Still Life Academy | Brian | Activity

Brian posted a new activity comment

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 16:10:45 +0000

Yeah it’s hard to tell how long it might be. According to the forums, it looks like things are going pretty well with development for the M1. It will be awesome to finally see a fully optimized version of Blender running on MacOs. I haven’t brought myself to purchase a PC just yet, I’m still trying to wait and see what the new Apple Silicon… Read more

In reply to - Brian posted an update

I thought I’d share this for any Mac users interested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-GSfJNPfc&feature=emb_logo

Though I’ve been working on learning Cinema 4D recently, I still […]

Brian posted an update: I thought I'd share this for any Mac users […]

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 20:07:05 +0000

I thought I’d share this for any Mac users interested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-GSfJNPfc&feature=emb_logo

Though I’ve been working on learning Cinema 4D recently, I still really like Blender and I’m interested in continuing to work with it. From my personal experience, Blender has never been stable enough for me on MacOs to use it in…

Brian posted a new activity comment

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 20:52:02 +0000

I find Blender to be intuitive for modeling as well. However, it constantly crashes on both my 2015 5K iMac and 2016 Macbook Pro. Cinema 4D runs well on both and I haven’t had a single crash. However, I’m in the same situation as you; I can’t use any GPU accelerated render engines either with my current specs. There’s no point in using… Read more

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Hi David @tufty

I have some questions regarding computer hardware that I’m hoping you could help me with. I’d like to preface this by saying that throughout […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 20:57:08 +0000

Hi @Timmi

I’m definitely at a point right now where I need to upgrade my computer. My 2015 27″ iMac just isn’t cutting it for 3D work. I’ve really been on the fence about building a custom PC, but I truly prefer MacOs over Windows. I’m trying to hold out to see what an Apple Silicon iMac has in store. It’s promising that Cinema 4D was the… Read more

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Hi David @tufty

I have some questions regarding computer hardware that I’m hoping you could help me with. I’d like to preface this by saying that throughout […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 18:08:34 +0000

Hi David @tufty ,

Thanks for your super thorough response. I completely understand where you’re coming from. Workflow is everything, and if you find something that works, you generally tend to stick with it. And I agree, mastering and knowing how to use the tools you already have can far outweigh having the latest and great tools. I’ve… Read more

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Hi David @tufty

I have some questions regarding computer hardware that I’m hoping you could help me with. I’d like to preface this by saying that throughout […]

Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky: Hi David @tufty I have some questions regarding […]

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 21:25:25 +0000

Hi David @tufty

I have some questions regarding computer hardware that I’m hoping you could help me with. I’d like to preface this by saying that throughout the course of this year, like many in the community, I’ve been using Blender as a starting point for learning CGI. I’ve been a lifelong mac user and while Blender is a really cool piece…

Brian posted a new activity comment

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 15:49:24 +0000

Absolutely beautiful work @Janine ! Great composition, great use of color and very impressive amount of realism as well. Cheers!

In reply to - Janine posted an update in the group CGI photography

CGI honey with Flip Fluids in Blender. I used the sculpting tools to make the mesh perfectly smooth and tweak the shape a little. The lighting uses a […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 15:23:50 +0000

@gbrs Also, thanks for the egpu.io link. I think I actually ran across that site while doing research on eGPUs. I’m really hesitant to buy one at this point, being that there’s a real lack of proper support. Apple was pushing eGPU’s hard at one point, and now they don’t seem to care. I love the idea, but I’d like to buy a Nvidia eGPU as it… Read more

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 15:14:41 +0000

@gbrs I agree, I find Blender to be easier to navigate as well. Cinema 4D & Corona look like an awesome combination. But by the time you license Cinema 4D and corona you’re spending over a grand a year just in licensing. Seeing what people are doing in Blender blows my mind. I’ve even created portfolio worthy work using Blender, so I plan… Read more

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 14:13:14 +0000

@gbrs I’m starting to wonder if Cinema 4D is a better option for MacOS, especially since it supports Apple’s Metal API. But I really enjoy Blender and plan on sticking with it. I just might have to build a PC in order to do that

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 14:08:55 +0000

@gbrs I’ve been a mac user my entire life, but I’m seriously considering building a custom PC for use with Blender. Running Blender on MacOS is extremely limiting, particularly when using Cycles. In general, Blender crashed on me very frequently. And it’s not while doing any specific task. It happens randomly. It can be as easy as, switching… Read more

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 14:02:00 +0000

Hey Gerard @gbrs , Great to hear! I’m currently using an a Late 2015 27″ iMac (Processor: 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, RAM 64GB, Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R9 M395 2 GB) and a 2016 16″ Macbook Pro (Processor: 2.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, RAM 16GB, Graphics: Radeon Pro 460 4 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530… Read more

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 13:44:54 +0000

👍

In reply to - Janine posted an update in the group CGI photography

Here’s a still frame from a whiskey animation I made recently. The animation should hopefully be visible too but if not, it’s here:

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 20:40:42 +0000

Very cool @Janine !

