Okay, I'm back

I got an email recently from a student asking me to please update my blog. Okay, so here I am (she says in a grudging tone of voice, but secretly happy to be back).

I'll try to bring you up to date. I've been working at TurboSquid for nearly two years now, feeling much like the little bumblebee girl in Blind Melon's No Rain video (ie. hangin' with my funky peops). I just finished up revisions to How to Cheat in 3ds Max, updating it for v2010. I also contributed to the new book 3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization - Advanced to Expert for 3DATS.

On a personal note, last year I got divorced, bought my dream house, and started dating a very cool guy. I took up the piano again, and I'm also learning guitar. Life is good.

Enough about all that. You want to know what I've been doing with graphics. O ironies of ironies, I am back in the CAD world. At TurboSquid, I work on Revit Market, the (let us say it all together now) world's largest online marketplace for Revit content. So I'm learning Revit, too. It's kind of like 3ds Max, except it requires, like, accuracy and stuff.

Back in 1990, I used to be quite the AutoCAD maven. We all were, all us 3D Studio users. You kind of had to be, since all the "serious" modeling was being done in AutoCAD, and then it was brought into 3D Studio for rendering. Literally every 3D Studio user I knew, used AutoCAD too.

But AutoCAD in 1990 is not Revit in 2009. They are just a wee bit different. In Revit, you can create your own parametric objects, which is way beyond most other CAD software. For example, you can set up a chair object with parameters like those for a Box in 3ds Max, and when you change the Height parameter all the parts of the chair will scale proportionally or change placement in an intelligent way. But only after you painstakingly set it up that way, of course.

So that's what I've been up to. I'll try and post more than once every six months from now on. If not, feel free to remind me.

Name That Supermodel

Sorry for such a long time between posts. I've been busy with my side career as a male swimsuit model fashion photographer.

Name the model below, and win a free trip for two to Jamaica! Oh wait, sorry. Already took the trip.

A good time was had by all, particularly me!

My Posse

The last couple of months, I've been getting in touch with old 3D friends. It happens quite naturally, as a matter of doing business and living my life. I got Roger on IM, Mike on Skype, and I talked to Pia, Mark, and Steve on the phone within the last couple of months. And then there's Wade, who actually reads my blog. Plus I got Ted, Bobo, and Swami on the email, and Beau, of course, who I talk to all the time.

Beau Perschall of TurboSquid

Who are these people? They are my buds, my compadres, my posse. Now, I ain't no cowboy, but I gots myself a posse. Everyone needs a posse.

Ken Maffei, Amer Yassine, me, Pia Maffei

Over the years, there are industry people I've gravitated to. Other teachers and writers, mostly, but a few people I've interviewed, or learned from, or just plain liked. Most of them I've met online on 3ds Max forums, then in person at Siggraph.

Bobo Petrov, me, Swami. No, I am not drunk. Bobo is tickling me, the little bastard. He does it every year when we get together for a picture, and I fall for it every time.

Then we stayed in touch. It's always more pleasurable to work with people you like, so whenever a project comes up that requires some collaboration or advice, I turn to my posse. Over the course of work, we went from acquaintances to friends, and we meet at Siggraph and other functions.

I see them only once or twice a year, but they're my buds.

Bobo, Mark Gerhard, Gary Yost, Oleg Bayborodin, Ted Boardman

So what goes on with a posse? Here are a few examples:

• Mark recommended me for a job at Autodesk.


• Mike was a stellar student with whom I did several documentation jobs for TurboSquid. He has now gone on to make his own mark with Cebas.


• Roger did technical editing on my most recent book, How to Cheat in 3ds Max. In fact, we've tech-edited so many of each others' works over the years that I've lost count.


• Gary Yost, the "inventor" of 3ds Max, was instrumental in getting me into the early Beta Program.


• Swami and I collaborated on a MAXScript book for Autodesk, which was actually a revision of a book Ken Maffei had written.


• Amer, being one of the few hold-outs that still works at Autodesk, translated some 3D-related text into French for me recently.


• Steve called me a few months ago to ask for help preparing a class on 3ds Max, which I was happy to give.


• Ted and I get together once in a while and talk about teaching.


• I interviewed Oleg in Moscow for a video on 3ds Max artists. At the time, he spoke no English, but somehow we got along great. Then a few years later, Beau hired me to write the documentation for one of his plug-ins. Thankfully, Oleg knew a few words in English by then, and was able to explain the software to me.


• Bobo and I taught a MAXScript class together at CGSociety last year.


• Beau recommended me for a job at TurboSquid, where I now work. Now he sees more of me than he ever wanted to.


• Pia has invited me into several Beta programs over the years, and happily, she and I have a meeting next week to talk about working together again.


• Wade is just plain happy to see me every year. I'm sure I'll find a use for him someday. (Please laugh, Wade.)

Wade and Swami

None of this was planned. I'd go to Siggraph, hang out with some people that I thought were cool, and the next thing you know, I had a posse.

