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Bobby Parker 8/30/14 Bobby Parker 8/30/14

5 Pro Editing Tips from the Master of Tight Deadlines

Working in a job that requires you to meet constant deadlines is a demanding activity. Yet, some people thrive in this sort of environment, especially when they know some of the tricks to meeting deadlines. Have you got what it takes?

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Bobby Parker 8/29/14 Bobby Parker 8/29/14

19th Century Painting Rendered In 3D Is Aesthetically Awesome

Don't you love when old and new come together to create something wonderful?

Hungarian graphic artist Zsolt Ekho Farkas was on vacation with his wife when she pointed out Gyula Benczúr's painting "Budavár repossession" in a booklet and asked him if he could render it in 3D. Challenge accepted!

Watch in this video as 21st century technology is applied to the 19th century painting to create an aesthetically awesome and mesmerizing work of digital art. If you'd like to learn more about Farkas' other work, be sure to visit his website here.

Bobby Parker 8/28/14 Bobby Parker 8/28/14

Read My Interview with Houseplanology

See It & Sell It: Professional Architectural Illustration with Bobby Parker

By: The Houseplanologist

Architecture is a competitive business. There are thousands of talented designers out there, and selling your concepts, or choosing between different plans if you’re a home buyer, is a lot like other parts of life: it all starts with great presentation. That’s where architectural illustration comes in. A beautiful rendering is like great package design – it attracts attention and teases out buyer curiosity. But it’s also part of the product itself. Effective illustrations breathe life and zest into building plans, firing up the imagination and bringing depth of understanding to those of us who struggle to see an architect’s vision without additional help.

Minnesota-based architectural illustrator Bobby Parker has many years experience in architectural rendering and kindly spared a bit of time to fill us in on some of the aspects of working in this rapidly changing field:

H: HI BOBBY – CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS AN ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATOR – HOW DID YOU GET STARTED AND IS THERE A PARTICULAR AREA THAT YOU SPECIALIZE IN?

BP: I’ve always drawn; from my earliest childhood memories, I was drawing. I remember during middle school, we did an occupational survey. We answered questions, and it told us what career path we should follow. Mine was architecture. So naturally I pursued architecture in college, but after a couple years I knew it wasn’t for me; we just didn’t draw enough! So, I became an architectural illustrator. At first it was a hobby, but since I worked in the architectural industry, my art skill was appreciated. I started off with pencil and paper and now I produce photo-real architectural renderings.

Image: ‘The House in the Woods’, Exterior Photo-Real Rendering (Bobby Parker)

H: I GUESS THE DAYS OF HAND DRAWN ILLUSTRATION ARE ALMOST GONE, WITH ALL THE TECHNOLOGY AROUND. ARE YOU 100% FOCUSED ON DIGITAL RENDERING, OR DO YOU STILL GET REQUESTS FOR HAND DRAWN WORK?

BP: I’m 100% digital, but by combining the fundamentals of art with the most current industry technology, I can now create photo-real architectural renderings. I do have a home studio that is stocked and ready to go, with pencils and paper, but I haven’t had the courage to get back to drawing.

H: WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION IS GENERALLY NEEDED TO CREATE A RENDERING?

BP: I’ve worked from napkin sketches to construction documents, so I’m flexible. I do find that the more freedom I’m given, the better my work is, and I think my clients would agree.

Image: ‘The Empire Office’, Interior Photo-Real Rendering (Bobby Parker)

H: PROFESSIONAL ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION ALWAYS GRABS MY ATTENTION ON THE HOUSE PLAN SITES, AND I CAN IMAGINE THAT IT WOULD INCREASE THE MARKETABILITY OF A HOUSE PLAN ENORMOUSLY – WHAT KIND OF COSTS ARE INVOLVED FOR AN ARCHITECT OR DESIGNER WHO WANTS TO UTILIZE THAT KIND OF OPTION FOR THEIR WORK?

BP: We are very visual beings. Although the trained person, for the most part, can see their intent in their own minds-eye, most lay people can’t. We, as architectural illustrators, have the task of helping the lay person see what the designer sees. I think a great architectural rendering is worth its weight in gold. It would cost a homeowner more to move one window or wall than it would to acquire a well done architectural rendering. Most people only build one house in their life, and it’s usually their dream home, so it’s worth the investment. Now, to place a dollar figure on it would be difficult because each project is different.

