jackb602

Hi Adam, If you're looking for C4D work, feel free to follow us at @ChicagoC4D. We (and some of the people we follow) post jobs periodically. Jack

Another excellent resource for information on monitors is TFT Central. They have some of the most comprehensive and consistent reviews I've seen anywhere.

The last Power Mac was sold 5 years ago, before the transition to Intel chips. An average laptop today will give you better rendering performance.

Just to keep things in perspective, I believe IMAX uses a 4k projector (i.e. 4,000 pixels wide). And the average IMAX screen is about 70ft. wide. That works out to less than 5 ppi. If it's good enough for Avatar, I'd say it's good enough for any arch. viz. rendering.

I'll second Brodie's suggestion for the Dutch Skies HDRI collection. Just bought a few of the skies for a recent project and they made a huge difference. Very high res and a wide range of scenes. Jack

Thanks for the tip Pabulo! It came at just the right time. I was just working with Vray fur for the first time, and I was about to give up when I saw your post. Render times are now super fast. Jack

Glad to hear you were able to work something out Richard. Copyrighting your work is a great idea. As I understand it, if someone uses your copyrighted work without permission, you are entitled to several times the original fee. Don't quote me on this—an attorney would know for sure—but I do know of photographers that have been able to take advantage of this. Jack

As others have said, photographers have very well established standards for selling rights to their images. It's apparently complex enough that you can use this program to calculate fees based on very specific scenarios. When I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago, a photographer friend of mine used this software to give me a range of standard prices. Jack

We are continuing our tour of Chicago based studios this meeting at... bum bum buuuuuum... Daily Planet Productions ltd. The Date: Wednesday September 1st, 6:30pm The Location: Daily Planet Productions ltd. 720 N. Franklin St. Suite 500 Chicago, IL 60602 The Talky Bits: Dear C4D Friends, Please join us at Daily Planet Productions ltd. for the next user group meeting on Wednesday May 5th at 6:30. Daily Planet is located at 720 N. Franklin St. If you are driving, street parking is available, but we are also easily reachable via public transportation. 3D Artist Jess Donofrio and Motion Designer Brad Chmielewski of Daily Planet Productions ltd. will give a presentation about a recent 2 minute character animation video they recently finished. They will be discussing their workflow as a team and how the characters were created so the team members that have never done 3D character animation were able to easily pick it up. Their Website: http://www.dailyplanetltd.com/ The Studio: Daily Planet ltd. is a Chicago based editing and motion graphics studio. Recent works have included design, visual fx, and cgi for local and national commercial advertising campaigns, broadcast television shows, music videos, web-based viral media campaigns, and brand identity packages. Come join us, a geeky time will be had by all.

Presenter: Mike Petrik, Art Director at Solid Line Media Date: Wednesday July 7, 6:30pm Location: Columbia College, 600 S. Michigan Ave., Room 1301 Chicago C4D has a great July meeting lined up. Mike Petrik of SolidLine Media will be covering the basics of a walk cycle for 3D character animation, from basic principles of gravity and movement to final execution. The rig being used in the demo is a free creative commons character, available courtesy of C4Danimator.com. Feel free to grab the rig before the demo and follow along! http://c4danimator.com/index.php?topic=10.0 Also, to learn more about Mike and SolidLine, go to... http://mikepetrik.com/ http://www.solidlinemedia.com/ We would also like to give group members a chance to show off their work. So bring in your demo reels, web sites, or works in progress, and share them with everyone. Because of our growing size, we are heading back to Columbia College for this meeting, where we'll have a larger room and a 50" plasma screen. (Please note that this is a different room than the one we used to meet in.) There are lots of ways to stay in touch with Chicago C4D these days: Google Group: http://www.chicagoc4d.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/Chicagoc4d LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=1881236 and now on Facebook!: http://www.facebook.com/ChicagoC4D See you Wednesday!

Good news everyone! We will be continuing our tour of Chicago studios this meeting at Protokulture! Date: Wednesday May 5th, 6:30pm Location: Protokulture 70 W. Erie on the the 4th floor in the Kerryman building. Chicago, IL 60602 Dear C4D Friends, Please join us at Protokulture for the next user group meeting on Wednesday May 5th at 6:30. Protokulture is located at 70 W. Erie on the the 4th floor in the Kerryman building. If you are driving, street and garage parking is available, but we are also easily reachable via public transportation. Designer Nick Hopkins of Protokulture will give a presentation about non character rigging for commercials graphics and broadcast. Food and drinks (including alcoholic) will be provided. Please RSVP to julie@protokulture.com Protokulture is a design and kinetic media studio focusing on the creation of high-end artistry and innovative communication serving the commercial broadcast industry. http://www.protokulture.com

This sounds like a very useful script Leonard. Is it provided by a third party, or is it something you wrote yourself? If so, would you be willing to share it? Thanks, Jack

I guess a Hummer would be appropriate if you want a vintage look.

Our March Chicago C4D meeting follows on the the great success of our last studio visit with another one, this time to Schawk/Giannini Creative. Here are the details: Date: Wednesday March 3, 6:30pm Location: Schawk/Giannini Creative Imaging 1 North Dearborn St, 6th floor Chicago, IL 60602 Chris Morris, CGI Director Schawk/Giannini Creative is pleased to be hosting the next Chicago C4D meeting on Wednesday March 3 at 6:30pm. There will be food, giveaways and a presentation by one of our CGI artists, Sebastian Szyszka, on creating the rendering and animation of a Motorola phone that we did here in our studio. We are located right in the Loop at Dearborn and Madison (above Sears). There is no free parking available at the building, but there are pay lots nearby and we are close to the CTA. We hope everyone can join us for a fun time and a lively discussion. We'd like to have an idea of how many people to expect, so please RSVP in this thread or via email to Chicagoc4d@gmail.com. Schawk/Giannini Creative is a creative imaging solutions studio specializing in work for advertising. We work with ad agencies, photographers and designers around the country on print, web and broadcast imagery using digital illustration, photographic retouching, and 3D imaging and animation. Our portfolio is available online at gianninicreative.com.