Blender as a professional 3D tool?

Obviously before spending thousands on tools like Maya you may wonder if there is anything there that is free and comparable...

Blender since version 2.5 (and 2.6) made HUGE improvements and should be considered a professional tool for 3D artists.

Watch these videos (published 3 years ago):

"Completed only using open source tools in a Linux environment. Blender is the only tool mainly used for production. Only other tool used was GIMP for texture creation. Post production and editing also done inside blender.The renderer is blender internal renderer."

full render 3D office:
http://vimeo.com/12198312
http://vimeo.com/12202062

It took them 70 work days for team of 6 people, 40 work stations, 45 render blade units. They rendered 11,500 frames and cut it down to 7,500.

Maya: moving your point of view side-to-side on Mac with MagicMouse with no MMB

If you are working on Mac with a mouse without MMB (Middle Mouse Button) you may wonder how to get you point of view to move beyond ROTATE (Command-LMB) and ZOOM (Command-RMB).

One of the ways is install the Settings plugin called MagicPref.app and enable MMB with 3-finger press:

Maya: Sculpt Geometry Tool: relaxing the mesh

When I was learning how to work with Maya I got frustrated watching YouTube because it seemed so easily, yet I was destroying the mesh all the time.

Few notes:

• I used "Lasso Tool" to select Vertexes on half of the dress I will work on
• I selected "Smooth Shade All" and "Shadows" and even "high Quality" to see details
• See the pic for details for "Sculpt Geometry Tool" Tools Settings 

Here is a screenshot of settings I use to RELAX the mesh, picture is better than an explanation:

Maya: docking Outliner window

It has been bothering me that Outliner window is free floating, it seems that I could never find a place for it. Since I work on the large external monitor, having it docked inside main Maya window works well for me.

To do this you need to execute this script:

OutlinerWindow; dockControl -area "left"-content outlinerPanel1-label "outliner"-allowedArea "left"-allowedArea "right"-width 250;deleteUI "outlinerPanel1Window" ;

To run this script you open:
(Maya) Window > General Editors > Script Editor

Copy and paste the script and press PLAY (triangle) and that is all.

Here how it looks

Polar bear

Just sitting in a lecture..

resolutions and aspect ratio of video formats and screens

There are quite a few of video formats (standards) that more or less make no sense, here are few examples:

240p, 360p, VGA, NTSC DV, NTSC D1, PAL, 1k Academy, HDTV 720p, HDTV 1080, 2K Academy, 4K Academy

I created a spreadsheet to keep track of the variety.. 

See updated spreadsheet here (access permission needed).

Bottom line is that we now the standard is 1080p and the new standard will be 4K.

Maya 2012: rigging character for animation tutorials

Watch: Primer in rigging in Maya - Part 1 of 2

• Select "Animation" from the drop-down menu
• Select "Animation" tab
• Select Panels > Orthographic > front

• select "joints" tool

LA Events App

LA Events app on the market for iOS and Android. 

LA Events provides users with a variety of exciting city events!

Filter through multiple calendars to find sports games, business conferences, parties, art events, tech meetings, social media, and more!

Global events, such as marathons and mud races can be followed as well. Never miss the opportunity to run a race in multiple cities.

Follow your favorite events on Twitter with #hashtags already included, share using Facebook, Email, SMS and other applications!

Select events to favorites, which adds them to your calendar. Don't forget to set as many reminders as you need.

     

    

    

Download LA Local Events for iOS here: http://bit.ly/LA_events

Download LA Local Events for Android here: LA Events app - Android

Submit your events here :  http://bit.ly/cyber_event

Learning Unity 3D

Killing angry robots.. I mean learning how to create games with Unity 3D.

3D Game Engines review

Today, I was reviewing the game engines and below are few most interesting (masterpieces really) clips I found. Overall, I find Unreal Engine to be the best, but also cost prohibitive and Unity 3D to be pretty much industry standard, total cost about $4,500 (pro, iOS & Android). 

Quantic Dream (studio) for PlayStation 3 (PS3) "Kara"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoYLp8CtXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXBTcg3WeM8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO2rM-l-vdQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvfn1p92_8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsIqZVnidGw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9qQRoew2do

A nice comparison of game engines can be found here.

Local Events apps for iPhone!

Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay Area Event apps are on the market!

                

Whether you're living, or visiting these beautiful cities, the Event apps are a great application to look for activities for any occasion.

The application is designed to enhance your experience in the city with a simple layout displaying multiple events.

Filter through multiple calendars to find sports games, business conferences, parties, art events, tech meetings, social media, and more!

Global events, such as marathons and mud races can be followed as well. Never miss the opportunity to run a race in multiple cities.

Follow your favorite events on Twitter with #hashtags already included, share using Facebook, Email, SMS and other applications!

Select events to favorites, which adds them to your calendar. Don't forget to set as many reminders as you need.



Download Chicago Local Events here:  http://bit.ly/Chi_events_iOS

Download LA Local Events here: http://bit.ly/LA_events

Download San Francisco Bay Area Events here: http://bit.ly/SF_events_iOS

Add your events here:  http://bit.ly/cyber_event