Shaderlight creates a Winter Wonderland, and is now available on Mac

Back in January we told you about Shaderlight, a plug-in for Google SketchUp that helps you create photorealistic renderings from your models.

Back in November they announced the “Winter Wonderland” contest, encouraging users to to render festive image using their impressive plug-in. They recently announced the winners of the contest, all three of whom created some incredible scenes:

First Place: Luke Holdmann: Milwaukee, WI, USA

wheel.jpg

Second Place: Abedallah: Christchurch, New Zealand

cabin.jpg

Third Place: Zoungy: USA

sleigh.jpg

Shaderlight is an amazing plug-in, and it’s really starting to show the power behind Google SketchUp. The only downside to Shaderlight was that it has only been available on Windows, but just a few days ago they finally released a version of the plug-in for Mac. They had promised it “sometime in March” and delivered on March 1. Impressive!

Have you tried out Shaderlight yet?

Connecting Christchurch’s Earthquakes

Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake near Christchurch, NZ (Earth Observatory)

With this map, Earth Observatory connects the two major earthquakes to hit Christchurch, New Zealand:

This map shows the earthquakes that occurred near Christchurch since September 3, 2010. On that day a magnitude 7.1 quake struck to the west of Christchurch. Black circles represent earthquakes from September 3, 2010, until February 21, 2011. Red circles show the locations of the magnitude 6.3 quake and aftershocks on February 22 and the morning of February 23. Larger circles represent stronger earthquakes. Yellow shows urban areas, including Christchurch.