Past Meetings (2009-2010) - 2008 - 2007 - 2006
Meeting #31, Monday January 25, 2010
Our November and December 2009 meetings were skipped due to vacations and holidays.
For our first meeting of the new year 2010, Jeff Rutan demonstrated a workflow making QuickTime VR (QTVR) interactive movie clips using modo, PhotoShop and VRWORX. The QTVR media format is a fun and useful way to distribute your 3D models - embedding them in web pages and sending them via email. The user can manipulate and view your 3D models from any angle - without using any special software (other than the free and ubiquitous QuickTime web browser plugin) - and without releasing your modo source files.
Meeting #30, Monday October 26, 2009
Our September 2009 meeting was canceled due to an overload of personal projects.
For our October 2009 meeting we viewed samples from some of the Luxology commercial 401 training materials along with interactive Q&A. We gained some insights into how to use modo more efficiently - and got motivated to invest in some of the fine training provided by Luxology - to go through it on our own at our own pace.
Meeting #29, Monday August 24, 2009
Our July 2009 meeting was canceled due to a scheduling conflict.
For our August 2009 meeting (the third anniversary of our group) Stephen Burns returned to share with us part two of his 3D Inside Photoshop CS4 Extended presentation. This time he demonstrated a complete project showing how you can do 3D animation and compositing right inside Photoshop - using models created in modo and other 3D modelers. Thanks Stephen for another fine informative and educational session!
Meeting #28, Monday June 22, 2009
Our April 2009 meeting was canceled due to a scheduling conflict with the training room at Crywolf, and our May 2009 meeting was canceled because it fell on the Memorial Day holiday.
Our June 2009 meeting was dedicated to exploring the recently released modo 401! We viewed a collection of online videos from Brad Peebler and Andy Brown and we discussed the most interesting features and the wealth of new stuff to learn. Hopefully this group experience inspired our members to explore this latest release and share what they learn in future meetings!
Thanks to 8 returning members: Bob, Calvin, Dennis F., Eric, Jeff, Jim, Kevin L. and Terry!
Meeting #27, Monday March 23, 2009
The topic for this meeting was UV mapping techniques. The presentation was in the form of a Q&A session. Members/attendees asked questions and also answered those questions with tips, ideas and short demonstrations.
A most notable moment was when Scott Blinn discovered the "Tear Off" option when moving selected polygons inside the UV space...
Thanks to 10 returning members: Bob, Calvin, Jeff, Jim, Keith, Kevin L., Michael, Paul H., Scott and Terry!
Meeting #26, Monday February 23, 2009
For this meeting we had a quick slide/video presentation highlighting the new modo 401 features that have been publicly revealed so far - followed by a general modo Q&A session.
The questions ended up centered around an interesting project from one of our members - Jim Lennon - who is experimenting with architectural modeling, texturing and lighting using modo...
We focused on modeling questions for this meeting - using the Drill/Stencil function and some general Sub-D box modeling techniques. Everyone got involved and made this an enjoyable experience for all. So we decided to continue this format into our next meeting - focusing next on UV mapping techniques.
Thanks to 7 returning members: Bob, Calvin, Jeff, Jim, Keith, Kevin L. and Terry!
Meeting #25, Monday January 26, 2009
In April of 2007 professional digital arts artist/educator/author and sdmodo member Stephen Burns presented and demonstrated to our group how to import modo 3D models into Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended. Now that the new Photoshop CS4 Extended is out, Steven returned to share the latest 3D features with us. Photoshop CS4 Extended now allows you to paint directly on 3D models! Stephen demonstrated this process and stepped through nearly all of the 3D features in CS4. The 3D capabilities really have come a long way since CS3 - and Steven did a fantastic job sharing it with us!
In addition to his extensive professional digital arts career (including the publication of several popular Photoshop Books that include integration of 3D rendered elements), Stephen also provides private and small group training in Photoshop and 3D, and he is the leader of both the San Diego Photoshop User Group and the San Diego LightWave User Group.
A visitor to our group (Bruce) also shared with us an interesting and very versatile device (PivotLok) for physically mounting projects for machining and photography...
Thanks to 10 returning members: Bob, Calvin, Jeff, Jim, Keith, Kevin L., Paul H., Stephen and Terry!
Welcome 2 first-time visitors: Bruce and Richard!