H: WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO’VE HAD A DRAFTSPERSON PREPARE PLANS FOR THEIR DREAM HOME BUT WANT TO BE ABLE TO VISUALIZE THEIR PROJECT MORE FULLY BEFORE COMMITTING – DO YOU WORK WITH THAT KIND OF CLIENTELE AS WELL?

BP: Surprisingly, I have had many homeowners over the past year contract me to create an architectural illustration because their hired architect didn’t have the talent in-house. Most firms have draftspeople, but few have artists.

Image: ‘The Red Wood Crystal Kitchen’, Interior Photo-Real Rendering (Bobby Parker)

H: IS THERE A ‘SIGNATURE STYLE’ IN YOUR WORK – PARTICULAR TECHNIQUES OR INFLUENCES YOU LIKE TO INCORPORATE?

BP: I love light and shadow, so you’ll always see a lot of contrast in my work. Generally, I use contrast to draw the viewer into my image, and ultimately to the image’s focal point.

H: AND FINALLY, ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION IS SUCH A SPECIALIZED AREA – DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR ANYONE THINKING OF PURSUING IT AS A CAREER?

BP: Learn basic art fundamentals. Most renderings you see now are done by the office tech because it’s software after all that’s being used, but that’s a huge mistake. Study art first and learn the software afterwards. There is art science behind a good architectural rendering. Although good software is important, it’s the artist that makes the magic happen.

Image: ‘Butterfly Window Box’ (Bobby Parker)

Bobby Parker 8/27/14 Bobby Parker 8/27/14

3DS MAX on a Chromebook

Google, VMware, and NVIDIA were on hand at VMworld 2014 to show off a collaborative effort utilizing VMware Blast Performance and NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology. The result will be high performance virtual desktops and workstation-class graphics for Chromebooks.

Imagine getting hardware-accelerated graphics, and at the same time, enjoying the flexibility of a virtual environment. With the flexibility of the Chromebook, manufacturers can design complex 3D models and share them with engineers around the globe. Applications such as Adobe Illustrator CC, Autodesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Office will have no trouble running smoothly in this virtual environment.

“We are breaking down traditional barriers to adopting virtual desktops and offering new economics for the delivery of graphics-intensive applications through the power of the cloud,” said Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “Organizations of all industries and requirements will soon be able to embrace the mobile-cloud using a solution that offers a new way to work from three proven industry leaders.”

Chromebooks featuring NVIDIA Tegra K1-processors will be among the first ones to get access to this technology. An early access program will become available in Q4 2014, but users will need to register.

What do you guys think? I think we are starting to see what Google’s vision was with the Chromebook.

Bobby Parker 8/26/14 Bobby Parker 8/26/14

Zink Render - Google Cloud Rendering

Google today announ ced that it has acquired Zync Render, a service that makes it easier for movie studios to render their visual effects in the cloud. The technology was used to render effects in movies like Star Trek: Into Darkness and Looper, for example. Google will use the technology to make it easier for studios to use its Cloud Platform infrastructure to render their creations.

Currently, ZYNC is optimized for work on Amazon’s EC2 service, but Google will now integrate it into its Cloud Platform. ZYNC says its technology has been used to produce “over a dozen” feature films and hundreds of commercials, for a total of 6.5 million core hours of rendering time.

As Google notes today, it typically takes a very powerful infrastructure to render the special effects in a movie. Most studios have their own render farms for this. Those studios would only need a cloud service to sometimes burst their capacity to finish a job faster. Others, however, don’t have access to their own servers (or don’t want to deal with them), and for them, the cloud is the only way to render their effects.

Google says it will offer studios per-minute billing, but otherwise, the company remains pretty quiet about its exact plans for this service. The ZYNC team itself notes that it believes that “the scale and reliability of Google Cloud Platform will help us offer an even better service to our customers — including more scalability, more host packages and better pricing (including per-minute billing).”

It’s worth noting that Amazon has regularly positioned its platform as a solution for rendering visual effects, too. Indeed, it currently features a case study aroundAtomic Fiction‘s work on Star Trek: Into Darkness — the same movie ZYNC also worked on. Microsoft, too, has occasionally brought up its cloud’s suitability for this kind of work.

Bobby Parker 8/23/14 Bobby Parker 8/23/14

Great Work

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

— Steve Jobs

Bobby Parker 8/23/14 Bobby Parker 8/23/14

You Can Learn Anything

We're on a mission to unlock the world's potential. Most people think their intelligence is fixed. The science says it’s not. It starts with knowing you can learn anything.

