How many hours ?

[jayuk]

"Currently trying to buy the copyright to some 30 year old stuf I know there is a demand for"

I bet you do Gareth! and I bet there is! But please keep it clean here!!! LOL

[Knight]

...upgrade your Vegas 6.0a to 6.0c - the "c" version gives support for Dolby audio. It's a free upgrade...

Oh! I thought the default install already had that support! I never even looked but went ahead and updated to version 6.0d build 210 because it initially crashed on me when I tried to import a range of MPEG-2 files of different resolutions at the same time - I was a bit miffed at that tbh, but it's working now

The main thing that got me about vegas was its a little easier to render and setup splitscreens aka multi-frame insets, which for some reason impresses the hell out of people when I do their weddings, with a little frame down the bottom of the rings overlaid with another frame showing the ceremony longshot, lol, I almost look like I know what I'm doing!

[GarethB]

Jay,

Just the workshop manuals a bit dirty

But what do you expect from used car manuals used in car dealerships, they had to wipe their hands on something.

[Andrew MacLean]

Is it really possible to buy copyright? I keep buying licenses to use other people\s intellectual property, but if you can buy out the copyright that would be awesome.

By the way Knight has the intellectual property rights to my new signature icon.

[GarethB]

Andrew, what it ammounts to is that I would have the right to publish material that was copyrighted in 1969 and last updated in 1973 without need to pay royalties. This would mean that I have to power to prevent others producing copies of this matreial that do not have permision, but they would have to compensate me and possibly the original owners for breach of copyright laws.

Currently you can copy as much copyright material you like as long as you can prove it is for your own private use and not for profit gain.

So making 50 copies of the KC confrence would be hard to justyfy as personal use and would technicallly be breach of copyrigt.

[Rob Armstrong]

I do tend to spend a good few hours in front of my iMac most evenings, not just online.

But since last week I now work in front of a monitor all day, using the various Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications. At least I can zoom in, it's not like reading text all day.

I've even downloaded the demos at home so I can learn them properly in the evenings, as my degree was actually in Product Design (and Digital Modelling) so what I've learned of the Adobe apps is pretty much self-taught on older versions. I need to get up to speed on the latest and greatest.

Stuck on an old office Dell at the moment, which was never intended as a graphics workstation - it's only got a Celeron and integrated graphics.

Trying to convince him to get me a 20" iMac G5 while they're still available.

Rob.

[Knight]

oooh, digital modelling You ever use, Bryce, Maya or 3DS Max? I'm something of a rendering nut and been teaching myself 3DS for the last year and so far, not much good with full character modelling so I went in the other direction, simple box modelling, textures and photorealism using HDRIs with Brazil Renderer ... its got to the point its more pointing-clicking and adjusting settings than anything to do with 'art' lol I miss my paint and brushes sometimes ...

[Rob Armstrong]

I started off 3D modelling with Cinema 4D and Lightwave on my old Amiga!

We started off on Infini-D in first year because it was easy for beginner's to 3D modelling to pick up. It was pretty limited but you could get some nice virtual product renders out of it if you did your own textures and worked hard at the lighting, (not to mention some Photoshop post-production).

I'd bought myself my first iMac as that was what we were using in Uni, this allowed me to spend a lot of extra time using it at home and I really got into it. Was told I had a flair for 3D modelling. That was when the KC began in earnest though, started with lenses around that time.

Second year we tried out a few more technically orientated programs, and they settled on SolidWorks which was PC only. That meant I couldn't work on it from home, and I was struggling a bit in class as the room was heavily airconditioned that summer and didn't play nice with my lenses (I didn't know about Refresh drops etc. until later on).

Over the summer break I did my work experience at the International Centre for Digital Content here in Liverpool. It was brilliant! Had to design artwork for a vending machine cup contest, then use 3DS Max to model the cups, apply the artwork, and create a short animation.

Found out they did a Masters in Digital Games there! Using 3DS Max, Wow!
(They were working on a project to create virtual 3D tours of the interiors of some of Liverpool's famous buildings, and after office hours loaded the maps into Unreal Tournament to "test" them)!

When I went back to Uni after my graft, they were all whizzkids in SolidWorks, as they had learned it from day one - but most lacked even rudimentry Photoshop skills, which I had picked up a reasonable amount of. That's how I ended up leaning more towards that area, as I had at least some advantage over them. But then you get out into the real world and find yourself competing against proper graphic designers! With TWO good eyes!

Anyway, thanks to learning a bit of marketing stuff, as well as some graphics skills, I've managed to get a placement doing brochure design etc. Hopefully there'll be a proper job in it for me soon, it seems like a really good opportunity for me.

I've used Bryce once or twice, not seriously though.
Have you heard of Terragen? It puts Bryce to shame and is free for the pre-release version. They even use it in Hollywood.

Was tempted to download Maya Personal Learning Edition, but I really need to focus on learning SolidWorks properly if I'm ever going to get back into product design.

[Knight]

Terragen, yeah even thou I found it easy to pick up it seemed limited in some respects, but I much prefer using Max terrain just one of the many addons, I liked the ShagHair addon for Max which can double up for grass, not entirely what it's designed for but still, it worked lol.

But yes, texture maps, you'll be certainly one up if you're good with PS. I've been using PS for close to 8years now, first version I ever used was on a P1 1.66mhz with 42megs of RAM! Thought it was great in the early days, now I look back and wonder how I survived heh.
I've yet to even try SolidWorks but seen what its capable of, some amazing renders and its fast too, I kinda picked one good 3D app and since digging into the subject, support, addons and its uses I stuck with Max - since there's so much it can do, I've yet to even feel the need to start something else ... did you know Scooby Doo the movie, Ice Age and I think Finding Nemo used Maya and Max for much of it, but all the gfx in Babylon 5 was done in Lightwave ... hard to believe off-the-shelf s/w was capable of that but I've wondered if it's the standard people want or the sheer processing power of Home PCs that's pushing this market ... still cool ...

Anyway, do you have any work/art you could show? Test renders or PS work? I've been meaning to put together a website, to host my stuff but I always get sidetracked with designing the site itself ...lol... I really like the 'interface' finish so I find myself pinching my own work for some software designs.

[Andrew MacLean]

Rob

I am delighted to know that you also use a Mac. Intel or Power Processor?

Andrew