The 3ds Max London User Group meets on the first Wednesday of every month at Truckles, opposite the British Museum. Started in 2007, the group enjoys a great number of professional members from London's advertising, architectural and animation industries. We meet to discuss ideas, methods and projects in a friendly, relaxed setting.

Sunday 1 December 2013

Factory Fifteen host 3ds London

7pm, Wed 4th Dec
Studio 4a, 246 Stockwell Road, SW9 9SP
(Head right along Brixton Road from the Tube or Train Station. The studio is in a building opposite the O2 Academy on Stockwell Road- there will be directions on the door)
map



This Wednesday 4th December 3ds London heads a few stops down the Victoria Line to Factory Fifteen's studio in Brixton. Paul, Jonathan, Kibwe and their team have kindly invited everyone to check out some of their recent projects including the Dazed Digital featured studio project ‘Chupan Chupai’, D&AD ident ‘I wish I’d done that’, a secret sci-fi project called Xavier and Factory fav ‘Jonah’. The team first presented their work at 3ds London a few years ago and never fail to impress so it'll be great to visit their studio- Ping Pong Pros especially welcome.

Bring along some work to share please! I hope most of you will make it, remember the next event after this will be on Wednesday 5th February 2014. 3ds London has been traveling around a lot towards the end of this year but I think it's been a success, next year we'll be back at The Plough or somewhere very close by, stay tuned.
Follow @3dslondon, check out www.3dslondon.co.uk or the LinkedIn group to stay up to date. Kind regards, Simon

Thursday 31 October 2013

V-Ray, Hayes Davidson and Henry Goss at 3ds London



Wednesday 6th November from 6:30pm
Hayes Davidson
Studio A
21 Conduit Place
London W2 1HS
Map and Directions

We have a great 3ds London planned for November. Hayes Davidson have kindly invited us to their fantastic studio again this year, doors open at 6:30pm. We’ll start the evening at 7pm sharp with introductions and a chance for the group to share their work - you’re going to bring something along,right?


Hayes Davidson are making the first presentation. The team will be showcasing work from the past year, expect their usual highly polished imagery of the latest and greatest projects in the news!


Then we have a making of the fantastic renders for Staithe End, a forthcoming house in Christchurch, England, designed by London-based Henry Goss Architects. Henry is going to explain his workflow and how he managed to master Sketchup, Max, Multiscatter, Forest Pack, Texture Warp, Peter Guthrie HDRI's, Arroway, V-Ray 2.0, Photoshop and Lightroom, on top of designing the project!


I’m happy to tell you Chaos Group are flying over again to tell us all about the upcoming V-Ray 3.0. Progressive production rendering, V-Ray’s new shading capabilities and a brand new user interface with quick settings and presets are just a few of the new features and updates that V-Ray Master Trainer Konstantin Gaytandzhiev will demonstrate. Chaos Group’s VP of Business Development, Lon Grohs will be also on hand for an evening of knowledge-sharing and networking.

We’ll wrap the evening up with a chance to use HD’s studio screens to display work, with doors closing at 9:30pm. Then it’s a stone’s throw away to the Sawyers Arms!

We’ve had a run of brilliant evenings, but remember I’m always looking for presentations. The next slots are likely to be February 2014, so you’ve got months to prepare! Get in contact. Details at www.3dslondon.co.uk and follow @3dslondon on Twitter. See you there, regards, Simon

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Analog @ 3ds London tonight

Honda "Hands" with Analog






Mike Merron is the Director of Analog, an independent creative Visual Effects Studio based producing visual effects for commercials, film, music videos and web content.

In this session, presented in conjunction with the 3ds Max London User Group, Mike will be talking about Analog's VFX work on the stunning Honda Hands advert which shows the automotive brand’s best-known inventions.


This month's presentation is at HP's pop up from 7pm:

 Zed The Vinyl Factory
16-18 Marshall Street
W1F 7BE
London


Sorry if this is the first you've heard of it, the event registration was sent to 3ds London members on the email list first, and quickly filled up (note registration is not normally required for the events).

HOWEVER, whilst I can't guarantee it, I don't think you'll be turned away if you turn up! Regards, Simon

Monday 2 September 2013

Railclone2 Wednesday 4th September

For 7pm
Upstairs at The Plough, 27 Museum Street, WC1A
Map

Hi everyone,
This Wednesday we have a presentation from Itoo about the recently released Railclone2. Paul Roberts presented at the beginning of the year and he was very good, so I'm sure this one will be too:

RailClone2 introduces an innovative approach to parametric modelling. Custom meshes, defined by the user, are arrayed along splines according to a set of construction rules to create sophisticated procedural objects. This new concept allows you to build complex, realistic and interactive structures for Architectural Visualization, Civil Engineering, Industrial and Interior Design. Use the comprehensive library, or create your own rules in the new graphical Style Editor with a familiar workflow that is easy to learn, and fast to use. Create a whole building facade, fill a stadium with seating, or build bridges and much more with only a few clicks.
This presentation will explain how RailClone’s artist-friendly approach to parametric modelling can help you to model sophisticated procedural objects - fast!  Starting with a look at the principles of modelling with RaiClone and the comprehensive library, we’ll move on to explore the benefits and techniques of RailClone’s node-based rulesets, which allow assets to be easily modified, adapted and reused. We then look at the different ways segments can be randomised, combined and deformed to create geometry that would be considerably more time-consuming using other techniques. Find out more about RailClone and download the free Lite version from www.itoosoft.com.
Good News- We have a new projector, courtesy of Jamie, so if you would like to bring some work along (please do) we will now be able to show it!

