L.A. SimplyCG'ers UNITE!

Hype and I talked about how it would be nice to get a group of people in the area to go to events such as MGLA, etc. There are a lot of awesome learning and networking opportunities for people in Los Angeles, and who better to share them with than fellow crazy SimplyCG'ers?

Hype also mentioned that there is a Max user group, and there are tons of other random events happening all over the place... like one I just found out that took place on July 5th and wish I could've gone to!--a ZBrush 3 presentation with Meats Meier, Ian Joyner and Ryan Kingslien.

So if anyone is interested in going to events or making our own events just to hang out, have fun or whatever... please input your ideas or suggestions! We could also keep this thread going to post various events so no one accidentally misses out on something great!

Thanks all!
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Antics3D is having a User's group meeting, they're calling it the first RealTime Content Users Group Meeting.

WHAT: RealTime Content Users Group
WHEN: Monday, March 10, 2008, 7:00pm-9:30pm
WHERE: The Design Visualization Center, located at the Art Directors Guild
11969 Ventura Blvd, 1st Floor
Studio City, CA 91604
HOW: Simply reply to this email and type RSVP in the Subject line.

Here's a thread at CGTalk with all the info:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread. ... 9&t=604977

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The Los Angeles Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH,
Presents...
"""" An Evening At Electronic Arts """"""

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

-DIGITAL ACTING-
Three representatives from Electronic Arts explore the techniques used to create believable, directable digital characters for next generation video games. Each of this evenings presenters has a long track record working on AAA titles and are currently involved with the EALA-based team developing new intellectual property in collaboration with Steven Spielberg under the EA Games label.
Neville Spiteri - Producer
Eric Armstrong - Animation Director
Habib Zargapour - Art Director

Courtesy of Electronic Arts we'll be giving away a number of video games so be sure to RSVP and get your ticket at the door!

When:
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
6:30-7:30 Reception
7:30-9:30 Presentations with extended Q&A

Where:
5510 Lincoln Blvd
Playa Vista, CA 90094 Cross streets are Lincoln and Jefferson.

DIRECTIONS:
Take I-405 to Jefferson Blvd Exit. Go West, (right) on Jefferson 2 miles.
Just befroe reaching Loincoln, turn into EA Way.

PARKING:
EA parking lot through gate.
RSVP: la-rsvp@siggraph.org Please RSVP 48 hours prior to arrival to get o n security's Gate List.
This event is free to LA ACM SIGGRAPH members and $20 for non members. New members who sign up on site and pay the $40 annual membership fee (checks or cash only) do not have to pay the $20.

-----

Digital Media Artists Los Angeles

***Next Meeting***
Tuesday, March 18

Gallery Theatre at Barnsdall Art Park
--- 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ---
--- Cover charge: FREE courtesy of Adobe Systems ---

LINEUP: Q&A / Dr. Sassi / Scott Novasic/ J. Walt Adamczyk /
Animation Tricks both 2D and 3D / Inspirational Creative 3D.
You don't need to know 3D software to appreciate our
panel's presentation. It might just inspire you enough to
learn 3D.

*** As always, we will hand out free tickets during the
second half of the meeting (a host will start a strand at
the end of an aisle; take one ticket off the strip and
pass them along). We will pull fewer tickets than there
are prizes, so that the last winner still has some choice
among prizes. You must be present to win.

New members welcome: Visit
http://www.dmala.org/joinmgla.html to join! (for free of
course)

If you have any announcements about jobs, projects or
other employment opportunities, please contact Tom Luth
(tom luth @ aol . com) (remove spaces).
And again, thanks to Adobe's sponsorship of DMA/LA this
year, admission is free!
* Tony, Warren, and Ko_Your co-hosts

Damn why cant I live in LA, I'd be all over this with stickytape and a broom.

Do it guys, feel the love!

can we please postpone this until next year when joe and I arrive in LA?

Hey why does everybody live in LA?

Oh, hang on...

*Global shuffles to the balcony, tweaks the curtain, and looks out*

Nope, there are quite a few that don't live in LA... like me. Which is a shame as I already had my stickytape and broom at the ready. Have a great time guys!

Edmontons a hotspot!

We have...

Bioware
and


..


..


Bioware!

I'll be at the Gnomon thing on the 19th, hopefully with a new recruit from work. I won't be able to be there at 6 for the meet and greet, but I can probably get out of work at 6 and be there at 7ish.

hey guys - apparently I had registered here a while back and didn't realize it!

The gnomon thing sounds awesome and I will do my best to be there.

has anyone seen surf's up yet? I haven't. Perhaps I will have to go see it this weekend (although I already had plans to see ratatouille)

i say we should meet up somewhere and have a simply cg reunion in like 5 years or so, so that we can seriously organize the thing and so that hopefully a lot of people could come... in 5 years, a lot of people will be finished with their studies so it could make it easyer budgetwise... then we would have to pick a place in the midlle for everybody so that people don't have to cross half the world! what do you guys think?

