smibrand

I assume your missing the updates? How does that work with the steam version? Do you still pay a maintenace fee?

Just curious what everyone is using for navigating in Blender? Are you using standard hotkeys? Custom? Specifically do you use middle mouse button and the shift or cntrl button to move around? I've tried switching everything to the more universal alt+click method, but then find I have to change other hotkeys for selecting edges and what not. And then if you add plugins they have their own hotkeys that might interfere as well. But personally I don't know how anyone is using the middle mouse button to rotate around. My middle mouse button requires a bit more force to push down and its just awkward to hold all the time.

Special announcement from MAXON at NAB tomorrow morning. Leaves speculation as to if this is related to Insydium and their 50% off everything deal?

I would hope that MAXON knows what features its users want at this point. There's been countless discussions for years now on various message boards, before and after every new release.

I don't think the industry is in any kind of decline. It's shifting and will always be shifting. Sounds like your general area isn't showing any kind of force to keep work coming in, which is always a factor for smaller communities. If you need to relocate, you don't need to live in LA or NY to do mograph. Theres Detroit, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, Denver, SF. Lots of different choices. LA is expensive, but I don't know any freelance mograph artists struggling to survive. Most are driving pretty nice cars, so there is definitely money to be made. Don't call yourself a multimedia generalist. Sounds desperate. Hold true to what you are. Go buy the School of Motion Freelance Manifesto book. I think you'll find the inspiration in that to keep you going.

I don't think XP or TFD has anything on lockdown. Maybe the solo C4D freelance market will rely on these plugins. But if C4D wants to be taken seriously in production houses (which it has the capabilities to do so), I can tell you with certainty that while there might be a couple of licenses of XP floating around for farting around on, but anytime serious effects/particles work needs to be done, the first person producers turn to are Maya artists.

I had the exact same conclusion recently as well. In fact, learning Houdini has increased my XP game quite a bit. I do get a little frustrated by the speed of things in C4D, but hopefully R20 remedies that to some extent. I don't have TfD, so smoke/fire in XP is still a bit slow/limited, but the potential is there.

Just to clarify - if I were to use octane or redshift as my rendering solutions - I wouldn't be able to really benefit from the OpenGL viewport correct? I would have to use native C4D materials? If so, would it be possible for the 3d party developers to get their materials to work with the openGL viewport down the road?

well color me surprised. Was expecting the worse for this release. Was already eyeing maya and blender. But if anything this release does show, assuming R20 brings the mother load, the potential of c4ds future. LOD bar and weight painting (the one thing other than UV unwrapping that I struggle with the most) are two things that make me smile.

I thought it was funny....

Interesting that they felt the need to make a blog post about this. Perhaps they are starting to see many MSAs not being renewed this year? Or maybe getting a lot of questions about what happens if they don't renew for this release. Word has probably gotten around that you're better off waiting until R20. Not gonna lie though - A half finished prorender, and openGL bodypaint, or even a new sound effector are not selling points for me.

I was referring to the one in Friedrichsdorf. I'm sure the others is nice as well.

I just had to google where MAXON headquarters is. Judging by the images it looks like a quaint little town to settle down and live the quiet life....and chill at a rustic coffee shop.

I want to say 2.9 is suppose to bring a complete overhaul of the UI anyways. Could be wrong Using BforArtists though is really only for advanced users. If you are just learning you should really stick with the traditional layout so you can follow tutorials/training.

https://www.bforartists.de/ I believe thats what you are thinking about. I for one have been watching Blender very closely. Really there are only two things keeping me from switching. My industry (mograph) still worships C4D, forcing me to use it as a freelancer. And rendering capabilities: C4D just has more options at the moment and Redshift is looking real good. I am looking into how I could possibly use them both together, but I like streamlined workflows, and the less software I can use to get the job done the faster I can go home and enjoy life. Evee looks great too. Excited to see that grow and learn how real time rendering fits in for me