Bobby Parker 8/20/14 Bobby Parker 8/20/14

How a boy became an artist

When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was a kid, he didn’t play sports, but he loved art. He paints the funny and touching story of a little boy who pursued a simple passion: to draw and write stories. With the help of a supporting cast of family and teachers, our protagonist grew up to become the successful creator of beloved children’s book characters, and a vocal advocate for arts education. (Filmed at TEDxHampshireCollege.)

Bobby Parker 8/20/14 Bobby Parker 8/20/14

Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2015 software. Extension 1

If you are a 3ds Max customer with Autodesk® Subscription you now have exclusive access to the new tools in Extension 1 for Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2015 software. Extension 1 delivers powerful OpenSubdiv modeling workflows - the top feature request on User Voice - support for the Alembic interchange format, and enhancements to the ShaderFX visual shader editor that helps you more easily create and exchange the complex assets today’s demanding productions require.

New features

OpenSubdiv Support

Efficiently represent subdivision surfaces using OpenSubdiv libraries, open-sourced by Pixar and incorporating technology from Microsoft Research.

Visualize your model interactively without the need to render for a better WYSIWYG experience, greater productivity, and more accurate realization of creative intent.
Get faster in-viewport performance for meshes with high subdivision levels by taking advantage of both parallel CPU and GPU architectures.
Reduce the guesswork when animating models and help shorten production times, with efficient smooth surface representation.
Create complex topology in less time, by taking advantage of efficient crease modeling workflows with CreaseSet modifier and Crease Explorer.
Easily transfer your models to and from certain other packages that support OpenSubdiv using Autodesk® FBX® asset exchange technology and achieve a consistent appearance.

Alembic Support

View massive datasets in the Nitrous Viewport, and transfer them more easily through your production pipeline with new Alembic support.

Work with production-proven technology, co-developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd.
Move complex data through a pipeline in a manageable form: complex animated and simulated data is distilled into a non-procedural, application-independent set of baked geometric results.
Get more from your workstation, with highly efficient use of memory and disk space.
Enjoy faster data transfer and load times, with the ability to export and load only selected geometry.

Enhanced ShaderFX

Get more shading options and better shader interoperability between 3ds Max, Autodesk® Maya® software, and Autodesk® Maya LT TM software.

Create a wider range of procedural materials with new node patterns—wavelines, voronoi, simplex noise, and brick.
Create normal maps from 2D grayscale images with a new bump utility node.
Get faster access to the shaders you need, with a searchable node browser.

Bobby Parker 8/19/14 Bobby Parker 8/19/14

Oculus Rift Development Kit 2

The Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 is the latest development kit for the Oculus Rift with a low-persistence OLED display and low-latency positional head tracking.

Oculus Rift is a game changer for architectural visualization. The experience of walking into a design concept in virtual reality in a Rift can’t be described with words. Everyone who experiences it for the first time is totally blown away, and there’s never any doubt that this technology has far-reaching potential for visualizing buildings and cities.

Bobby Parker 8/17/14 Bobby Parker 8/17/14

Art Quote - Albert Einstein

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on”

— Albert Einstein

Bobby Parker 8/12/14 Bobby Parker 8/12/14

Serious Productivity with the Core i7 Surface Pro 3

Andrew Hill, Director of Mechanical Engineering on the Surface team shows how the power of Surface Pro 3 with a 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor allows Surface Pro to be designed on a Surface Pro. The team can run computationally intensive 3D modeling software on a device that is thin and light and highly portable. They use the pen and OneNote to capture images for later collaboration and are able to seamlessly go from an office setting with multiple displays to work on the go.

Bobby Parker 8/8/14 Bobby Parker 8/8/14

PipeDream - 3DSMAX

Pipe Dream is a script for 3ds Max that generates random sci-fi pipes.

Homepage URL:

http://www.creativetools.se

Download URL:

https://github.com/CreativeTools/ct-pipe-dream/blob/master/README.md

Bobby Parker 8/8/14 Bobby Parker 8/8/14

Desktop-sized Supercomputers by 2020

There is an unending demand for increasing computer processing capabilities, especially for "heavy lifting" tasks such as creating engineering and scientific simulations and finding patterns in "Big Data". Optalysys is revolutionising this area by using light rather than electricity to perform processor intensive mathematical functions at speeds well in excess of what can be achieved with electronics, and at a fraction of the cost and power consumption.

