Past Meetings 2009-2010 - 2008 - (2007) - 2006
Meeting #14, Monday November 26, 2007
This meeting Paul Hartsuyker shared with us his process for producing stereoscopic 3D images (both anaglyph and "cross-eyed" versions) using modo and Photoshop. You can see some examples here.
We enjoyed some general Q&A time following Paul's presentation. Then 6 of us went to Applebee's after.
Thanks to 10 returning members: Calvin, Gardner, Glen, Jeff, Keith, Kevin, Musa, Paul H., Terry and Tim!
Meeting #13, Monday October 29, 2007
This meeting was a special event with the illustrious Dan Ablan as our guest presenter - remote from Chicago! Dan ( 3D Garage and AGA Digital Studios, Inc.) is a premier LightWave 3D training guru from way back - and now also for Luxology modo since version 201.
Dan shared with us a collection of tricks using new features in modo 301 and he answered questions from the audience. He also donated a copy of his latest training DVD - 3D Garage modo 301 Signature Courseware for a FREE drawing at our meeting... BIG thanks to Dan! And congratulations to our winner - Terry!
This meeting was another first for us - experimenting using web conferencing technologies: Adobe Acrobat Connect for webcam and desktop sharing and FreeConference for toll-free voice conferencing.
The separate voice conferencing was used over standard telephone lines to free more Internet bandwidth for the desktop sharing. The voice service was flawless, but the volume on our speaker phone was less than adequate. We all huddled close to the phone until someone (new member Jeffrey) figured out how to use his laptop as a real time analog amplifier.
The new Adobe Acrobat Connect (AAC) web conferencing desktop sharing application performed very well - considerably better than several competing products we tried ahead of the meeting. Running modo remotely is quite challenging due to the quick, complex and dynamic OpenGL manipulations involved. AAC kept up with Dan fairly well with very little lag and no noticeably blurring. However, the software did suffer from dropping the connection several times. Dan had to reconnect about once every 10 minutes. This may have been a network issue since we were both on wireless connections, but it surely is an area that needs improvement in the AAC software.
Our technical difficulties were annoying, but most members said they enjoyed the opportunity to visit with Dan in this way and would like to try this format again. We will continue to research more robust configurations to make this a more enjoyable experience for future meetings.
We had 18 in attendance at this meeting and 7 of us went to Applebee's after.
Thanks to 16 returning members: Andrew, Arash, Bob, David, Gardner, Glen, Jeff, Keith, Kevin, Masahiro, Musa, Paul H., Roger, Terry, Tim and Tommy!
Welcome 2 first time members: Frank and Jeffrey!
Meeting #12, Monday September 24, 2007
This meeting we tried something different - with the entire session devoted to question and answer and helping each other with specific issues using modo. We helped a new member with modeling details for a remote control device - brainstorming options and stepping through demonstrating some stenciling and beveling techniques. We reviewed some basic manipulation techniques - comparing modo 203 to modo 301. Another member wanted to see scripts in action from beginning to end, so we downloaded, installed and demonstrated one of Seneca Menard's scripts to make a Perfect Circle on the face of a sphere. Finally, we watched the very beginning and the final result of Dan Ablan's modo 301 Logo Animation tutorial (full videos here: Part One and Part Two).
The Q&A session seemed to work out well - so we will probably do it again some time in the future. We also discussed: some new features of modo 301 (the majority of attendees already had it); some ideas for topics for future meetings; beginning plans for our next big group project; and status on the continuing progress finishing our SDAM project video and asset release.
We had 10 in attendance at this meeting and 6 of us went to Applebee's after.
Thanks to 9 returning members: Calvin, Gardner, Glen, Jeff, Kevin, Paul H., Terry, Tommy and Victor!
Welcome to our first time members: Jeff!
We very much appreciated Jeff's enthusiastic participation
and hope that he will return for subsequent meetings.
However, we failed to get his last name or an email address -
so we have no way of contacting him.
Jeff - if you read this - please
send us an email! :-)
Meeting #11, Monday August 27, 2007 - 1st Anniversay
This meeting marked the first anniversary of our group! We had our first meeting in August 2006. We skipped our December 2006 meeting due holidays and we skipped our February 2007 meeting due to the Crywolf move, but we ended our first year with 10 fine meetings under our belt! Thanks to all the faithful members who have attended and helped to make this group a success!
To celebrate our anniversary, everyone got either a new group t-shirt or one of 3 Dan Ablan Luxology modo 201-203 Guide books. We also read an anniversary greeting from Brad Peebler. The new group t-shirts include blue, black and white, and come in long as well as short sleeve versions.
After the celebrating we watched the latest draft of the video for our San Diego Air & Space Museum 3D Aerospace Collection group project turned global modo community project. This was followed immediately by an outstanding presentation/demo by Gardner Grady showing processes and several useful tips he learned while building his Ford Trimotor for our Aerospace Collection project. Gardner reviewed some highlights of his entire project, then focused on step-by-step development of his engines. We thank Gardner for a fine presentation with useful and interesting information for all.
