When he's not fighting crime or battling off-world clones, Archangel Gabriel is Daniel Scott Gabriel Murray, living in Central Maine USA. Father of 2 and a third by Acquisition, I am 39 years old and married to the beautiful Tracy Ann. My history contains many lives. Art school droogie, concert audio engineer, police officer and then back around again to graphic design. (Go figure that chain out..) My life has taken many interesting and adventurous turns. Currently I'm employed as a [Title] Senior Graphics and Web Designer for an outsourcing technical support company. And, as mentioned, I'm living in central Maine, but the process has begun to relocate to Southern California. Why,.? Just because. I've been working with digital media since the Commodore 64 was released. With a solid background in traditional mediums I found (then) digital drawing platforms were clanky and brutish. But, with the release of Photoshop 2.5 beta and armed with my blistering fast DX2-33 AND a whopping 12 meg of RAM, I discovered that digital was evolving very fast. From Photoshop I then discovered Visual Reality, a low end but workable tool for true 3d Model creation and rendering. The process has lead onto poser 2, then 3 and finally 4. The same evolution has lead up through the Bryce releases and onto Strata Studio 3D and 3D Studio MAX. Currently I'm working on a series of posters based upon the classic comic heroes from when I was young(er). Also slated, I've done the preliminary work on a series based on the Hanna Barbara cartoon series from the 1960's. Back when cartoons were made for their own sake, not to hawk action figures. (Renderosity: Why do you like 3D art?) Why?, Because it allows me to see things I wouldn't normally see otherwise. Example: many times I've started a project with a particular posed/set/form in mind. And often, quite by accident, I'll fiddle with a camera or a light and POOF completely new angle and concept, often taking me into a completely new direction. 3D also allows me to create world and feelings difficult to translate into 2D mediums. For work I use Photoshop 6 daily. I've found very little that it cannot do. For my personal projects, I use a combination of Poser 4, Bryce 4, Photoshop and Painter 6. They allow me to create the characters from my youth and give them life in a matter of hours rather than spending (literally) weeks drawing and airbrushing. I tend to stick to the Michael and Victoria models for poser. I need the Hi-Res for close-up work. The general release Poser models are ok for long shots but they then to lose something in close. Everything inspires me. Comics, classical sculpture, Mozart, Peter Gabriel, Van Gogh, Ed Wood, Ridley Scott, The Bible, The Bagavadgitta, the Quran, The book of the Dead, you name it, I'm inspired by it, Old Star Trek, 50's B movies, Blade Runner and an imagination that never shuts off. My mind is constantly in motion. Ask my wife, it drives her nutty. Working and posting with Renderosity has allowed me thousands of sets of eyes to note and critique projects I create. Although perhaps only 10% of what I do gets posted (Many commercial projects never are seen) it allows folks to point out errors or glitches that I fail to notice OR how a particular part of an illustration can be made differently or better. Plus I get to share images for viewers to enjoy. Which, ultimately, is the best part. Visit Archangel_Gabriel's Gallery (click here)