Posting will resume on Thursday, March 4th . . .

The fun continues - running changes.
Lots of cool, good stuff has happened. More to come in 48 hours.

Tonight!!

Tonight in NYC:  Marc Hamaker & Bill Ennis presenting Smoke on the Mac at the After Effects New York (AENY) user group. Also presenting AE workflows with FCP & Smoke, fxguide | fxphd's John Montgomery. Click on the link for location and details: http://aeny.org/2010/01/february-meeting/

Live Stream Here:  http://www.stickam.com/carlmarxer

Bill is demo'ing the Smoke right now!

Ahh.....

Today's victory . . .  posting will return tonight . . .

----- Original Message -----
Subject: Approval on all spots!

Hey everyone,

We shipped 7 of the spots last night, and just learned we have approval on the
last one, *********.

Thanks so much for all of your hard work on these. All of the late nights were
incredibly appreciated, and the client is  pleased with the way they all
turned out.

Have a good day!

I know, I know

Spent 12 hours today on the box.   14 hours yesterday.   And that's the weekend!
Final approval spots went out tonight to the clients; Last-minute tweaks and deliverables tomorrow.

Longer post in by Wednesday.   Lots of cool stuff has happened / is happening / will happen.

Thank all of your for your patience and continued following.  Isn't February supposed to be the slow time?

Whew!

Again, apologies for the sporadic updates.  Work has been absolutely nutty, lots of projects going on - and I guess it's a good thing that I am fairly integral to all of them.

Here's what I know:

- Grant Kay has posted not one, but TWO new tutorials.   They are both great, especially the one about the oft-misunderstood Paint Module.  Check them out here and here.

- There is a new tutorial up on The AREA about 3D compositing in Action on Smoke OSX.   This is one of the huge strengths of Smoke - the power of a full editorial timeline combined with a true 3D compositing environment.   Special thanks to Brian Mulligan, Smoke artist extraordinaire (and all around good guy) from WTHR in Indianapolis - whose footage and project is used in this tutorial.   Apparently there is some sort of 'team' from Indy playing in some 'game' this weekend, too ....

- A recording of the "Digital Production Buzz" Podcast from last week with Barry Goch is now available online.   It's a great listen and Barry says some really good stuff.    Here's the mp3.  Also check out the Google group Barry set up for Smoke on Mac, lots of good information.

- KeyCode Media has launched a multi-city Smoke on OSX "Lunch and Learn" Tour!   They were in Santa Monica this past Wednesday, are going to Portland on Tuesday, and will be in Seattle next Thursday, the 11th.

We're about to get a good bit of snow dumped on us for the third time this winter (that's a lot for Richmond!) so hopefully I'll have time to post more over the weekend while in my pajamas sipping the hot cocoa.

Webcast Today and SuperMeet next week!

Today!  3:30pm EST - Autodesk Smoke for FCP Users Webcast.   Hosted by Louis-Philippe Rondeau.
Register and Tune In!

Friday, February 5th!  The Ninth Annual SF SuperMeet and its free workshops.   Autodesk Smoke on Mac workshops at 9:30a and 3:00p  (the Noon one is already Sold Out!)  Looks to be a great event.

(Thanks Nathan for the Reminder!)

I could never get the hang of Thursdays . . .

I've got a lot to cover tonight so I'm just going to get to it.   Posting has become more infrequent as business has ramped up, so I apologize ... more on that later. 

- The very hip (and FXphd prof!) Brian Higgins of SOL Design in Chicago is looking to expand its roster of Smoke freelance talent.   The Richmond - Chicago commute is a bit long (the traffic is killer in the morning) or I'd be all over it - the guys at SOL do some great work and if you do happen to be of the Midwestern persuasion I'd definitely give them a shout.   Here is the posting:

SOL design, a visual effects, design and finishing house in Chicago,
IL is looking to expand its roster of freelance Smoke talent. We do
mainly spot work, and are looking for people with Smoke finishing
experience, possibly needing someone as early as next Wednesday
(2/3/10.) If you're interested and available, please email Neal
Cohen, Executive Producer at neal@soldesignfx.com.

- Grant Kay has posted Part 2 of his Source Nodes tutorial on his blog on The AREA.  Source Nodes are amazingly cool things that can really add a lot to your compositing very easily.   The hardest part is initially wrapping your head around how they work - and these videos from Grant really help.   Definitely worth a look.

- Autodesk has posted the official Smoke on OSX Promo Video on it's Facebook page - it'll be used mostly to open trade shows and official Mac events, but it's very cool and worth checking out.  If you're all about the "Social Media",  ADSK is Twittering (tweeting?, twitting?, whatever) as well.

- Speaking of trade shows, Autodesk has made its official NAB 2010 Call for Submissions.  Looking for material for the Best of the Best main showreel as well an high-resolution stills for marketing.   They've always been great about giving credit and highlighting the talent, so if you've done something amazing, let them know and let the world see it!

- Speaking of doing something amazing - check out this video.  I'm sure most of you have seen it already but it's entirely CGI (3ds Max / Vray / AE) and really stunning.    Very inspiring, and worth multiple views.

- Tangentially related to Smoke but a very cool video nonetheless is Ivar Beer's new Lustre Tutorial.  He's always pushing the envelope of what is possible with the software, and it's really great to see. 

- Lastly, I apologize (again!) for the delay in getting posts up and thank all of you for keeping up.  It's been supremely busy at work, however it all seems to be worth it today - AdWeek has named The Martin Agency (my day job) it's National Agency of the Year for 2009.   It's the first time the Agency has won this honor and we're all pretty happy here.  It's been a grueling year but it is nice to get a little bit of recognition.