Be sure to check out this weeks fxPodcast at fxguide.com. It features Master Zap in a very enLIGHTening (sorry, bad pun I know...) discussion on compositing (and working) in linear space.

Link:http://www.fxguide.com/fxpodcast.html

Seeing my training videos being pirated is one thing that really grinds my gears. For those that have never experienced the joy of publishing something and having it pirated, let me tell you....It's heartbreaking. It's truly disheartening & discouraging to see your work basically stolen right in front of your eyes, all the while knowing there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

Autodesk has announced that several of it's products, including 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design are Mac OS X compatible now. Some are natively compatible and some are via Parallels Desktop.

Here's a link to the Autodesk website where you can check compatibility of the various applications: http://usa.autodesk.com/products/ma...atible-products

Shameless self-promotion time...There are some new 3ds Max / mental ray videos available at the Gnomon Workshop now. The topics of the videos vary and I discuss things from basics up to a few project based scenarios like lighting architectural interior & exterior scenes

Here's a link to the content:
Gnomon Workshop

And here are some thumbnail images from a few of the scenes I discuss in the videos:
"Clay" rendering


NPR rendering


Architectural Exterior rendering (night)


Architectural Exterior rendering (day)


Architectural Interior rendering

I recently had the opportunity to check out HDR Light Studio. VERY cool little program for making HDR's for both reflections & illumination of your 3d scenes.

Here's a couple of completed test renders I made using a studio style HDR that I created with HDR Light Studio:

Render Example 01 (click to enlarge)


Render Example 02 (click to enlarge)


(base mustang mesh created by SQUIR from 3d02.com)

You can quickly configure many different lighting setups for your scenes by changing the color, intensity, and location of the lights used in HDR Light Studio to create the HDR or EXR files. For example:

Different HDR configurations (click to enlarge)


Of course you're not limited to creating studio type HDR/EXR files with HDR Light Studio. In the next examples I created some HDR/EXR files with some typical sky colors and gave that a try and it worked rather well (IMHO):

Sky colors test 01 (click to enlarge)


Sky colors test 02 (click to enlarge)


Sky colors test 01 (click to enlarge)


These days it seems that most rendering applications have a built in sun/sky system so we don't really 'need' to create sky HDR/EXR files in an external program to illuminate our scenes. However, I do feel this method is still useful at times. For example if you wanted to create a specific color tone or mood in your scenes it's pretty easy (and fast) to make such a custom HDR/EXR with HDR Light Studio

With the upcoming New Version (1.5) things like the new "Real Lights" should allow users to make some very realistic studio type environments. So be sure to check out their demo & website for more information on this program because it's truly a handy little application to have in your arsenal.

http://www.hdrlightstudio.com/

- Jeff

Finally bit the bullet and signed up at Facebook. So if you're on there be sure to add me as a friend!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?re...hp?id=745737615