Personal and Professional Development Task 4

TASK 4
Minimum of 20 blog posts that are relevant to your practice. The commentary on the posts should be critical and articulate the what,why and how it is relevant to you. This is expected to be an ongoing process and to continue beyond this date.

1.
I've just been having a look at the new Maya 2011 at the revolutionary new way to paint texture weights to skinned characters this looks 10x easier than the old way of doing things!
this is something I've still to do a lot of exploring into I've touched on it but can only make life easier in my chosen field!
I've not had the chance myself to look in depth at this but I hope the option of doing this in the way previous editions of Maya because I think that touch of interaction with the weight painting would be lost



2. I'm taking the time to fully explore C.G. Society I've touched on it and read up on the odd article but not bothered to treat it as a serious means of research
one aspect I really like is that C.G. Society organises a Meet the Artists where it gives you the chance to chat to the people behind the special effects in movies etc via CGTalk
this makes it so that the artists and people at the top of the game are more approachable

3. I've just found this article on the C.G. Society about the new Mental Ray 3.8 available with 3DS Max 2011 I'm presuming that this will become available for Maya but I haven't ruled out learning 3Ds Max Properly since a lot of Jobs I've seen require people to have a working knowledge of it

4. there's a good artical on Pixars new how point-based rendering works
Renderman is a render engine I'd like to get the hang of I've had a play with a sample version but not yet had the chance to go into depths

5. Real Flow 5 now available for any of those not knowing what Realflow is, it's a program and plug in for Maya and other 3D Platforms that give one of the best fluid effect in 3D to date
I've not had any experience using Fluid effects but would love to give it a try!
the new features can be found here!

6. SneakPeek Xrayunwrap 1.5 Rc1 is a new feature for UV Texturing Currently in 3DS Max but may make the transition to Maya at the moment the Maya's way of UV texturing is very messy and time consuming, it is some what of a talent to be able to UV map well In Maya

7. My Girlfriend sent me a link to a 100 top C.G. cars and I have to say the work is amazing although my work has come on leaps and bounds I know I have a long way to go to get to the photographic quality of some of these

8. Wacom has introduced the Cintiq 21UX
I've used Wacom Tablets in the past but not extensively but this hi-tec peace of kit could really compliment the UV texturing side of things with it's interactive Screen i'll definatally look into getting one of these when they come down in price a little

9. there's a Nice interview with ADAM COGGIN - CG Supervisor on the up and coming C.G. Film Azureus Rising
he tells of how he started at Black Sun doing an internship and his gradual involvement into the project
this Is how I'm looking to start out in a job within C.G. being hard to come by I'll be looking at working an internship to give me the much needed experience

10. Sculprits is more of a fun application, created by Tomas Pettersson as a non profit program it allows you to mold and sculpt then display your work on is forum it looks very much like Zbrush and could work well!
i'm not sure how or even if it's compatible with other 3D platforms

11. I'm finding more and more about how 3DS Max has been tweaked since Autodesk took over 3DS Max I'm wondering if they are trying to bring it update with Maya and then ultimately merge them? or if one will phase out the other?
or maybe they will just continue to run the 2 platforms indefinitely I guess time will tell?

12. Since discussing a lot about avatar and and the uncanny valley effect in my dissertation I can't not give it a mention here in this article it goes on to discuss the revolutionary break through Avatar made Cameron Points out that you could have actors in there seventies acting out roles as though they were younger again it's proved that C.G. alone can merge that gap flawlessness who knows Arnie might still feature in a future Predator or Terminator sequel years down the line! the article also feature a very scary looking Bart Simpson that's always worth a look!

13. here's an article and a half for 3D Modelers there has been a scanner that can not only scan colour images but can scan the texture of the surface for use in 3D modeling

14. there's a bit here about pre-done rigs for vehicles meaning that all you would have to do is fix your home built model car mesh to this rig and suspension and even camera mounts would already be set up for you!

15. another article on easier UV Mapping, lets face it it's not the easiest thing in the world to master, Unwrella works by taking an edge loop and is able to flatten out the UV Map into a manageable surface with ease! programs like this are more than welcome in my opinion!

16. the C.G. School is to offer free Live tuition from june 7th 2010 ranging from v-ray 3DS Max advanced Modeling Mental Ray and more! registrations free too
i'll be logging in for that one!

17. here's another free open source modeling program for building complex organic models!
i'll be firing up the p.c. and giving this a shot myself!

18. Free CGI Gadget from google for your Desktop, it acts like a digital newspaper keeping you up to date with all the latest News/Articles about 3d, animation, VFX

19. mbFeatherTools 2.0 for Softimage (XSI) a nice little program from autodesk that simulates feathers hedgehog slines and leafs etc another handy little tool in the 3D Modeling and Animation World

20. UV MasterBrush for Zbrush another program aimed at Zbrush users in a bids to make it easier to UV Map since this is one of the platforms I intend to learn it would be good to learn about the easier ways of UV Mapping too!


21.