We had 12 in attendance at this meeting and 6 of us went to Applebee's after.
Thanks to 10 returning members: Calvin, Dennis, Gardner, Glen, Jeff, Keith, Kevin, Terry, Tim and Victor!
Welcome 2 first time members: Bob (who drove down from LA) and James!
In honor of our now annual tradition, James (who took the picture) was Photoshopped in...
SIGGRAPH 2007 Luxology modo User Event, Sunday August 5, 2007
This was a fantastic celebration with the global modo community here in San Diego! Brad Peebler hosted the presentation with several presenters showing how they use modo in their professional workflows. The event was held inside the San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDAM), and the video of our SDAM Aerospace Collection group project turned global community project was shown as part of the presentation.
We got to meet many of our fellow modonauts from around the world - including several who participated with us in our community project. It was a great opportunity to put faces to folks we know from the Luxology forums and to make some new friends! We thank all of those from the global modo community who participated in our SDAM project, and we now honor them as associate members of sdmodo!
Thanks also to the 16 local members who attended (many of whom graciously helped with the logistics at the event): Dennis, Eric, Gardner, Glen, James, Jeff, Keith, Kevin, Masahiro, Musa, Paul, Stephen, Terry, Tim, Tommy and Victor!
Meeting #10, Monday July 23, 2007
This meeting was very unique... We met at Jeff Rutan's house to work on completing our projects and to work on on the final production for our presentation at the SIGGRAPH 2007 Luxology modo User Event on August 5, 2007.
Thanks to the 8 members who joined us to help: Calvin (taking this picture with his new iPhone), Gardner, Glen, Jeff, Kevin, Paul, Terry and Victor!
Presentation at the San Diego County Fair, Saturday June 23, 2007 and Wednesday July 4, 2007
The san diego modo user group (with introduction/slideshow by Jeff Rutan and live product demonstration by Paul Hartsuyker) presented Luxology modo 203 at the San Diego County Fair as part of the digital arts training seminar series held there for the first time this year. This was another opportunity to share modo with our local community and to gain some exposure for our group.
Meeting #9, Monday June 25, 2007
We had a successful meeting dedicated to reviewing the progress so far and discussing the plans for the final production for our Aerospace Collection group project - turned global modo community project - for the SIGGRAPH 2007 Luxology modo User Event on August 5, 2007. We reviewed the progress on all 45 aerospace craft projects and several components of the museum itself that are all in work. Nearly all of these projects are rapidly approaching completion...
More than half of the San Diego Aerospace Museum main exhibits and the major details of the building inside and out will be modeled and painted for the final production. The top 7 of the aerospace craft pictured above are being modeled by 7 of our own local members. Our local group will also be dedicated to the final production for presentation at the special event.
The final production will be a major challenging project on its own, but with the help of may talented and dedicated volunteers, we hope to deliver an impressive final video showing off all the fine models created to celebrate this event!
We had 11 in attendance this meeting and 8 of us went to Applebee's after.
Thanks to 8 returning members: Calvin, Gardner, Jeff, Kevin, Masahiro, Paul, Ray and Tim.
Welcome 3 first time members: Al, Musa and Victor!
Meeting #8, Tuesday May 29, 2007
Note that our regular meeting day for May fell on the Memorial Day holiday, so we met on Tuesday (the next day) instead of our normal Monday.
For this meeting we had two different topics: modo 301 and a progress update on our Aerospace Collection group project.
Luxology officially announced modo 301 this month and we showed a shortened version of Brad Peebler's introduction video (18 minutes out of the full 1.5 hours). Paul Hartsuyker (a modo 301 beta tester) gave a demonstration on UV editing using modo 203 and also talked about significant improvements in UV editing in 301. Paul is a UV specialist, and he told us he now does all his UV work in modo 301. So the rest of us are excited to get our hands on those tools and all the other great new stuff in 301 very soon! The new precision modeling tools are of especially great interest to the CAD guys in our group!
Basic fuselages were due this month for our Aerospace Collection group project. Members who had started their projects showed their progress and discussed and/or demonstrated some of what they learned so far. Gardner Grady gave a particularly well organized and presented demonstration of the evolution of his Ford Trimotor project!
We had 10 in attendance including 8 returning members: Calvin, Dennis, Gardner, Jeff, Masahiro, Paul H., Ray and Terry!
A big welcome to 2 first time members: Brom and David!
After the meeting 4 of us went out and had a good time socializing at Applebee's Restaurant.
Meeting #7, Monday April 23, 2007
The main topic for this meeting was importing modo models into Photoshop CS3 Extended. Professional digital arts artist/educator/author Stephen Burns presented and demonstrated the workflow from modeling and painting in modo to manipulating the 3D model for 2D compositing inside the new 3D feature of Photoshop CS3 Extended. He showed some tips for success in doing this as well as some significant pitfalls. It was a very informative and engaging presentation! Thanks Stephen!
