AWN-Autodesk Professional Interviews

ok I know its not in person, but it is a lot of1

http://area.autodesk.com/leaders

3December line ups for 3 december

http://area.autodesk.com/3dec/user_groups

Maya 2012 SAP: New Node Editor Overview

3December to be streamed live on Dec 8th 2011

Autodesk presents 3December® -- Autodesk's annual worldwide celebration of 3D computer graphics and the artists who create them. On its 13th anniversary, 3December aims to unite thousands of artists at live venues and through 3December Online.
Highlights:
See top industry talent
Learn from the pros
Network with other professionals
Two ways to celebrate 3December:
Come to the live event in Montreal on Thursday, December 8, 2011:
Join us in Montreal for drinks and nibbles as we celebrate 3D! Register today

Learn from the pros:
Martin Pelletier and Moss Badran will present Modux FX’ work on Source Code and Immortals and will explain how Autodesk® Entertainment Creation Suites helped them achieve both creative as well as technical excellence.
Daniel J. Kelly and Odrée Veillette will showcase the breathtaking trilogy of commercials that Motor VFX created for Rockland Shopping Center. Shot entirely on blue screen, all of the environments were created by their CG team using Autodesk® 3ds Max® and Autodesk ®Softimage® software to combinine matte painting and 3D animation. All finishing and compositing was done with Autodesk® Flame® Premium software.
Take the opportunity to share and network with your peers.
Join us virtually on AREA for 3December Online, December 8, 2011
Watch the Montreal event live on AREA TV, Thursday December 8 from 6pm-8pm EST
Access free MasterClasses
Get valuable tutorials, videos and much more!

coupon from Render Jump

Gary Gibich over a RenderJump has generously provided the Maya User Group with a discount on rendering!

He has created a RenderJump Promo code that is good for 35% more credits at the time of purchase ($100.00 minimum purchase) good through the entire month of October. Free sign up is necessary to access the Dashboard/Add Credits area to enter the Promo Code. Of course, 750 free credits will also be funded into the account at the time of sign up.

Use the Promo Code: OCT2011 (enter the case sensitive code at the time of purchase in the Dashboard/Add Credits area. Use this code multiple times during the month of October.)

http://www.renderjump.com/

Blue Sky Studios To Hire 70

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-blue-sky-studios-20111018,0,2722680.story

The computer animation company that produced the feature film "Rio" is getting state help to add 70 jobs and expand office space in Greenwich by 43,000 square feet, the Department of Economic and Community Development announced Tuesday.

Blue Sky Studios will receive a tax credit on 20 percent of spending past the first $3 million in real estate and equipment costs. In addition, the state is loaning the company $3 million at 3 percent interest over 10 years for the project.

The additional space will allow the company to produce movies in less time, and to do more work in house, the economic development department said in a statement announcing the project.

The studio is a repeat customer with the department. Blue Sky received an $8 million low-interest loan in 2009 to lure it from White Plains, N.Y., to Greenwich, though $6 million will be converted into a grant if requirements are met. That year, it a

lso received $3.6 million in infrastructure tax credits and $750,000 in sales tax exemptions.

It received $18 million in film tax credits in 2009 and $15 million in 2010.

The company, which is owned by 20th Century Fox, moved 290 workers to Connecticut two years ago, and added about 110 by this spring. The state said Tuesday that Blue Sky plans to add 70 workers, though the announcement did not say when.

In April, Brian Keane, Blue Sky Studios' chief operating officer, said the company wanted to hire 30 to 40 people, but the head count has not grown in the six months since that announcement.

The average salary is $110,000 a year, and 20 percent of employees live in Connecticut, Keane said.

A state economic development analysis based on the size of the studio to this point said the state is getting a benefit of about a half a million dollars a year, even after the tax giveaways.

"State support for Blue Sky will ensure the industry will grow and other film production companies see Connecticut as a great location and an important partner in their plans," said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, as quoted in the release announcing the new loan and tax break.

"Growing jobs is the number one priority and the film tax credit is one of our best tools that will help us do that," said Catherine Smith, commissioner of the state economic development department. "Digital media is an emerging sector, one that requires smart, innovative workers. This is the workforce Connecticut can provide and production companies know it. That's why they're coming here and it's why they're investing here."

Breaking Pillars with DMM

this is the breaking pillars with dynamics plug-ins I mentioned at the meeting....






http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials/breaking_pillars

webinar - Entertainment Webcast Series: Character Development with Autodesk Maya Part 2

Here is a link to the atdsk webinar Lee Fraser will be hosting for Character Development using all of autodesks tools!