Details at www.3dslondon.blogspot.co.uk and follow @3dslondon on Twitter. See you there, regards, Simon

Sunday 4 August 2013

Jamie Gwilliam @ 3dsLondon Wed 7th August

Wednesday 7th August
For 7pm
Upstairs at The Plough, 27 Museum Street, WC1A

Map
 
Hi everyone,
Are you around this Wednesday for a catch up? Occasionally I don't manage to organise a full presentation in time for the evening, this being one. So if you want to be a hero this is a great opportunity to bring a project along to show everyone!

However, there's a great reason to come along this month- Jamie Gwilliam will be there and is keen to talk to the group. You may have read some discouraging rumours about 3ds Max recently. Jamie is a long time 3ds Max user and recently became the Territory Manager for the UK and Ireland (Jamie is also a long time supporter of the group, this year he organised the Q&A with Frank Delise and last month's presentation by Alex). This is a great chance to have an informal chat with him about any concerns or questions you may have. If you can't make it, you can always reach him by email or follow him on twitter.


Of course, all the usual networking, quite a few people / companies looking for people this month if the 3dslondon at gmail dot com Inbox is anything to go by. Apologies if I haven't replied recently, had a lot on!
Details at www.3dslondon.blogspot.co.uk and follow @3dslondon on Twitter.

See you there, regards, Simon

Monday 1 July 2013

Wednesday 3rd July
For 7pm
Upstairs at The Plough, 27 Museum Street, WC1A

Map





Hi everyone,

Apologies for the late notice this month- 3ds London is go though! And it should be a good one. To start us off, Edd Stockton is going to show us his Chrome Molly video again, this time with a bit of info on how he did it all. Keith Jeffery has let me know the Taylor James crew have some new work to share too- will you be bringing something along? Please do!

I'm looking forward to welcoming Autodesk's Alex Horst, who's flying over to present the following:


Reality Capture for Film, Games and Visualization
Creating photo-realistic digital assets is key to increasing the realism of today's games and movies. There is a fast-growing demand to bring the as-built or as-existing reality into the production pipeline. Some advanced production houses have embraced reality capture technologies, and they already use photos, videos, or lasers to capture reality. The Autodesk Reality Capture Group has developed tools that make these technologies easier to use. Combined with 3ds Max, Mudbox and Unity, see how customers can benefit by using these new tools and work-flows to create digital assets for use in a production environment.
 3ds Max 2014: Visible and Invisible stuff
Get to know which recent improvements were made to 3ds Max. New tools for crowd generation, particle animation, and perspective matching and more will help you creating your animations and designs in less time. You will be given Tips & Tricks on how to utilize new functionalities, as well as receiving an overview on the changes under the hood and some recent technology updates.
 Creating an Advertising Game Pitch in a day
Alex is going to a fictional pitch about a Breakfast Cereal advertising: From relaunching the product, it’s appearance and name over some sort of viral Game, prototyped in Unity. Alex has been using Kinect MotionCapturing, Sketchbook Pro, 3ds Max, Mudbox, MotionBuilder and Unity to come up with the concept, prototype and presentation within a day. He is going to present the project and a making off.

See you there, regards, Simon

Friday 31 May 2013

Ink @ 3dslondon Wednesday 5th June


Wednesday 5th June
For 7pm
Upstairs at The Plough, 27 Museum Street, WC1A

Hi everyone,

We've got some great presentations next week- First off, Robert Ramsay is going to talk about his role at Boss Level as the main Graphics Artist there, in charge of making sprites and level maps. Robert’s going to show us some character asset production and rigging, using Max, Zbrush and 3D Coat, and touch on a few other perks to using Zbrush in pre-visualisation projects.

Next up, INK is an award winning digital production studio that joins forces with creative agencies, film studios and designers to deliver beautifully crafted digital images, films and advertising for leading international brands.

David, Kamen and James will present a variety of work starting with their CGI short for the London Grand Prix by Santander, running through the entire project from storyboard concepts, 3am photography in the streets of London and filming on set with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Then a look at their newly released Dogfighters series, an in-house project, which quite simply merges their love of dogs and planes!

Remember, details posted at www.3dslondon.co.uk and on Twitter, follow @3dslondon.

See you there, Simon