Looking forward to many more years of riding off into the sunset.

3D Models in the Big Easy

Well, it's been a while since I posted and I figured I should keep you up to date. Either that, or I feel the urge to reflect on my past.

I'm in New Orleans right now as part of my job with TurboSquid. I'm having such a good time, I can't even tell you. I get to hang out with a bunch of other people who love 3D as much as I do. We talk about 3D models all day, then at quittin' time we go out for a beer and talk about 3D models. Then on the weekend we make 3D models and send each other links to other peoples' 3D models. Then on holidays we--well, you get the idea. I didn't invent this universe, I was just lucky enough to step into it.

For some reason this got me thinking about a presentation I did at Siggraph some years back, I think it was 1999, a Birds of a Feather session on the Character Studio plug-in for 3ds Max. Character Studio had a semi-large, diverse community from all over the world, but no central place for us to meet. I set up a session and got Michael Girard, developer of Character Studio and a Seriously Smart Person, to present the technical end of it.

We expected about 50 people, and 100 showed up. I demonstrated character animation concepts with the use of a human body, namely mine, and we gave away prizes and ate brownies and generally had a merry good time. Everyone hung out for hours afterward, with Singaporeans swapping emails with Australians and Chicagoans, all happy to find others who liked to tinker with the Biped as much as they did. It didn't start out as a party but ended up being one, ranking up there in the Top Ten Best Times Michele Has Ever Had at a User Group Meeting.

So now I have a job that's like one long hang-out session, talking about the stuff I like to talk about, thinking about ways to expand the 3D industry and put the Squid on every desktop. Other people do the technical stuff. I just figure out how to talk 3D with everybody in the industry all the time.

Like I said, I didn't invent this universe. But I sure am glad I found it.

Hangin' with the Squid

In case you're wondering whether I've fallen into a gorge somewhere or something, wonder no more. I am just under the spell of the Squid.

Turbo Squid, that is. Last week I started a new job as their Director of Marketing. This is a natural extension of my longtime interest in the 3D biz, and a longtime necessity, as a freelancer, to explore any and all marketing opportunities (especially ones with a good return for little cost).
What does a Director of Marketing do, you might ask? I find ways to advertise. I find new pockets of people that for one reason or another have never heard of Turbo Squid. I go to trade shows and talk about how great the product is.

Turbo Squid is the largest vendor of its type on the Internet by a large margin, so my job is easy in a way. I like this, and I like the Squid.

By coincidence, just before I was hired I had made a 3D version of the company logo. It might end up on the webiste one of these days.

Time to get back to work.

Who says you can't play funk with a fiddle?

I just got back from Fiddleheads Camp, a weekend I look forward to all year. I got to form my own band (the first time student-led bands were allowed) and we performed SuperFreak and Purple Haze.

And I have video to prove it! (That's me singing SuperFreak.)

A little secret

I have a little secret that I use to be successful in any area. Don't tell anyone. The secret is...

Polite Pestering.

The amount of work it takes to get anything done in this world constantly amazes me. I can think of numerous examples, but the one that comes to mind is, of course, the one that I'm going through right now.

I am trying to get on the Beta List for a particular piece of software. In the software industry, there are two phases software goes through before it's released. There's the Alpha version which is tested internally, then the Beta version goes out to a select list of previous clients and media people for testing and review.

Being on the Beta List is kind of like being invited to a very exclusive party. You get to see the software before anyone else does, try out new features and comment upon them. Sometimes your suggestions are incorporated into the new release. It's a big responsibility, especially when coupled with the confidentiality agreement, which states that a breach will result in your left leg being amputated.

Unfortunately, getting onto a Beta List is harder than getting backstage at a Rolling Stone concert. I know because I have tried both. (Mick Jagger is very pleasant in person, by the way.) Before you can apply, you need to receive an invitation via email. If the software company doesn't send you one, you need to bug all your friends until you find one that did, and you get your friend (who is hopefully not too sore at you by this time) to forward it to you.

Then you apply and...wait. You hear nothing back, so you send an email to the Beta List administrator and explain why it's in their best interests to accept you. You shamelessly trot out all your credentials. Then you wait some more.

A few weeks and several unanswered emails later, you call the company. You find out that the administrator left the company three weeks earlier, and the new guy is doing the jobs of three people and can't talk to you right now.

So you email that guy, and you get some of your friends to email him too, explaining why you are the perfect Beta List candidate. You make a very polite pest of yourself. "I know you are very busy, but it's important that I get on the Beta List as soon as possible because..." Finally, perhaps just to stop the emails, the guy puts you on the the Beta List.

Now for the most important part of Polite Pestering: you send the guy a nice present for his trouble. I like to send candy, flowers, or balloons. No one has ever complained about this.

If I'm lucky, next year the same guy will be handling the Beta List. And he'll remember the candy, not the pestering.

Try it and see.