New CG Academy Advanced Modelling DVD underway!!

[PureFire]

Beserker looks wicked. Would love to see that constructed.

[Six60Sicks]

Any idea when this might be available? What about price? Is it catered to a specific package? If not, what package is used on the DVD (Max, Maya, XSI, ...)?
Thanks

[Ollarin]

Looks awesome! That explains why Dom hasn't been on MSN much. :p

Sicks, i reckon it's going to be for Max, since he's a Max user.

[digitalrage]

Wow Mr. Thomas, an incredible line up from CGA. So much meat on fire....but when we'll have a new release? You've announced new textures dvd, new mechanical modeling, new rendering and lighting dvd, new mechanical animation but when?
It should be very useful also for us to have a timeline about the next release, like gnomon do....this is obviously to plan a short term budget. Thank you.

Ciao.

[Chris Thomas]

Sorry guys, maybe I should have posted a few more specifics on the DVD. At the momment CG Academy is only catering to the 3dsmax market, I think the Gnomon guys and others already server the Maya community pretty well, so no point in duplicating efforts there eh?

As for release dates... Well, as with software I havent mentioned release dates for a good reason. CG Academy is not a full time activity for any of its membersm, we all work actively in the industry and with the vagaries of freelance work and schedules it would be madness to put a date down on paper. That just puts preasure on the instructos involved to get the DVD done by a certain date and if the date is missed then people can justifiiably get anoyed. So its better all around if I state what we are up to and let the DVDs role out when, and only when they are complete.

That being said, I'm working on the mechanical modelling DVD right now, Dominic is working on his DVD pretty much full time between projects as is Chris Harvey, so beleive me we should have some "meat" for the plate pretty soon (weeks, not days).

[PaulAdams]

Cool, Dominic's reel was wicked so this will no doubt be great too.

Hope it's not too long of a wait.

[Animare]

Yay! Finally somemore Max Training DVDs, would love to see some indepth texutring ones, dont think theres any out there(if there are please point me to them.
You've definately got my sale.

[KingMob]

hey Dom, congrats, looks good buddy!

-Ian

[Bulldog]

good stuff , i'll pick that up as soon as I sell the stuff in my signature.

[Chris Thomas]

Animare, we currently have one Fundamentals DVD on texturing, mainly an exploration of what UVs are and how to map procedural textures. We do have future DVDs planned to show how to use the UVW Unwrap tool, and how to do so on a complex character like the ones Dominic has planned. Anyway you can see our current range of DVDs on this page...

http://www.cg-academy.net/dvds_menu_3dsmax.htm

Give us time, we have many more DVDs planned and also in the works. 3dsmax is certainly gaining ground of late, and the Autodesk team have been delivering the goods in recent releases (what people have wanted, they have received, cloth, hair, particles) so all the 3dsmax community needs now is some top quality training material to help untap all that talent out there. And as we've seen from the Expose books, there's a LOT of talent out there :)

I've been using 3dsmax from v1.0 and 3Dstudio before that from release 1.0, so I hope to produce a lot of the fundamentals and intermediate DVDs myself, but where talent in a certain area outshines mine, I get those people in, hence Dominic, Paul Neale, Bobo, Laszlo etc. You may not always have heard of the people I have picked, but beleive me, they are always some of the best people in their fields.

[Chris Thomas]

Just to show the whip cracks both ways ;)

Here is a WIP of the model I am producing for the Advanced Mechanical modelling DVD. Its been slow going so far, mainly because I am tackling the most complex area of the model first. That is the main drive, piston and linkage area. I'm doing this so I can hand it over to Chris Harvey so he can rig it up for his third (or is it fourth...) mechanical rigging DVD.

http://www.christopher-thomas.net/streaming/Hudson_Example_07.jpg

http://www.christopher-thomas.net/streaming/Hudson_Example_06.jpg

Cheers

[trthing]

Chris, as a Max & Maya user I must say I really appreciate your effort toward giving us high quality training material: I am looking forward to all these new titles!

Good luck!