Description:

The Autodesk® Maya® Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 offers numerous tools and workflows for efficient creation of characters for film, broadcast and game design. The second installment of this webcast series continues by focusing on the variety of tools available in the Maya Entertainment Creation Suite for skinning and rigging characters for motion and facial expression. Autodesk Technical Specialist Lee Fraser will show you some of the basics of rigging and skinning in Maya 2012 plus ways of working with the characterization tools in Maya as well as Autodesk® MotionBuilder® 2012. Lee will also cover some of the basics in Autodesk® Softimage® Face Robot® Toolset, providing a quick and interactive way of creating a face rig using Softimage.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/oc/offer/form?siteID=123112&id=17855089&validate=no

MAYA bullet in Maya 2012 Service advantage Pack

Autodesk just posted Docs and Sample Scenes for Bullet in Maya 2012 SAP


get em here !

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=17944685&linkID=10809894

Oct 11 meeting recap

Great to see everyone last night!
Thanks again to Lee Fraser for showing us some new mudbox and maya highlights.
I highly recommend everyone get the subscription advantage pack upgrade. Not just for the node editor, the bullet plugin, but also for some of the fixes, its well worth it!

also big thanks to Joe Burrascano of Nathan Love. That was an awesome presentation of what goes into the creativity in their spots!


and an ongoing thanks to Steve Strong and Ari Klingman of Oceana for lending us the space, beer, pizza , and audio visual. It would have been a lot different if we had to huddle around a laptop in a seedy bar!

Stay tuned, I'm planning for a early November/December meeting and I'm going to post more on this Blog. And as always, comments crits, suggestions, help, bribes are welcome!

I posted some (albeit poor blackberry) photos from the night...









Also be Sure to check out "Klop Drop" which is what Joe was alluding to, but I don't think ever showed!

Klop Drop from Mothership on Vimeo.

NEXT MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 11th !!!!

Sorry about the late notice, but come one come all, and tell your Friends.

Come to check out some new maya features, some behind the scenes from Nathan Love, and meet up with Other Maya artists in the NY area. ( ps. the more of you show up this time, the larger budget we get for next!!)

MEETING 7:30 to 10:00 OCTOBER 11th
NYC OCEANA

Lee Fraser of Autodesk will show off new stuff for Maya, including some SAP tools

and

Nathan Love will be showing some behind the scenes from some of their awesome projects....


if you aren't already familiar with Nathan Love's incredible work, be sure to take a look here:
www.nathanlove.com

Oceana

50 Eldridge Street

6th Floor

New York, New York

please RSVP:

nycmayausersgroup@gmail.com

-=s

SIGGRAPH TIME....

Sorry its been so quite lately, but been a bit busy, plus Siggraph is coming, or at least "going on"



The plan is to put together a post-siggraph get together once all the action is over in Vancouver, and to give some NYC a small taste...

be sure to check out "the area" postings about siggraph, and I think there is some master class stuff in there as well

http://area.autodesk.com/siggraph2011


-=s

MTG #2 - went well!

Really great to see and meet everyone that came to the second meeting.

Special thanks to our presenters Aaron, Todd, Steve and Mike, and we wish Steve a successful transition to Los Angeles.

Here are some quick snaps from the night, hope you all enjoyed it!
( sorry about the quality, next time I'll bring a real camera)

-=s

Reminder - tonights meeting - May 18th

7:00 to 9:00
Oceana
50 Eldridge Street
6th Floor
New York, New York

CADA - grad screenings tomorrow - May 17th !

Just a Reminder - TOMORROW Tuesday May 17th 6-9p 2011 CADA Graduate Showcase

Extending an invitation to the 2011 CADA Graduate Spring Showcase on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 from 6-9pm. Thesis projects in Motion Design, Compositing, Character Animation, Technical Direction and all areas of 2D and 3D production will be displayed. Please join us in celebrating the success of this year's 2011 CADA graduates.

This is a wonderful opportunity to see what CADA has been up to and to network with some great talent. If you are looking to fill spots and to add freelancers to your go-to-list, come check out the work! Please help spread the word by forwarding this invite to others that you feel would be interested as well.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Don't forget the after-party.

NY Maya Users Group Meeting May 18th

May 18th 7:00 - 9:00

I know its kinda soon but I wanted to strike while the iron was hot, and we lose some of these guys.

Steve Strong over at Oceana has been gracious enough to host another event for us to have a Maya Users Group Meeting.

I Have 2 presentations lined up for this time:

Steve Talkowski of sketchbot will show how he takes his concepts and designs and create vinyl toys.

