Planet Blender

Thinking About the Future
Arkavision - 2010-04-11 23:02:01

Since canning my bid to go to another school, I will graduate at my local college while continuing to be responsible for my own computer graphics education.  I recognize that I won’t get anywhere using Blender, despite the fact that in purely artistic terms it’s just a tool.  They say that if one wants to work in film, they should learn Maya.  I’ve never liked Maya, but since there’s no way around it, I’ll buy it this summer, along with everything else.

The Autodesk Education Suite includes Maya, 3DS-Max, Softimage, Motionbuilder, and Mudbox, all a perpetual license, all for $350.  I think that’s a great price, and it’s really too good to pass up for a student.

In addition to that, I should probably focus on getting out of college with a degree as soon as I can.  If I save up between now and graduation, I will probably have enough money to relocate to another city – which is necessary if I want a job in computer graphics.

All of last year was spent learning how to drive and buying a car.  Having recently been in a wreck that resulted in the totaling of that car, I’m left wondering if it was worth it.  Of course, I still have my license, and I wasn’t ticketed, but a great deal of money went toward fixing that car.. and now it’s all gone.  I suppose it’s my wakeup call to focus on what really matters, and think about getting a vehicle only after I’ve moved out of state – which can only happen after I graduate, which is still a few years away.

Meanwhile, I’m told that a degree is unnecessary for finding jobs at CG studios.  The reason I’m sticking to school is because I expect that fact to change, if it hasn’t already.  The computer graphics industry is maturing, and unlike a few years ago, many large colleges have a curriculum in place for teaching it.  Even then, my gut tells me that a standard degree in art is worth a lot more than a degree from a brand new CG program (of which the quality is often questionable).

Doctor Ugly
Arkavision - 2010-04-11 22:51:47

I decided to continue working a little on the sculpting test from last week.  I continued from the original Blender file before I had taken it into Silo.  The glasses/goggles are an afterthought, and I considered modeling a lab coat for it.

school
Matt Ebb - 2010-04-11 22:33:17

church of the light, ibaraki
(tadao ando)

Crash, stress, fatigue, welcome Joe!
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2010-04-11 19:51:30

Some days are good, some are bad… Ali

Surprise
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2010-04-11 17:03:30

By reviewing the recorded videos, I found some footage that I did not film but I think it is worth showing. A kind of Easter egg…  Enjoy!  Ali

Blender Institute
BMesh Integration Blog - 2010-04-11 13:46:49

I’ve been honored recently to be hired by the Blender Institute to work on the Durian project.  I’ll still be devoting some time to BMesh, as much as I can spare.  I’m not sure what to do about donations; they would still go to BMesh (I’m only here for three months, after that it’s back [...]

New Durianer: Joe Eagar
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2010-04-11 13:29:00

The last of the team members arrived friday, with a day delay on the airport… the poor guy! Joe – everyone knows him for his BMesh project – will assist our team with a lot of crucial development topics, such as cloth sim, snow particles and of course loads of bug fixes. Welcome Joe!

-Ton-

(Sorry for crappy picture, i need a new camera!)

Digital Painting DVD course finished
Blender - 2010-04-11 12:44:00

David Revoy's long anticipated course "Chaos and Evolutions" has been printed and will ship 14th of...

Video: How to use Blender
BlenderNation - 2010-04-11 07:29:13

From the WTF?! department – ‘How to use Blender’ by Zagupi and D Fast. An animation done entirely in Blender’s 3D view. The good stuff starts after 1:30, so don’t close it too soon!

window
Matt Ebb - 2010-04-11 04:30:30

church of the light, ibaraki

(tadao ando)

Downtime Bad, Updates Good!
Hynds|Studio - 2010-04-11 01:36:44

Wow, that really was horrible. It took me a while until I realized that it was a simple ID10T error that was causing the internal database error over the past several days. I’ve been slightly busy and didn’t catch it as soon as I should have, but it was a quick and easy fix when I did. I’m back up and running now.

Anyways, with that aside, I’ll bring you up to speed with some things that have been going on. First off, I am loving my new iPad! It’s completely replaced my laptop and it goes practically everywhere with me. I keep a cleaning cloth in my pocket from the people who droll on it when I let them check it out (and the screen tends to get marked with finger prints a lot too).

I’m learning the ropes with writing in Pages to work on my eBooks while I’m on the road. Its quite an experience. I’m slowly porting things over from Google Docs, and hopefully I’ll start getting new content rolling within the next week or so. I’ll also be working in changing me new books over to Blender 2.5 based, since things seem to be rolling along much smoother with the development.

I also gotta pull myself away from Pocket Legends to get some work done too. That game is way too addicting. . We need some devs to start getting Blender compiled for the iPad. Now that would be awesome! Apple would probably take forever to approve it though.