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Yeah excellent interview and I would like to think that the Cafe has played some small part in helping MAXON get to where it is today. When we started our free video tutorials online in 2004 there was virtually no one else doing free online video tutorials. (YouTube didn't start until 2005). Nigel / 3DKiwi

School of motion did a really nice interview with MAXON CEO Paul Babb, I put a link to the podcast below. https://www.schoolofmotion.com/podcast/paul-babb-interview

Interesting. I met Paul Babb during their "Power Integration Tour" in Boston. I walked in a little early and there were not a lot of people there yet. I saw him at the presentation table they had set up at the front of the room so I said hello as I took a seat. He just responded "Hi. I'm Paul". That's it. No last name. No title. I had no idea who he was at the time and for all I know he could have been the guy who cleaned the carpets after the presentation. It was only during the presentation that I found out who he was and I was oddly struct by his "down to earth" attitude --- which appears to carry through even today judging by the interview. Couple of neat things from his Linked In page via the link also posted above: Double digit growth all but two years from 2000-2017. Took company from virtually unknown to a rank of 3rd in two years among competitive programs and 1st among Adobe users. Instrumental in implementing a bundle deal with Adobe After Effects cementing Cinema 4D as the preferred 3D package among Adobe users. Today, Cinema 4D is heralded as one of the fastest growing and most widely used 3D products for digital content creation and the 3D motion graphics software tool of choice for industry-leading production facilities Now you can put anything on your LinkedIn page, but I would have to believe the first 3 bullets. I find the first part of the fourth bullet surprising, especially that C4D is one of the fastest growing DCC tool out there. Now, are DCC programs still enjoying the growth they have had in the past? Not sure, especially as the market narrows. Nevertheless, it all paints and encouraging picture for the future. Dave

Hey Cafe I've been continuing my recent synth modelling odyssey... Having just modelled Roland's 1991 hybrid synth release, the JD-800, thought I'd have a go at its hyper-modern equivalent. It's direct successor is the rather space-age JD-XA, which packs a fairly solid sonic punch for your 1.5K... I was mainly in this for the modelling, and am pretty much happy with that bit, being as it is 100% quads, and reasonably sensible edge flows. Texturing has gone less well, and I really struggled trying to get nice underlit clear / frosty plastic in the sliders and illuminated rotaries, and still don't think I've come close to nailing that. Other bits, like the anisotropic materials, reflective components and some really quite subtle wear and tear went rather better. Here's a wire... And here's the controls that were instanced throughout the model... note the luminant bits of the slider assembly were hidden from render, but visible to the refraction on the plastic loop above it. It didn't really work, all being told :) Next up from me - either the classic TB-303, or some ancient towering modular monstrosity, probably by Schmidt Synth Co. If it's the latter, that'll be the challenge I have been working up to ;) CBR