PSD to 3D plug-in: Windows only

https://www.awn.com/news/ed-studios-new-plugin-converts-2d-drawings-3d



PSD > pen tool > Maya > mgear for rigging > AE for animation

Rigging
http://www.mgear-framework.com/

PSD-3D (Windows only, not for Mac OS)
https://edfilms.net/shop/

Maya: $195/mo. -OR- $1,595/mo. -OR- $4,170/yr.
https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/subscribe?support=ADVANCED&plc=MAYA&term=1-YEAR&quantity=1

MONTREAL – Animation studio E*D Films has announced the release of PSD to 3D, a new plugin that converts 2D drawings into 3D content. Artists with little to no 3D experience can now bypass the modeling phase, turning Photoshop sketches into moldable scenes and characters, ready for animation.

Art + tech director, Daniel Gies, E*D Films, commented, “An illustrated look is hard to replicate in 3D, even if you know the software. With PSD to 3D, every line and brush stroke is passed onto the 3D meshes, so artists can bring a unique look to their animations.”

PSD to 3D was developed in-house at the Montreal-based studio. The production-grade converter is simple enough that a 3D novice can start converting Photoshop drawings and paintings within minutes. After conversion, the 3D objects will be available within Autodesk Maya for tweaks, including depth and resolution. All objects correspond to the original Photoshop layers, giving artists an easy way to build up and adjust scenes and characters.

The new plugin replaces an outdated After Effects method that often requires artists to produce hundreds of layers to achieve a 3D look. Since After Effects wasn’t made to be a 3D engine, the process is slow and difficult, lacking the real-time speed that most artists use to iterate effectively. With PSD to 3D, a simple conversion makes all of Maya’s tools available in minutes, helping artists animate much faster.

To mark the launch, E*D Films has prepared a short demo demonstrating how artists can start using PSD to 3D on their animated projects today.

Also in the pipeline for release are eight new production assets including custom sound bundles, handy scripts, workflow helpers and special assets like sparkles, fog and bugs. These items join a growing list of tools, brushes and animated aids already available from E*D Films.

PSD to 3D is available in two versions that cater to artists with different levels of 3D experience. More information on pricing and availability is available here.

'The Future of AT&T Is An Ad-tracking Nightmare Hellworld'

'The Future of AT&T Is An Ad-tracking Nightmare Hellworld' (theverge.com)94

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday May 26, 2019 @04:49PM from the every-move-you-make dept.

There's something scary in Fortune's new article about AT&T:"Say you and your neighbor are both DirecTV customers and you're watching the same live program at the same time," says Brian Lesser, who oversees the vast data-crunching operation that supports this kind of advertising at AT&T. "We can now dynamically change the advertising. Maybe your neighbor's in the market for a vacation, so they get a vacation ad. You're in the market for a car, you get a car ad. If you're watching on your phone, and you're not at home, we can customize that and maybe you get an ad specific to a car retailer in that location."

Such targeting has caused privacy headaches for Yahoo, Google, and Facebook, of course. That's why AT&T requires that customers give permission for use of their data; like those other companies, it anonymizes that data and groups it into audiences -- for example, consumers likely to be shopping for a pickup truck -- rather than targeting specific individuals. Regardless of how you see a directed car ad, say, AT&T can then use geolocation data from your phone to see if you went to a dealership and possibly use data from the automaker to see if you signed up for a test-drive -- and then tell the automaker, "Here's the specific ROI on that advertising," says Lesser. AT&T claims marketers are paying four times the usual rate for that kind of advertising.
"This is a terrifying vision of permanent surveillance," argues the Verge (in an article shared by schwit1):In order to make this work, AT&T would have to:

- Own the video services you're watching so it can dynamically place targeted ads in your streams

- Collect and maintain a dataset of your personal information and interests so it can determine when it should target this car ad to you

- Know when you're watching something so it can actually target the ads

- Track your location using your phone and combine it with the ad-targeting data to see if you visit a dealership after you see the ads

- Collect even more data about you from the dealership to determine if you took a test-drive

- Do all of this tracking and data collection repeatedly and simultaneously for every ad you see

- Aggregate all of that data in some way for salespeople to show clients and justify a 4x premium over other kinds of advertising, including the already scary-targeted ads from Google and Facebook.

If this was a story about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, this scheme would cause a week-long outrage cycle...

AT&T can claim up and down that it's asked for permission to use customer information to do this, but there is simply no possible way the average customer has ever even read their AT&T contracts, let alone puzzled out that they're signing up to be permanently tracked and influenced by targeted media in this way.

1977 - pop flamenco influence origins

...it was fusion and Al Di Meola who brought flamenco into popular culture in '77. The Al Di Meola wiki says "When he was eight years old, he was inspired by Elvis Presley and the Ventures to start playing guitar." Trace the Ventures to Chet Atkins original 'walk dont run' from original song writer Johnny Smith who was rooted in jazz, was inspired to write Walk Dont Run by the song 'Softly, as in a Morning Sun Rise' - written by German and Hungarian Jewish composers with classical and jazz backgrouds:

'Softly, as in a Morning Sun Rise' - Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II from the 1928 operetta The New Moon - 1928

Johnny Smith, Walk dont run - 1954 - wiki says his critically acclaimed album is Moonlight in Vermont (which 

Chet Atkins - Walk dont run - 1956

Ventures - Walk dont run - 1960

Return to Forever - 1975 album No Mystery feat. Di Meola and a strong spanish theme (began playing with them in 1974, age 19, three albums high-charting commercial success)

Al DiMeola - Debut solo album - Land of the Midnight Sun - 1976

Van Halen - Eruption - recorded 1977, stage act 'as early as 1975', was the root for 'Spanish Fly', recoded in '78 

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall - written 1977, released in 79

Rush - A Farewell to Kings - 1977

The Eagles - Hotel California - 1977

Dire Straights - Sultans of Swing - recorded 1977

Big Log - Robbie Blunt - 1983

Bose frames - glasses AR and audio

In 2003, I learned about memory glasses being developed at MIT and I drew a diagram of glasses with headphones built in, trying to find a better solution for wireless headphones, along with a design for a cable-free, non-wireless headphone for an ipod shuffle in 2006 and actually hacked together. I updated my thoughts in another blog entry in 2012, there are a few other posts throughout my blog on this subject, most of which bleed into AR.

This is what Bose has done but not in a way I would have thought, and they are also getting into AR, so it really is heading in this direction, now around $200.

https://www.wsj.com/video/bose-frames-review-the-headphones-of-the-future-are-sunglasses/E9E3099C-A97F-4718-92F6-F69C8D9145E9.html

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/frames.html

https://www.bose.com/en_us/better_with_bose/augmented_reality.html

3d printed housing

he World's First 3D-Printed Village Is Coming To Latin America This Summer (dwell.com)19

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday May 09, 2019 @07:30PM from the first-of-its-kind dept.

MikeChino writes:Yves Behar, ICON, and New Story just unveiled plans to build the world's first 3D-printed community this summer in Latin America. The project will provide over 50 homes for impoverished families who typically live on less than $200 per month. ICON has developed a portable printer that will print the walls of each home in just 24 hours with nearly zero waste."Each site-specific house will feature an outdoor kitchen and an expanded outdoor area for raising chickens and crops," reports Dwell. "The open-plan interior living areas are optimized for natural ventilation and flexibility. The 3D printer will allow for built-in elements ranging from countertops in the kitchen and bathroom to seating and shelving." 

ICON has made a video about the plans with mockups of what the homes will look like.