get back from Sioux City, Iowa. I already know the name I am going to use: “Shadow of Greatness”

Why? Well there are 3 shadows represented in the actual image- one visible, two slightly visible. The visible one is the shadow of the Gateway Arch, and the other two are the Eads Bridge and the TWA logo on the dome.

The Gateway Arch is my favorite monument in the world. Topping out at 630 feet, its 75 feet taller than the Washington Monument, but its the message that it carries that I like the most. Its the same message that the Eads Bridge carries as well- the Gateway to the West.

The Eads Bridge was the first bridge built over the Mississippi River and it was also the first bridge to have both rail and human traffic. After its completion people & goods could finally go coast to coast. Its now used for the Saint Louis Metrolink and the first stop in Illinois is the Casino Queen(also a shadow of a casino!). You gotta love mass transit that takes you places- like casinos!

As for theTWA logo, it has since been replaced with the Edward Jones logo and the airlines, which was once one of the largest airlines in the world, has been purchased by American Airlines. My father has worked for TWA/AA since 1994 and I proudly own quite a bit of vintage TWA apparel.

I think the image will have one large shadow and use the satellite image, but I’m not sure what primitives to use for the actual rendering… Should look pretty cool though