Jim Mann

Don't worry, found it after 45 mins searching. Which muppet got paid for this little brainstorm? At least I know where my subscription goes now. I like how it now reads "Submit to network rendering" like its a command to admit defeat. Someone at Autodesk having a wickedly cruel joke?

Don't mean to sound a bit dim, but where has the "Net render" checkbox disappeared to in Max 2013? Or am I doing this all wrong adnd should be doing something differently to the way I have been working for the past decade? All help appreciated. Jim

Your client is paying the bills (including paying for making the plots "look" bigger) so I would just go with it if I were you. Its an artists impression you are creating after all, not a legal document. Make sure you keep a copy of the e-mail asking you to make the change and keep the client happy if you think they are worth retaining. Jim

All sizes look absolutely fine to me. Be careful when discussing lens sizes in 3D programs though because the focal length in millimetres is relative and fairly meaningless when you don't know the film gate size. A good example would be DSLR cameras. Full format cameras like a Nikon D700 and a Canon 5D are full frame i.e. the sensor size correspnds to old 35mm film size. Most DSLR cameras use smaller sensors approx 24mm wide e.g. Nikon D300 or Canon 7D. The effect of this is that a smaller sensor gives a more powerful zoom i.e. a 100mm lens on the camera with the smaller sensor will give the equivalent of a 160mm lens on a full frame camera. By extension you need smaller lenses to achieve wider viewing angles on a smaller DSLR e.g. a 35mm lens on a smaller sensor is only the equivalent of a 50mm lens on a full frame camera. If you need to check your view set up, begin with a 50mm lens using a 35mm gate/sensor. Thats roughly quivalent to the human eye with approx 40 degrees field of view. Yes, human vision is far greater than 40 degree field of view but its the distortion and representation relative to the distance from subject that you are trying to judge. Hope I haven't confused you. Your scene proportions looks fine. Jim

As good as that tutorial may have been in 2005, its not meant for VRay. It uses a Max Standard material whereas you want to be using a vray material. Once you have switched to a vray material, change the diffuse material colour to pure black, your reflection colour to pure white and tick the "fresnel" box. Then change your refractive colour to near white i.e. a very light grey, value 240 and tick "affect shadows". That should be enough to get you started and then you can start to experiment with ior, falloff maps in the reflection map slot, refraction values etc. Jim

I like Twitter its a good way of getting or distributing info. I've often wondered if I should stick with an industry specific account like that. Most of the time I am on design/cg/photography but tangents often whisk me off, particularly ones involving sharks. I'll be having a look at everyone elses but mines at @lightwell_jm

I did, got my Diploma there in 1996 so a few years before you but it sounds like many of the faces/names are the same. I was in Christine Hawley and CJ Lims unit 21 for my two years at the same time as Mark Smout and Nicola Hopwood. Nic Clear was doing his first stint of teaching there when I was on my second year so didn't see too much of him or his work. I still find little Bartlett ticks creeping into my stuff now and then but for the most part never embraced the style as much as most. Jim

LoL, thought to myself "Hmm, looks very Bartlett-like" and sure enough on reading his online CV.... Nice work Paul, who runs Unit 15 these days? Jim

Blimey, Posted the same message on cgtalk and they closed the thread - consituted a "witch hunt" apparently. Copyright is a pretty serious issue right now so for a discussion on copyright infirngement and passing-off to be declared taboo is a real disappointment. Hurrah for cgarchitect! Jim

Just spotted a post from Peter Guthrie over on Twitter. He has spotted a Chinese company trying to pass off one of his images as their own on their website. There lots of images there, you might want to check you haven't been ripped off too. The offenders: http://www.origincg.com/e_showproduct.asp?id=270 Peters originals: http://www.peterguthrie.net/visualisation/farnsworth01/ Jim

Bonkers, beautiful and brilliant! Jim

Architects or rather architectural tutors have been re-hashing this kind of thing for decades. 15 years ago at the Bartlett you had the likes of Neil Spiller and Stephen Gage disappearing up their own nether regions trying to formulate some sort of philosophical approach to architecture in relation to Cyberspace or Algorithms. I often wondered if my peers that at the time worked so hard to learn about algorithms got jobs after graduation? William Gibson was revered as some sort of high priest of cyberspace at the time but even he writes about real stuff now - his latest has a plotline that involves twitter! (I love William Gibson books by the way). Time and space haven't collapsed, just some things have got easier without having to leave the comfort of our own homes but we still go out to meet friends, have a drink, watch a movie, eat in a restaurant, see the doctor, workout, have a snowball fight. Friends in foreign parts still get up in the morning when we might be going to bed at night, have sun when we have snow but now we can have a chat over skype or send them an e-mail...nobody ever talked about the end of the world when we had the phone and the fax machine! So, what is the role of architecture in world where time and space collapse? Obviously its to provide venues to prove that we exist and actually do have real friends after all. Jim

This one. http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=jima-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&asins=032171962X Its by Mark Christansen and has contributions from the likes of Stu Maschwitz no less. These guys were part of the Rebel Mac Unit at ILM. Basically, they used accessible tools including AE to create their work. The last version i bought was for AE7 but I still refer to it. When I have a bit more money and am able to upgrade from CS3 to CS5 then I will probably invest in this new version. Jim

Excellent, I think we would have all come and given you a push if you hadn't

Sounds rubbish! Contrast your current career with... And journey times aside the drawbacks are... You are worried that you might be replaceable as the go to guy for document formatting! Apply for the other job immediately, you sound like you are in a huge rut. At least try and get an interview and find out what is available. Just a little story to illustrate what could happen. In 2001 I interviewed Rob Watkins for a job at Replicanation. We liked him and made him an offer but he got a more appealing offer elsewhere (he made the right move). Ten years later, look what he's doing... http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=5162 A lot can happen between now and your 40th birthday so JUMP! Looking forward to hearing about your interviews. Jim