Aaron Walsman and friends from BlueSky Studios will take us through the creation of some of the "birds" from Rio.

the event is totally free and I'm hoping to try and get some pizza for this one, so please be sure to RSVP, and as usual the more the merrier. Spread the word!

see you there!

-=s

please RSVP:

nycmayausersgroup@gmail.com

the event will be held at:

Oceana

50 Eldridge Street

6th Floor

New York, New York

Quiet man poem contest

Just Stumbled across this.
Quiet man is hosting an animation contest based on a line of poetry.
"does the sun miss the flower as much as the flowed misses the sun?"

http://www.trustcollective.com/portfolio/content/quietman_poems.php

Team Animation Girls walk-a-ton 2011

Just got this sent in, Help out the Lower East Side Girls Club with the walk-a-ton 2011

here is there page!

https://sna.etapestry.com/fundraiser/LowerEastsideGirlsClubofN/walk2011/team.do?participationRef=86.0.262567235

good cause, good people !

Meeting Recap - and thanks

Just wanted to thank everyone for showing up, and having a good time.

I want to get the numbers up, so please feel free to inform your friends and colleagues about this group, and if you have any comments, questions , suggestions please let me know. Let me know what you want to see or learn, or do. If you want to present, or know someone who does, I'd love to hear about it. I've got a few people who want to present at the next meeting, and we may be doing it as early as late May. so stay tuned......


special thanks go out to Tim Doolen, Brian Kehrer, Emily Compton, and Michael Gambino of MUSE GAMES, be sure to go to their site and blog and see more about the making of their games! http://musegames.com/news/

Jep Hill of J3P

Lee Fraser of Autodesk

Mike from foundry, Hopefully Vic will make good use of Mari, and let us all know how awesome it is.

and I would like to make a special Thanks to Steve Strong of Ocean Digital for providing the wonderful space, technical support, monitors, food and Beer.






I'll post some pics of the event here as well, ( I took em with the blackberry, so not really the best quality, but you get the idea)



I'll also try and post on this blog anything that comes up of interest. so if you want to follow ( hint hint) it will motivate me to post more.

thanks and see you next time.
-=s
stephen mann
nycmayausersgroup@gmail.com

DEEX . info

in case you missed it,
here is the Website and shader pack that Jep Hill was talking about

http://deex.info/wordpress2/

and the tools


http://deex.info/wordpress2/tools/

Maya Bonus Tools 2012 intro

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/stevenr/bonustools

USERS GROUP MEETING COMING UP. MARCH 30th

NYC Maya Users Group Meeting March 30th 7:00 - 9:00


Come on out and meet some of your fellow Maya Users and see some of the latest developments coming out of Autodesk, and what our local artists are creating with it.


I know it's been awhile and most of us are too busy to even get out of the office, so We'll make this as fun as possible. Steve Strong of Oceana has graciously offered up space for the event over at Oceana, as well as food and drinks. There is also talk of giving out a few door prizes. ( no confirmation yet) So I hope you all can make it out and enjoy the night.

With the upcoming release of Maya 2012 I thought it was a good time to get together see what's going on.


Lee Fraser , from Autodesk (www.autodesk.com/Maya) we'll be showing off some of the technologies headed our way, and presenting some of the new and updated developments for Maya 2012.

Lee Fraser started working for Alias|Wavefront almost 14 years ago as
an Application Engineer supporting Maya customers.  He now works
as a Sr. Solution Specialist for Autodesk focusing on helping customers
get the most out of Maya, Mudbox, and MotionBuilder in a variety of pipelines.
He has enjoyed working with a diverse array of customers from NASA to Disney
and EA to the Hare Krishnas and numerous individual artists in between.
He is a frequent speaker at User Groups and Trade Shows around the country
such as Siggraph and GDC and often helps produce demo content for these events.
He has also conducted training for numerous magazine writers that evaluate Maya
for review articles including CGW,  3dWorld, and Post. Lee attended Florida State University
where he attended classes focusing on Film, editing, and studio broadcast.

Jep Hill of J3P llc (www.j3pnyc.com) will be showcasing Maya and Nuke pipeline integration that they have developed and some tips and tricks tools and scripts they've created for both. Along with some of their own amazing work.

Brian Kehrer , Emily Compton, Tim Doolen and Mike Gambino from Muse games (http://musegames.com) will be presenting some of their awesome work for their new game Creavures and how they used Maya and Unity to develop it. Muse Games is a NYC based game company that aims to redefine the online gaming standard, with a curated line-up of high quality indie titles.







hope to see you there!


-=s

Stephen Mann



please RSVP:

nycmayausersgroup@gmail.com

the event will be held at:

Oceana

50 Eldridge Street

6th Floor

New York, New York