Professor Heinz Wolff is a highly respected scientist and public figure. He is probably best known in the science world as 'inventor' of Bioengineering and to the public for his television and radio work over the years, including such series as BBC's 'The Great Egg Race'. During his career he has worked to make complex science easier to understand.

For more information please visit http://www.optalysys.com
Follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/optalysys
Sign-up for our newsletter http://www.optalysys.com/follow

Bobby Parker 8/6/14 Bobby Parker 8/6/14

3D Object Manipulation

Abstract
Photo-editing software restricts the control of objects in a photograph to the 2D image plane. We present a method that enables users to perform the full range of 3D manipulations, including scaling, rotation, translation, and nonrigid deformations, to an object in a photograph. As 3D manipulations often reveal parts of the object that are hidden in the original photograph, our approach uses publicly available 3D models to guide the completion of the geometry and appearance of the revealed areas of the object. The completion process leverages the structure and symmetry in the stock 3D model to factor out the effects of illumination, and to complete the appearance of the object. We demonstrate our system by producing object manipulations that would be impossible in traditional 2D photo-editing programs, such as turning a car over, making a paper-crane flap its wings, or manipulating airplanes in a historical photograph to change its story.

Bobby Parker 8/6/14 Bobby Parker 8/6/14

Procedural Geometry Creation Tool for 3dsMax

The DebrisMaker2 is the completely free procedural geometry creation tool for 3ds Max, that lets you quickly create objects for your 3D scenes.

With the DebrisMaker2 you can create brick, corrugated metal, crystals, gemstones, snowflakes, grass, gravel, leaves, logs, splinters, meteors, obsidian, pigeons, planks, twigs, river stones, sandstone, shrapnel and slate! You can input parameters to customize the style of your debris, to match your desires.

Bobby Parker 8/5/14 Bobby Parker 8/5/14

A&G DomeLight Pro™ for V-Ray

The A&G DomeLight Pro™ for V-Ray is a powerful V-Ray dome light that acts like a traditional photography light box with full controls over front, back, left, right, top, and bottom. Each side can be mapped with any of the shipping 15 HDRI maps. DomeLight Pro™ can be manipulated to achieve infinite combinations. It also ships with a library of 10 presets to help you get your lighting on point. You also have the ability to save and share your own presets, so you never have to start from scratch again. If that’s not enough, you also get a look development material library and example scenes to help get you started. One light, to rule them all.

Only compatible with 3dsMax 2014 (and above) and V-Ray 2.4 and above. You must have applied ALL Service Packs and/or Product Updates from Autodesk prior to installing the A&G DomeLight Pro™. ALL licenses are node locked. Floating Licenses are not available at this time. For network rendering, run the regular installer (no license necessary) on all network machines. This applies to all expansion packs as well. The A&G DomeLight Pro™ was born from a production environment to make setting up great lighting fast and easy. For V-Ray RT compatibility, please see Chaos groups support page

Introducing the DomeLight Pro for V-Ray! One light. Infinite possibilities. Click HERE to start your download!

Bobby Parker 7/31/14 Bobby Parker 7/31/14

Learn the Basic Elements of Good Design in Under a Minute

Good design isn't the kind of thing that's taught as a core class in most educational systems. However, knowing just a bit about how design works can help you in many jobs. This video gives even a beginner the kickstart they need.

The video above isn't a tutorial so much as a video periodic table of design elements. Each element–like symmetry, negative space, and composition–are demonstrated by themselves in an isolated way. If you don't have any background in design at all, this video may be a good place to start your googling from, if you don't happen to recognize a term or want to know more about it. You can also check out our weekend class on design here.

Bobby Parker 7/30/14 Bobby Parker 7/30/14

Southern California Headquarters Building.

Oakley CEO Colin Baden was the chief architect on Oakley's spectacular Southern California headquarters building. Watch him recount the Beyond Reason experience of designing a landmark.

Bobby Parker 7/29/14 Bobby Parker 7/29/14

What is Autodesk 360?

Autodesk 360 is a project-based collaboration tool that brings the people, data and all of the activities within a project together.
View 2D and 3D files in over 60 file formats, right in your browser. Perform deep search, locating parts and model components embedded in complex designs.
Experience a dramatic improvement in the way you design, visualize, simulate, and share your work-on demand.