Stephen is the president of the San Diego Photoshop User Group as well as the San Diego LightWave User Group. He is an artist, a public and private digital arts educator, and the author of several books and articles, including his latest book: Advanced Photoshop CS3 Trickery & FX.
The two soon-to-be-released Photoshop plug-ins Stephen mentioned were:
LightWave Rendition for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
and
Electric Iris Enzo 3D Paint for Photoshop CS3 Extended.
We also discussed details of our exciting new group project modeling a collection of aircraft / spacecraft.
We had 11 in attendance including 8 returning members: Calvin, Gardner, Jeff, Kevin, Masahiro, Paul H., Ray and Stephen!
A big welcome to 3 first time members: Andrew, Arash and Ping!
After the meeting 6 of us went out and had a good time socializing at Applebee's Restaurant. We decided to switch to Applebee's because it is open later than Coco's (our original choice for our after meeting get-togethers).
Meeting #6, Monday March 26, 2007
Note that our February 2007 meeting was canceled due to the Crywolf move to their great new location.
We had our first meeting in the nice new theater in the new Crywolf location - but we forgot to take any pictures! :-|
Jeff Rutan did a Vehicle Modeling presentation using the box modeling technique he used on two most recent models (for a group project).
As promised some links to sources for blueprints:
http://www.the-blueprints.com/
http://www.smcars.net/
We had 13 in attendance including 12 returning members: Calvin, Dennis, Eric, Gardner, Glen, Jeff, Kevin, Paul H., Ray, Terry, Tim and Tommy!
Special thanks and welcome to first time member: Masahiro!
And of course a big thanks to Crywolf for hosting our group!
Presentation at Crywolf Grand Opening, Saturday March 17, 2007
Crywolf Computers is a respected and growing independent Apple Specialist in San Diego specializing in certified professional training and service as well as hardware/software sales. They completed a move to a newer/brighter/larger and more publicly visible facility and they celebrated with a grand opening event.
Crywolf is the gracious host for a number of local user groups - including our san diego modo user group. The leaders of all these groups gave presentations during the open hose (also special guest speaker Kevin O'Connor presented Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Color Management).
Crywolf had a fantastic turnout with a few hundred folks coming to check out the new facility. One lucky guy won a brand new black MacBook! We had a decent showing for the modo presentation too - 8 sdmodo group members in attendance along with several others. Thanks to Calvin, Don, Gardner, Jeff, Kevin, Paul H., Tim and Tommy for your support!
Presentation at Apple Store Fashion Valley, Sunday March 11, 2007
The san diego modo user group (with introduction/slideshow by Jeff Rutan and live product demonstration by Paul Hartsuyker) presented Luxology modo 202 at the Apple Store Fashion Valley as the final event in thier theater before their major remodeling that started even before we finished!
In addition to Paul and Jeff, Gardner and Calvin joined us from our sdmodo group. Thanks guys for your support! Calvin also provided a photo using his cell phone - thanks Calvin!
There were 3 serious 3D artists and a few other casual observers who joined us in the Apple theater. Thanks to the experience of these 3 who were currently using other 3D software and had serious interest in what modo may have to offer them, Paul was able to go into some technical details and answer their questions very effectively and with grace. At least a couple of them will probably download the demo and giving modo a try!
Meeting #5, Monday January 22, 2007
Our first meeting of the new year was a great success with 17 in attendance!
The main topic for the meeting was Sculpting Using Skymatter Mudbox.
Professional 3D artist/animator Paul Davies came down from LA to present and demonstrate this exciting new product and show us how he is using Mudbox in a workflow with modo.
Paul was enthusiastic, entertaining and very informative with his presentation. All in attendance were engaged with his thorough and inspiring coverage of Mudbox sculpting features and how to get rough models from modo in and then back out to modo for surfacing/painting and rendering. Paul even suggested how Mudbox could be used to detail less organic objects like a car body - very intriguing. A HUGE THANKS to Paul Davies!
Immediately following the presentation, we viewed part of the 2007 modo Technology Preview video and reviewed all the announcements made by Luxology at the MacWorld / Apple Store - January 10, 2007 Luxology Event. Within the next year it looks like we will get many of the Mudbox features integrated inside modo using a brand new technique that looks like it will be really revolutionary! In the mean time, Mudbox looks like a great tool and may continue to provide unique features to modo users - even after the next major modo release.
Finally, a drawing was held, and Eric Klein
was the winner of the FREE
Mudbox Professional Node-Locked license (a $649.00 USD value)
courtesy of Skymatter!
Thank you Skymatter and congratulations to Eric!
Group members also get 10% off any order from Skymatter.
Thanks to all who attended (14 returning members): Calvin, Clint, Dennis, Eric, Gardner, Glen, Jeff, Keith, Kevin, Paul D., Paul H., Terry, Tim and Tommy; and welcome to 3 new first time members: George, John and Ray!
8 of us went to Coco's after the meeting for a great time of fellowship.
We are looking forward to a great year of exciting and educational meetings!