In reply to - Janine posted an update in the group CGI photography

Here’s a still frame from a whiskey animation I made recently. The animation should hopefully be visible too but if not, it’s here:

Brian posted a new activity comment

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 20:36:59 +0000

Thanks for your input @martin . Unfortunately I get crashes quite frequently on both my iMac and Macbook Pro. And honestly, I couldn’t tell you why though. It’s just not very stable for some reason. Sometimes it works ok, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s frustrating. I’ve submitted crash reports and have been involved in the developers forum as… Read more

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 19:29:06 +0000

@martin I thought that might be the case but I wasn’t sure. I love Blender, but at this point in time mac users are at a disadvantage with the lack of OpenCL/OpenGL support on MacOS. I randomly get abrupt crashes for no apparent reason while working in Blender on MacOS. Unfortunately Blender doesn’t natively support Apple’s Metal API without… Read more

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 17:58:16 +0000

@martin Just out of curiosity, are you running Blender on Windows or Linux?

In reply to - Martin posted an update in the group CGI photography

Update: “Retailers will tell you they haven’t seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing…” […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 15:30:11 +0000

Awesome to hear @Wenbo !

In reply to - Wenbo posted an update in the group CGI Basics

Anyone is using Blender 2.90? this denoiser checkbox for viewport made me a much happier person:) Any other new features that you think are helpful? Please share

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 14:43:53 +0000

Just updated to Blender 2.90 yesterday. Thanks for pointing this out @Wenbo , very helpful indeed!

In reply to - Wenbo posted an update in the group CGI Basics

Anyone is using Blender 2.90? this denoiser checkbox for viewport made me a much happier person:) Any other new features that you think are helpful? Please share

Brian posted a new activity comment

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 18:59:19 +0000

Hey @Wenbo so I tested these files on a windows machine and had the same issues. I’m assuming these are bugs in the software. I ended up filling out a bug report. We’ll see where it goes from there.

In reply to - Brian posted an update

Anyone else having issues with Blender 2.8 crashing on MacOS? I keep noticing crashes when two things happen. 1.) Changing scenes causes a crash. 2.) Some .blend files crash Blender […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 21:41:32 +0000

I’ve even tried uninstalling and reinstalling as well as downloading previous versions of Blender 2.8.

In reply to - Brian posted an update

Anyone else having issues with Blender 2.8 crashing on MacOS? I keep noticing crashes when two things happen. 1.) Changing scenes causes a crash. 2.) Some .blend files crash Blender […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 21:40:53 +0000

Thanks for the reply @Wenbo . Man I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve tried it on two different macs as well, both my iMac and Macbook Pro. Blender becomes impossible to work in if the stability isn’t there. Been searching online for hours and can’t find an answer as to why this is happening

In reply to - Brian posted an update

Anyone else having issues with Blender 2.8 crashing on MacOS? I keep noticing crashes when two things happen. 1.) Changing scenes causes a crash. 2.) Some .blend files crash Blender […]

Brian posted an update: Anyone else having issues with Blender 2.8 crashing […]

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:55:15 +0000

Anyone else having issues with Blender 2.8 crashing on MacOS? I keep noticing crashes when two things happen. 1.) Changing scenes causes a crash. 2.) Some .blend files crash Blender upon opening them…

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 13:13:06 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion @martin , unfortunately it won’t append to a new file either. I have no idea what happened to this particular file. It won’t open no matter what I do. I’m going to have to start over from scratch. I’ve had Blender crash on me quite a bit, but this is the first time that I’ve had a file go corrupt on me.

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Lipstick

So I got to the last lesson in the CGI Lipstick tutorial and for some reason Blender started crashing on my iMac. It started happening more and more […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 22:55:09 +0000

Thanks for the reply @Wenbo . I’m using a Late 2015 iMac with 64GB of RAM 2GB on the GPU. I’m using Blender 2.83.4. I’m completely aware of the lack of GPU support for my particular model, so I rely more on CPU for rendering. For navigating a complex scene in Blender I’m usually in material or solid view. Something definitely happened to this… Read more

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Lipstick

So I got to the last lesson in the CGI Lipstick tutorial and for some reason Blender started crashing on my iMac. It started happening more and more […]

Brian posted an update in the group CGI Lipstick: So I got to the last lesson in the CGI Lipstick tutorial […]

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 21:46:20 +0000

So I got to the last lesson in the CGI Lipstick tutorial and for some reason Blender started crashing on my iMac. It started happening more and more frequently during the last lesson and then it started crashing upon opening the file. I think the file went corrupt… Just to be sure, I even tried copying the entire project to my Macbook Pro…

Brian posted a new activity comment

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 13:59:27 +0000

Ok cool, thanks for the reply. I was just curious. This is the first plugin that I’ve purchased for Blender and I wasn’t sure if you had to reload it every time you download a new version of Blender, or if keeps all of your plugins intact like Photoshop does for example. Thanks man, cheers 🍻

In reply to - Ben posted an update in the group CGI Beverage

Has anyone had any issues with the Extreme PBR plug in causing blender to semi crash?

