About DigitalByNature

This site was created to allow me, Lincoln Patz, to showcase the custom wallpaper art that I render using various 3d rendering programs. I also post-process them in other 2d and compositing software packages.

I have been working with digital media since 1999, after I graduated from college with a business degree, then came back home and went to work at a company to produce their website. Everything I had to do for this company was self taught web design. The needs covered all aspects of their site, including custom graphics, which was my favorite part of the job.

A few years later, I was hired as a creative services director at a web site and hosting company, where I steadily honed my skills in various graphics software products like Adobe Photoshop (certified in April of 2001), Illustrator, and Flash.

Also in April of 2001, a coworker showed me images that he rendered from a program called Terragen. I couldn't believe how photo-realistic it looked. (Note: I know that Terragen is not the tool of choice for most 3d graphics professionals and such is probably looked down upon by the industry. But for a novice 3d user like myself, this was just a first step into a brand new world - the world of 3d - and I am grateful for that.) I downloaded the product and was amazed at what I was able to render. The result was an image that led to six more rendered within a week. I showed them to some friends and coworkers and they loved them.

So, I decided to set up my own little spot on the web. I have been making web sites for 4 years then, and I so wanted to set one up for myself. The problem was that I never had a good reason or idea to make a site of my own until then.

I set up Naturally-Digital.com to be the place to show my work. Four months, and 70 wallpapers later, I purchased DigitalByNature.com to become the new home for my artwork. On September 1st, DigitalByNature.com was set up, and has steadily been growing since.

In the summer of 2003, after contemplating about going back to school for computer graphics, I finally decided to attend a computer animation school in Florida. I started my higher education in computer animation in late October of 2003.

Being a student with no job then prompted me to seriously consider shutting down this site as I would have a really hard time to support it financially. An option that I had been toying with was the set up a membership area of the site which would showcase ALL of the wallpapers that I had done since the beginning.

Then in the spring of 2004, after creating my wallpaper art for 3 years to the day, I set up a special members only area which I call, the "Vault". Inside the Vault lies - or will contain - every image and wallpaper that I have produced and made available.

Last year, I graduated from a computer animation school in Florida, and I moved back home to Wisconsin where I am a webmaster at a manufacturing company.

I am still in process of converting the old images to my higher standards before posting them in the membership gallery. It's a rather long and tedious process; but it will definitely be worth it. Please keep coming back as I continually make updates to this site, and post new images in the free and paid for galleries. That's my story for now. I hope I didn't bore you too much. :-) Thanks for your support!

(Updated June 2006)