[Chris Thomas]

A quick update on the Advanced Creature Modelling DVD by Dominic. He has completed primary modelling now and we are going to record the DVD in the very near future. Here is the model that will be covered. The idea is that this model would be a great basis on top of which more detail can be added via displacement, bump maps and of course colour maps. This is the way most current pipelines work, if you put too much detail into the mesh, it becomes to heavy to work with in terms of animation and so on. Anyway, enough waffle, here's the model :)

http://www.christopher-thomas.net/streaming/creature_stage3.jpg


Cheers

[dominicqwek]

Hey Ian, Thanks! :)

I'm really excited about this dvd. It's going to be structured such that the user will be able to take what is learnt and start working on his own creature designs. I will be sharing my thought process and considerations and not just rattle on on what is obviously happening in the footage. Enough talking. :D

[pogonip]

I'll be buying this ...looks good .. !!

[gyro2k]

Looks like it's shaping up to be irresistable!
Good luck m'man!

-Roger

[Chris Thomas]

Hi guys, a quick update here on the status of our modelling DVDs...

Advanced Creature Modelling: By Dominic Qwek
Dominic has been recording this title over the previous week, we had some issues here with initial size of our files, but we managed to get past the technical issues and recording is pretty much wrapped now. I'm starting on editing this DVD this week, so hopefully it should be ready for release by early next week. No promises, as ever it will be ready when its ready...

Advanced Technical Modelling: By Chris Thomas
This title hasn't really progressed much as I have been away for a week and also in the mean time I've been concentrating on helping Dominic with his DVD. Also this week I will be busy with editing his DVD and getting the other elements we need in place to launch it. I'll be back on this title as soon as I can though, and the work carried out with Dominic will help streamline recording.

Also, in related news I'm working on a script that will become the basis of a procedural modelling/workflow DVD. I'm trying to make this title as broad as possible i.e. I'll actually be looking at the theme of proceduralism on a wider basis to give the user a better insight into how it is handled within 3dsmax with the stack. To that end I'll be taking a quick look at other packages, for instance how Maya handles proceduralism and of course Houdini (proceduralism to the nth degree). I think its going to make a great title, and is kind of a cross over titles that is both applicable to modelling and animation.

more soon...

Cheers

[dominicqwek]

Heh, just figured I'd pop by to say some words (finally I have the time and Chris is the one who's gonna be real busy now... then again, he always seems to be. ha. ) After having finished recording, I must say I am quite happy with the outcome. Pretty much achieved what we intended for.

Can't wait to get my hands on the mechanical modeling dvd. *cracks whip* :D

[Chris Thomas]

Ouch, I felt that one :scream:

Well, finally, the wait is over. Dominic has finished recording, I've finished editing and the DVD is on sale. As you can see from the box artwork, its an Advanced level DVD called "Sub-D Creature Modelling", and it does what it says on the tin. You can read more about it here (http://www.cg-academy.net/pages/topic_modelling/dvds_modelling_advanced_01/dvds_modelling_advanced1.htm)...

http://www.cg-academy.net/pages/topic_modelling/dvds_modelling_advanced_01/DVD_Boxshots_MA_01.jpg

Cheers

[erilaz]

Sweet. I'll tack this onto the list of DVDs i'll be buying from you later this month! :D

[Chris Thomas]

A quick update here on the progress of the Advanced Technical Modelling DVD. I'm in the later stages with the model now. Its more a case of filling in holes and making sure that major elements are not missing. Also getting various elements modelled on one side copied over to the other. Here it is, only 10% to go :scream:

http://www.christopher-thomas.net/streaming/90_Complete.jpg

[Chris Thomas]

Ok, the DVD is recorded, just waiting for a couple of items to com into place before I can release it. But, for my part, its a wrap....

Here's the box artwork, it'll be on sale early next week ;)

http://www.cg-academy.net/pages/topic_modelling/dvds_modelling_advanced_02/Boxshot_web.jpg

[AmbiDextrose]

Very nice. Although I use a different package, I'm quite sure that the techniques presented here will still be applicable. I'll probably pick this up once it's out. Any plans on another modeling session from Dominic Qwek? What are the plans for Technical Modeling 2?

Cheers!

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