When applying textures from it to the default cube it very quickly stops me […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 13:56:00 +0000

Very cool 🍻

In reply to - David posted an update

Series of self promotional images to showcase the amazing Kilbeggan Single Grain bottle. I really think as the project went on I fell more and more in love with this bottle, it’s design […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 13:54:26 +0000

Right on @BenAllen ! Have you by chance updated versions of Blender with the plugin installed? For example if you update Blender from version 2.83.2 to 2.83.3 and overwrite Blender with the new version, does it keep Extreme PBR intact? Or do you have to completely reinstall everything from scratch? Just curious if you knew

In reply to - Ben posted an update in the group CGI Beverage

Has anyone had any issues with the Extreme PBR plug in causing blender to semi crash?

When applying textures from it to the default cube it very quickly stops me […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Sat, 25 Jul 2020 14:19:38 +0000

I purchased Extreme PBR and have noticed crashes as well. That being said, I started noticing crashes in Blender on my 27″ iMac prior to purchasing the plugin. I believe my crashes start with Blender Version 2.83 and have happened intermittently since that time.

In reply to - Ben posted an update in the group CGI Beverage

Has anyone had any issues with the Extreme PBR plug in causing blender to semi crash?

When applying textures from it to the default cube it very quickly stops me […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Sat, 25 Jul 2020 14:17:07 +0000

Absolutely incredible work @tufty Very impressive!

In reply to - David posted an update

Series of self promotional images to showcase the amazing Kilbeggan Single Grain bottle. I really think as the project went on I fell more and more in love with this bottle, it’s design […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 14:00:33 +0000

Thanks the kind words @Wenbo . I feel like anyone using Photoshop should know about this tip

In reply to - David posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Big shout out to @brian-rodgers-jr for his top tip a few weeks back of disabling in Photoshop the save with compression. Been using Photoshop with that ticked on […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 14:27:33 +0000

Thanks for the shout out @tufty ! Really glad to see that it’s helping you out! I call this The DPC Workflow (Disabled Photoshop Compression). This workflow has completely changed the way I work in post production.

I just finished up working on an automotive panoramic image that had a native resolution of 5ft wide by 2ft in height.… Read more

In reply to - David posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Big shout out to @brian-rodgers-jr for his top tip a few weeks back of disabling in Photoshop the save with compression. Been using Photoshop with that ticked on […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 12:54:00 +0000

Thanks @wenbo ! No problem 🙂

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 20:06:02 +0000

Thank you! Awesome! Let me know how it works out for you. I’ve been using Photoshop for nearly 20 years now and it has completely changed the way I work. And judging by the comments that I’ve had, it’s helped some other Photoshop users out as well. Cheers!

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:32:05 +0000

Cool, thanks @martin

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:29:49 +0000

Ok here’s the direct link to my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2JuC3bGDW8&t=2s

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:13:04 +0000

Apparently I can’t post youtube links? Anyway, I wrote an entire article about this on Fstoppers a while back and the youtube link is within the article: https://fstoppers.com/originals/photoshops-hidden-gem-revealed-how-save-large-files-seconds-not-minutes-412650

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:11:21 +0000

I like to have flexibility when it comes to my master files. I use a lot of smart objects and work with fairly large resolutions. Every now and then things can slow down a little, but for the most part I have no issues. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with working with uncompressed files in Photoshop nor not, but I made a video a while back that… Read more

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 18:53:40 +0000

Hi David,

Good to know, I appreciate the info! That workflow makes sense. Yeah, my PSD files get to be really really big as I work with uncompressed PSB files. Not uncommon for me to be working with files that are 50GB in file size. Until I compress them at the end. Thanks again David

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 17:51:33 +0000

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate your time in doing so. You can actually open up Cinema 4D Lite as a standalone application without the need to open it through After Effects. You just have to make a Maxon account first and activate it. Yeah, it’s looking like Cinema 4D Lite is as it’s named suggests “Lite” and wouldn’t have… Read more

In reply to - Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative […]

Brian posted an update in the group CGI Whisky: Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the […]

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 17:14:17 +0000

Question for anyone in this group. Like most of the people in this community, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I see that with the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you get a license to use Cinema 4D Lite. I’ve already purchased this CGI Whisky Masterclass, and I’m curious to know if the Cinema 4D Lite will have the same capabilities…

Brian posted a new activity comment

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 15:22:10 +0000

Yeah no problem!

In reply to - Brian posted an update

Just thought I’d let everyone know that Blender 2.83 LTS was just released: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-83/

Brian posted a new activity comment

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 21:38:25 +0000

No problem! Cool will do

In reply to - Brian posted an update

Just thought I’d let everyone know that Blender 2.83 LTS was just released: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-83/

Brian posted an update: Just thought I'd let everyone know that Blender 2.83 […]

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 21:25:22 +0000

Just thought I’d let everyone know that Blender 2.83 LTS was just released: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-83/

blender.org

2.83 LTS — blender.org

Meet Blender 2.83 LTS, the first long-term support release.