SKYLAB CHAT

[skylab]

Andy is taking a ride on the new bike freebie at Rendo

MOTOR ROLLER

 

[Terre]

Good morning.
Nice to see you having fun.
A couple days ago I clicked on the shortcut for Poser 7 and it did open. I wasn't sure how the disk mirroring had gone as far as that program went when I had the computer upgraded but it is fine. If I decide I want to start dong anything again I certainly can. I probably will I just need to come up with something I want to get done.

 

[Miss B]

Come check out our current Leaf Me Alone Render Challenge Terre. That'll give you inspiration to get some rendering done.

 

[skylab]

For DAZ Studio users: As is eventually the case with Studio plug-ins, the once pricey Garibaldi Express hair system plug-in for DAZ Studio has been reduced to freeware since it no longer works with Iray, or the Genesis 3 (M8 and V8) figures. So that's one more DS plug-in to end up on the obsolete heap. Anyway, Garibaldi will still work with Genesis 1 and 2 (Michael 6) and most of the DAZ animals, so go here to register for a free copy of Garibaldi Express for DAZ Studio 4.5 or later. Again, the hair will render in 3Delight, but not in Iray.

Once you have the serial number emailed to you, go to this link to download free presets for human hair and mane for the Mil Big Cat.

 

[skylab]

This brief video overview below of how 3D will change over the next five years, by Blender guru Andrew Price, is worth viewing. I've been thinking that the gaming industry was on a self-destruct course if it continued to be so costly, and he addresses this with his discussion of computer generated assets. Also, computer generated animation can be pulled from video, eliminating the need for motion capture. So, as with "real world" jobs that require one to either work fast or work smart in order to survive automation, 3D will be similar, with entirely different tools. Sometimes I have to use scriptural concepts to illustrate, because that's what comes naturally to me...in this case, it's the idea of trying to put new wine into old wine skins...they will burst and make a mess. Professional 3D art of the future will be less about traditional art, and more about computer programming...that is, typing in parameters, or even speaking into the program what we want it to generate, saving time and money. While DAZ especially has been racing toward the gaming industry, I've been wondering in the back of my mind how long this party could last, especially if they tried to drag all the costly Vicky and multi-Genesis baggage alongside, with its expensive and time-consuming incompatibilities. Andrew's talk brings all of this "now, or past thinking" into perspective with a glimpse at how things will be done in five or 10 years....that is, instead of buying Vicky and all that goes with her, one will just "speak" a description of Vicky and she will appear on the screen. Andrew demonstrates this by speaking a description of a bird, and a bird appears. It's a sobering reality check, but nevertheless will help folks to make wise, realistic decisions. One thing for absolute certain...it will take extremely powerful computer systems to perform these tasks, and folks who are gifted at operating them, and who can learn and adapt to changes in 3D software quickly. It's like what we used to say on the job in the 90's...have short term goals, and long term goals, because our technology was changing so rapidly, we were losing people on the turns. Some listened, and were able to stay with it for 15 or 20 more years, others who did not like change retired early. If DAZ and Smith Micro want in to the gaming or 3D movie industry, they'll have to count the cost...short term, and long term. Short term there's still a little time, but long term, not so much....unless folks are more willing to work cheap, and very fast.

 

[skylab]

Finally have gotten the last of my old art work uploaded to the website...everything from sketches, to toons, even a few doodles, and old animations. Here are a couple of samples...a bear, and an early attempt during high school at cartooning. SKETCHBOOK PAGE 1 is Peanuts stuff, and SKETCHBOOK PAGE 2 is what I uploaded this evening.

 

[Janet]

BC! I loved that cartoon!

 

[skylab]

Hey Janet Yep, I did those occasionally. A friend of mine in high school used to do Tumbleweeds (remember those, short with big noses and long faces), and a few others, and I'd do Peanuts and occasionally BC...during English class. We did so many of them, we could've started our own strip I also did a few from MAD Magazine...remember how they used to have tiny mini-cartoons in the margins? It was this sort of thing that inspired my "doodles"...and I kept up doing them even after I was in my 20's and 30's...this one was actually a phone doodle that kept growing...I'd finish one level, and add more stairs whenever I'd get caught on a long phone call...and finally called it simply "Downstairs"...which was similar to MAD's street corner down-with-this and down-with-that themes....haha. I suppose this one could be re-created in 3D. You know the way black birds hang around on telephone lines...I did one large cartoon for Christmas one time that was black birds spelling out Merry Christmas...the "Merry" part is below, but it's too long to post the whole thing I'll try to figure out how to post it on my Sketchbook 2 page. It was about 20 years before Pixar's For the Birds on a phone line, which is one of my favorite shorts... that, and Partly Cloudy is a real hoot

 

[Janet]

I loved Mad Magazine! Though when I would doodle in class it was usually landscapes.

 

[Janet]

I just had to check Mad is still being published but not National Lampoon. I found one of my much older brother's National Lampoons when I was about 10. I hid that thing and would sneak peaks at it when I was alone. I remember being mesmerized by Robert Crumb's style.

 

[Janet]

Oops. Double post.

 

[Miss B]

Oops. Double post.

Deleted.

 

[skylab]

I found the PDF collection of the old MAD magazines from the 60's and 70's...it's great to be able to look back at those. That, and Gary Larson's complete two volume hardbound collection is my stash of humor...haha.

I worked on sticking this together. Originally it was done on huge index sheets, and taped together in sections so it folded up. Through the years the tape had yellowed, so it needed cropping and fixing. Here's the all together version of the holiday black birds on the phone line.

 

[skylab]

Here's a close-up of the Christmas portion of the holiday birds

 

[Terre]

Fun with cartoons.

Sky, a while back you talked about people learning differently. Well, having heard several parents complain about how their kids are being taught math I decided to take a look. If this video

is a good example then what kids are being taught is something I learned myself many years ago due to my problems with memorization making it necessary to find a way around that difficulty. Whether I use the "standard" method or something much like the one in the video depends on the problem I'm needing to solve.

 

[skylab]

What'cha doin'? Congrats Janet...your set has to have the cutest child's promos I've ever seen I searched and searched trying to find the outfit...and concluded that it was something you perhaps made yourself....really cute with the shoes and glasses Now I have a little one in my runtime...and in my face..."are we there yet?"...and "can I have a puppy?"

LUNA PRESCHOOL

 

[skylab]

By the way, I got a kick out of the "antique" desk. It's like what we had in school when I was that age...haha

 

[skylab]

Finally getting my most recent archive additions organized. Everything from the past two years was scattered all over the place on portable storage drives, so finally things are coming together on the larger backup drives, so that I can find it in seconds as opposed to hours. The last two that needed to be done were Maja's stuff and Seachnasaigh's lighting downloads (and procedural animated flames). It appears that Maja's last entry was October of last year...I certainly hope she's doing okay, and hope that she will stop by when she gets time to say hello...just want her to know that we miss her in this thread. Last time she posted, if I remember correctly, she was having job and some health issues. Bless her, and praying for her

Maja

Seachnasaigh

 

[Terre]

That's cute.

I'll add my prayers as well.

 

[skylab]

Hey Terre You mean Janet's Preschool set? Sure enough, cute as cute gets