Merry Xmas 2025

It's a Merry Xmas to you all from Pottsblog towers where I've been conjuring up a festive illustration and animation in the studio chimney. This Christmas it's, naturally, all about the souped-up Santa space cruiser and matching reindeer capsules circling a cosmic tree with orbiting planet baubles and a nifty worm-ho-ho-hole star topper. Shown here is the final animation, created in Cinema 4d/Redshift and After Effects, a front/back card design put together in Photoshop and a process shot of the untextured 3d models. You can also see this up on the main website here with other illustration and motion treats to check out. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in '26.

The First Stars

Here's my latest cover illustration for BBC Science Focus on the theme of the hunt for the First Stars and how they are Lost in Space. The brief was to depict these mysterious first stars based on descriptions from the article so I worked through various interpretations, posted here, to send over and get the process started. As can often be the case the first 'first star' visualisation was chosen to develop as it conveyed more of a sense of a consuming gas ball rather than an emitter. I refined the digital illustration, made with Cinema 4d/Redshift and lots of Photoshop texture compositing, and ended up with the chosen final plus a more wispy alternate version, also above. Thanks to Joe Eden for another great commission. See further Focus work on the site here.

Thirsty AI

Here's a new cover illustration for the University of California, Riverside's UCR Magazine on the 'Unquenchable Thirst of AI' and the alarming reliance on fresh water by Big Tech companies. The brief was to depict the large waste of fresh water used in cooling AI server systems and its environmental impact in particular. I presented a few first visuals, shown here, featuring a leaky AI server bucket, a data centre waterfall with the researcher Shaolei Ren, and water rushing down an AI drain. The drain idea was chosen and I expanded the concept to include the power stations, servers and environments that get impacted by the water waste. The illustration was created digitally with a drain/plughole created in Cinema 4d and composited with elements in Photoshop. Thanks to Jessica Weber for the enjoyable commission. See it on the main site here also.

Car Talk

Here's a little catch up on some commissions for longtime client Car And Driver magazine from the last year. The most recent was for an article on the state of data-hungry connected vehicle technologies such as OnStar in the US. The illustration was designed to work for a specific page layout with floating elements and a full bleed background as well as a more open online format. The second was also an unusual vertical format for a rather niche sidebar tracing the history of Mercedes Benz naming schemes since the first vehicle in 1886. Always enjoyable commissions, thanks to Darin Johnson and Nicole Lazarus for these. See more Car And Driver work on the site here.