Bobby Parker 12/4/14 Bobby Parker 12/4/14

Excellent Service

Z Feng Architect recommends Whitebirch Studio.

Interested in working with Whitebirch Studios?

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Bobby Parker 12/2/14 Bobby Parker 12/2/14

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

The ability to create realistic depth in a photograph (rendering), a 2-dimensional plane, is the sign of a good photographer (rendering) When shooting stills or video, it’s an important detail to make sure your shots have depth. Sometimes, however, that is sometimes easier said than done. In the quick, 3-minute video clip below, cinematographer Matthew Rosen, covers his top 5 favorite ways to ensure his image aren’t falling flat. The video is geared towards cinematography and moving pictures, but many of the techniques can be transferred into still photography as well. Well worth a watch even if you never shoot video.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

In the beginning of the clip, Rosen explains why it’s important to have depth in an image, “It’s always my goal when I shoot to give this 2D image as much depth as I possibly can. The more tricks you have up your sleeve to conjure up depth, the more you will immerse your audience.” In order to achieve it, he suggests using these old tricks of the trade:

Lighting And Shadow – Use a higher contrast between light and shadow to create a deeper feel.
Focus – Use a shallow depth of field to create a visual of distance between subjects.
Perspective – Use a perspective that creates a convergence of parallel lines (think leading lines) to simulate a deep depth of field.
Parallax – Objects closest to the camera will appear to move quicker than those in the background.
Occlusion – A type of transition in which a foreground subject completely covers a subject in the background as the camera pans behind the foreground subject.

Let’s listen to Rosen break it down in the video clip:

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Bobby Parker 11/29/14 Bobby Parker 11/29/14

aXYZ HUB THE 3D ASSET BROWSER

As 3D Human Characters & 3D Assets become ever more important in visualizations, animations and illustrations,
we decided to develop a simple tool to improve your workflow!

ORGANIZE AND MANAGE!

With aXYZHUB® you now have a unique and simple way to navigate, choose, catalog and keep clean and organized your 3D Assets in order to optimize your workflow.

WATCH VIDEO!

ADD 3D ASSETS TO YOUR SCENES!

Forget about opening individual files and merge one by one! With aXYZHUB® you can populate your 3D scene within a click. You don't need to remember where your model files are located in your drive. All your 3D Assets are organized and accessible from aXYZHUB®.

RESIZE!

Ohh no! My 3D Assets are in centimeters and my project is in inches! With aXYZHUB® you can forget about scaling issues. All your 3D Rigged Characters and 3D Assets are scaled and ready-to-be-used in your project.

CREATE PRESETS!

Save hours of your precious time! You can create ready-to-use
presets of 3D Characters and Assets to simply merge in your scene each time you need them.

RENDERING READY!

If you work with V-Ray, Mental Ray or Thea, you are able to set up your converted model's versions to be directly accessible from aXYZHUB® and ready to be rendered!

KEEP YOUR CATALOG UPDATED!

Each time AXYZ publishes a new character, aXYZHUB® will inform you. This way, each time you start a new Arch Viz project you will have the ability to evaluate if the new product additions are suitable for your project!

FEATURES HIGHLIGHTS

ORGANIZE AND MANAGE

With aXYZHUB® you can have a unique and simple way to navigate, choose, catalog and keep clean and organized your 3D Assets in order to optimize your workflow.

ADD 3D ASSETS TO YOUR SCENES

Forget about opening individual files and merge one by one! With aXYZHUB® you will be able to populate your 3D scene within a click. You will not need to remember where your model files are located in your drive. All your assets will be organized and accessible from aXYZHUB®.

RESIZE

Ohh no! My 3D Assets are in centimeters and my project is in inches! With aXYZHUB® you can forget about scaling issues. All your 3D Rigged Characters and 3D Assets will be scaled and ready-to-be-used in your project.

CREATE PRESETS

Save hours of your precious time! You can create ready-to-use presets of 3D Characters and Assets to simply merge in your scene each time you need them.

RENDERING READY

If you work with V-Ray, Mental Ray or Thea, you will be able to set up your converted models versions to be directly accessible from aXYZHUB® and ready to be rendered!

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Bobby Parker 11/26/14 Bobby Parker 11/26/14

Forest Pack Pro v4.3.0 beta

New level of detail and visibility triggers. See the feature list.

New features and changes:

Forest LOD (Level of Detail).
- A new type of object, "ForestLOD", is used to define levels of detail. Once created, assign it as Custom Object in Forest.
- Visibility triggers by Distance to camera or Screen size.
- Support for billboards and geometry.
- Custom materials.
- LOD properties can be adjusted in Camera rollout.

Forest Pack 4.3 Beta - Level of Detail from iToo Software on Vimeo.

Added Areas->Limit by Surface Material ID.
Areas->Falloff Affect is splitted in Density and Scale values.
Forest Tools->Data exporter to XML files.
Added General->Disable Pop-ups: turns off all suggestions and warning messages, except critical errors (this option is global and persistent).
Geometry->Get Size from Library is removed and enabled by default.
Geometry->Global Size parameters are removed, although they are accessible by Maxscript ("globs¡ze", "width", "height")
Geometry->Use Object Dimensions is replaced by local Scale parameter.
New Display->Proxy model: Arrow (non-symmetrical)
Added Display->Disable Object.
Forest Tools->Instantiate copies User Properties, Object ID and wireframe color from the source object.

