A surprising number of our ranks showed up despite the short notice--this month's meeting was the 2nd Saturday for reasons too mysterious and arcane to go into here--and our presenters had us ooing and ahhing away.
Lamont showed us his setup for a special effect involving encasing an object in a blast of ice. He used morph objects and hypervoxels and got the group talking. The "correct" way for making glass using refraction and air layers was also discussed. These presentations always result in somebody learning an easier way of working in LightWave and show the power that is the User Group. Thanks Lamont!
Next up was Joe from Allegorithmic (say it three times real fast and you summon the devil). He showed us demos of MapZone and MapLine. MapZone creates tileable textures that are res independent. We didn't actually see a texture created but the email everyone got for the PS Users Group has a link for a free download. Check it out. It works on Mac too. :)
Thank you Joe.
Steve showed us a way of creating terrain from images created in Photoshop. Despite plugin trouble, (Discovery anyone?) the technique of painting with texture points is pretty cool.
Will was going to show the merits of .png versus other formats but time ran out. Maybe next time, Will.
News from this meeting:
Will has resigned his post of Vice President and picked up the mantle of VP of Fun. Cruise Director. Julie to Steve's Captain Stubing. (come on admit it, you've seen Das Luv Boot) Will had to abdicate due to too much work. May we all have the same problem. :) Good Luck Will. Paul has picked up the gavel of power and promised to rule with an iron fist. The first thing he did was tell Steve how to run things and was promptly whisked off to an undisclosed location. Soon all will cower before the force named Paul.
Paul has also volunteered to help put up the website. (sucker) Just kidding Paul, if you need anything from the group just ask.
Sign up for Digital Art Week. Dates are Wednesday and Thursday, December 8 and 9. Last year was awesome and this year will be no exception. The venue is high-tech and very nice. All workshops are free. Big names will be there including but not limited to: Larry Schultz (SplineGod), Dave Jerrard (I won't eat any weird food), Jennifer Hachigian Jerrard (Celshader Goddess and cool LW personality) and more. Check it out here http://www.sdphotoshopusers.com/
Hurry, space is limited.
The next meeting will be a Christmas party at Steve's. The theme this year is "Christmas." It will be the third Saturday in December, the 18th. Probably in the evening. More details to come but save the date now.
As usual lunch after the meeting was a high point. After playing demolition derby in the parking lot of Crywolf I joined the crew at Applebee's in time to order. Discussion ranged from "Why are there no women in our group?" to other subjects which made it abundantly clear why there are no women in our group. The Incredibles was deemed incredible and dessert was shared (thanks Joe) I forgot Joe's t-shirt again and officially suck. I'm putting it in the truck tomorrow, I promise.
Does all this sound intriguing? Stupid? Want to find out more? Come to our next get together and find out what you've been missing as the San Diego LightWave Users Group saga continues....