Heh...no kidding...I'd be down

Let's meet on the moon!

Yes! Moon Party!

Spaceboots for everyone!!!

I just RSVP'd... I won't make it in time for the meet and greet though. See you there Bryan!

dang it, i have a birthday dinner on thursday!

looks like i'll be missing out on this one. wonder what cool event is going on next?

oh man that's a bummer hype, hopefully you can make the next one.


Bryan

awesome, thanks!

Hey Bryan check your private messages!

That's pretty awesome. I saw something similar in a gnomon dvd... except he shot footage with a camcorder, tracked the footage and applied it to the 3d camera... it wasn't real time, but it looked pretty good.

Thanks for the info!
~Mechis

Added an "upcoming events" section to the bottom of the first post. If anyone knows of other events I can add them there.

so is anyone going to the thing tomorrow? I'm not, I don't think. Sounds like they're just discussing some stuff about Illustrator and Dreamweaver, 2 programs which I know almost nothing about. So I'll pass.

However, the next MGLA meeting sounds awesome!! Imagineer guys will be there! Their software bugs the crap out of me, so I REALLY want to go! I'm half tempted to bring my own footage on a flash drive and see if they're "magic" software can work it's miracles on some production footage, not the perfectly planned and executed demo footage! (it can't, i've tried it on productions before!)

And they're doorprizing copies of all the software! God help me if I win some!

also expecting a Max user's group email soon, will post here when it shows.

Oh, also, I joined this mailing list today.
http://www.pproug.com/
The Premiere Pro User's group. They're really new, so they only have meetings every few months. Since I've been shooting alot more things lately, I've been using Premiere quite a bit more than I used to, so I figured maybe I'd check it out next time a LA meeting turned up.

Definitely not going to the Adobe thing, I might try to go to the Max group meeting this time though.

I'm not going to the Adobe event, but I am planning on going to the next MGLA. Unfortunately, once school starts again I will have class until 10 every Tuesday night

I am not going to the adobe event either - doesn't really strike me as being that exciting.

yep, TBA for now


Bryan

Heya all. Didn't make it to MGLA... Had company all weekend and didn't check the forum, then remembered MGLA was this week late Tuesday night. DOH! I forget about these meetings even after making this thread!

So far I am planning on going to the VFXTalk Usergroup Meeting. I'm glad it's on a Sunday. As for MGLA, I will have classes until 10pm on Tuesday nights starting next week, so I won't be able to go unless I can somehow convince my teacher to let me.

Anyone hear of other events coming up?

Gnomon School of Visual Effects and the VES Presents:
The State of the Art Technology in Gaming with EA LA

Thursday, September 20th
6:00pm - 9:00pm

Richard Winn Taylor II (DGA) Cinematic Director, EA LA: Behind the scenes of creating the Cinematic Sequences in Command Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. Live action photography with soft set extensions and graphic stylizations. The design and production of the HD Maya Cinematic Sequences.

Habib Zagarpour Art Director, EA LA:
Will demonstrate some of the design considerations for the environment, the physics and the lighting for Need for Speed Most Wanted. He will demonstrate the ICE (In game Camera Editor).
He will briefly demo some other tools being used in Pre-viz for
game environments and cinematic sequences.

Lance Powell Senior Artist, EA LA:
Lance will show how a game engine works by demonstrating how the Unreal Engine was used to make MOHA. He will then show hi-lights of Medal of Honor Airborne and talk about some of the design challenges in the making of a game like MOHA.

Event Details:

When: Thursday, September 20th 2007
Meet & Greet: 6:00PM
Presentation: 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Place: Gnomon School of Visual Effects
1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90038
RSVP: reserve@gnomon3d.com
This event is FREE of charge!

booo couldn't make it to the vfxtalk thing today... bburger or hype did you go?

yep I went! It was pretty cool - 3 companies presented.

Luma Pictures talked about primeval, and actually recreated the entire comp for one shot in shake - explaining everything as they went.

Digital Domain talked about their work on flag of our fathers which I think (for me) was the highlight of the event. They had tons of breakdowns and went into great detail about what they did and how they did it. The roto work was INSANE on flags - they showed a video showing all the roto masks in one shot and I was honestly in complete awe seeing the complexity and just sheer volume of roto that was done. In almost all of the 500 shots they did, they roto'd out the foreground actors and replaced EVERYTHING else, and added tons and tons of cg stuff. The amount of work was just staggering.

Last but not least was Method who talked about a miller light commercial they did that had a big giant walking through LA made up of tons of people. It was very interesting.

There was soda, water, bags of chips, and huge muffins to eat (free of course).

All in all I thought it was a very cool event - and a BIG turnout. I would say there were at least 100 people there.


Bryan