Library:

16 new presets: Gravel, including detail and large scale models.
Added materials for Corona Renderer.

Fixes:

Fixed problem of Exclude areas with Inverted Falloff Curves.
Fixed issues with Distribution->Diversity Map and UV Surfaces.
Fixed rare problem related to missing Surfaces on load.
Fixed minor issues in Maxscript functions.
Fixed potential crashing bug on Forest cloning.
Forest Color ignores status of Override checkbox when using Tint by Element.
Added Undo support to Geometry->Copy/Paste operations.

Registered customers of Forest Pack Pro can download the upgrade from User Panel->Beta versions

Image by State of Art Academy

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Bobby Parker 11/20/14 Bobby Parker 11/20/14

Autodesk's Featured 3D Artist

There are a million stories. Tell us yours.

Share your best work with the AREA community and tell us the story behind your creations.

I am proud to share with you an Autodesk Artist blog that I was featured in. Several months ago I received a call from Autodesk, requesting an interview for a featured story on a new "Tell Us Your Story" blog, over on the Autodesk Area website. Of course, I was excited to speak with them, and the featured post has now gone live.

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Bobby Parker 11/18/14 Bobby Parker 11/18/14

My Freelance Tools

There are a lot of resources for freelancers and believe me, I have tried them all. After many years in the business, these are the tools that have floated to the top of my freelance tools.

Save Time Billing

FreshBooks customers spend less time on paperwork, freeing up 2 days per month to focus on the work they love. What would you do with that extra time?

Grow Your Business

FreshBooks is built to support the needs of growing businesses. On average, FreshBooks customers double their revenue in the first 24 months. Woot!

Get Paid Faster

With FreshBooks, you can easily invoice clients from your desk or on the go. In fact, FreshBooks customers are paid an average of 5 days faster.

EVERNOTE BUSINESS

Where great ideas converge

Secure, flexible sharing
Room for projects to grow
Access to everyone's knowledge

Powerful CRM
Manage contacts, organizations, partners, vendors and suppliers. See everything from background, email history, events, projects or opportunities. More
Project Management
Make sure you’re on top of your project at every stage – track project activity and performance against milestones. More
Powerful Integration
Integration with email, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Apps, MailChimp, QuickBooks Online, QuoteRoller, Torpio, Zapier, and more. More
Macro or Micro View
Look at your business any way you want with task dashboard, activity sets, reports and more. More
Go Mobile
Supporting iPhone and Android phones and popular tablets, the Insightly mobile app has you covered. More
Social CRM
We’ll detect virtually every social media profile related to a contact’s email address. More

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Bobby Parker 11/11/14 Bobby Parker 11/11/14

Photoshop on a Chromebook

In partnership with Google, Adobe is proud to introduce Project Photoshop Streaming, a new technology beta. Initially, this beta will be available exclusively to select North America based Adobe education customers with a paid Creative Cloud membership.

Project Photoshop Streaming enables selected participants to access Photoshop on Chromebooks. Applications delivered via streaming are easy to access and easy to manage. Even better, streaming apps work directly with files in Google Drive, so no need to download and re-upload files - just edit directly in the cloud.

Project Photoshop Streaming includes:

Creative tools: Streaming access to Photoshop with other products coming soon
Access from any Windows device with a Chrome browser or from a Chromebook
Learning tools: Access to Adobe Education Exchange learning content and an in-app Learning panel called 'Learn Now'
Project Photoshop Streaming Feedback and Forum support

Project Photoshop Streaming is an exclusive program. If you are interested in applying, please review the eligibility requirements and application process and submit your application here.

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Bobby Parker 11/11/14 Bobby Parker 11/11/14

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF REQUIRING A DEPOSIT

Two important things happen when you say to your client: “I’ll need 50%, up front, to start the work and the balance is due when the work is completed.”

You are viewed as professional: Your client now sees you as a person who has payment policies in place. They respect you, and they are clear on what you expect and how it’s going to go.
A commitment is formed: Your client is fully committed when they pay a deposit. When some one pays a deposit towards something, they are making a commitment to the project. It’s a psychological thing. Without a deposit, there is no real commitment from your client. It’s like buying plane tickets. My trip to Chicago last year was just talk until I plunked down the $500 for plane tickets. Once that money was paid, it was a reality. We were fully committed.

Don’t begin the work without a commitment from your client in the form of a deposit

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Bobby Parker 11/7/14 Bobby Parker 11/7/14

The best one-minute animation you'll see all year

This brilliant short shows just how little time you need to entertain and make a point.

It takes real skill to entertain an audience for over an hour with a CG animation. But in a way, doing so in little over a minute is even more challenging. And here's an example of an animated short that does just that – combining brilliant 3D craft, a clever script and an unexpected ending with fabulous results.

It's the creation of House Special, a spin-off company fromLaika, the Portland animation studio behind such quirky feature films as The Boxtrolls. And it's already won a ton of awards, including Best Minute Movie at Animation Block Party in Brooklyn, Short Film Silver at The Australian Effects and Animation Festival, and Audience Favorite (3D Animation) at the California International Animation Festival.

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Bobby Parker 11/6/14 Bobby Parker 11/6/14

Procedural UVW layout and texture baking tool for 3dsMax.

The Lazy UVW editor is a way to procedurally create seamless textures without having to unwrap uvs. It accomplishes this by using multiple uvw channels to cover pinching, stretching, or seams of the basic uvw mapping options, and the resulting map may be baked down to one channel if desired.

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