TOMORROW: Tuesday, January 15 - Gallery Theatre at Barnsdall Art Par, 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Cover charge: FREE courtesy of Adobe Systems

From Ninja Crayon: On the heals for the opening day of the MacWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco (Monday, Jan. 14), DMA/LA (formerly MGLA) will be having its first meeting of 2008 - not to mention its first meeting under the new name: Digital Media Artists / Los Angeles - on Tuesday, Jan. 15.

As any long time MGLA member can tell you, the first meeting of the year is usually big and this one fits the bill. As early as May of last year you may have heard of MAXON’s " The Power Integration Tour" for 2008, a joint road show with Adobe Systems Incorporated where motion graphics artists will learn how to bring their vision to life with blockbuster visual effects and compelling motion graphics for film, video, DVD, the web, and mobile devices. A quick glance at the show dates, set for next summer, may have even left you feeling anxious to see what MAXON and Adobe have to show. The third Tuesday of January, the wait is over.

Read more at Ninja Crayon

Labels: Adobe, DMA/LA, Ko Maruyama, Maxon Cinema 4D, MGLA

Posted by Ko Maruyama to the AE List:

The next MGLA - well, it's no longer MGLA. It's a group that meets every third Tuesday of the month to talk about Motion Graphics and other digital graphics creation and content. As Chris explained to the group in December's meeting, the name "MGLA" was originally intended for the continuation of the group, but there'll be a new name for the group soon.

The user group continues in 2008 with a kickoff meeting by our two major sponsors. Adobe Systems and MAXON Computer are coming to give the Power Integration Tour presentation. It promises to be a big one, with several of the CINEMA 4D users from the Hollywood community spreading the word around and to be in attendance.

Chris is graciously giving us time to keep the same format on the web pages - until Warren can figure out how to flick the switch to the new site design, and more importantly what the new name is going to be! :) For now, the sites appear the same on http://www.mgla.org and http://www.mgla2.org.

The next meeting will be on January 15, 2008 from 7:00 - 10:00pm (yes, the night of the first day of the MacWorld Expo, so there'll be plenty to talk about).

It's the same spot - Barnsdall Art Gallery Theater in Hollywood, California. If you need directions, they're still on the website. We'll have prizes from both MAXON and Adobe, as well as other prize sponsors! (Including Toolfarm!)

Okay, so what's the new name going to be, Ko?

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Maxon Cinema 4D, MGLA

From Chris Meyer:

Just a reminder that the next MGLA meeting is tonight. We'll be selling & signing copies of Creating Motion Graphics 4th edition for charity before the meeting; the meeting itself will contain presentations by GenArts, Antics, and wondertouch, plus guest artist Chris Do of Blind showing how they use the GenArts Sapphire plug-ins in production work. Oh - and we'll be giving away $5500 in prizes at the end. More details at http://www.mgla.org/nextmeeting; a thumbnail of the presentations is copied below.

Very special thanks to GenArts http://www.genarts.com, who is sponsoring this month's meeting. We're not doing a meeting at DV Expo this year; thankfully, GenArts stepping up gave us the funds we needed to have a December meeting at our normal location (Barnsdall Gallery Theatre). Special thanks also to Adobe who has been sponsoring meetings throughout the year.

That December 18 event will be the last MGLA meeting that Trish and I host (after 10+ years and 125 or so events!), and is scheduled to include some "classic" MGLA presenters such as Mike Goedecke of Belief, Andrew Heimbold of Reality Check, and Alex Lindsay of Pixel Corps. Don't worry - there will still be an active motion graphics user group in Los Angeles, run by the current hosts Ko Maruyama, Warren Heaton, and Tony Romain, and most likely under the umbrella of the Pixel Corps - but it's time for Trish and me to move on to other ventures.

Labels: GenArts, MGLA

wondertouch President, Alan Lorence, to Present at Motion Graphics Los Angeles (MGLA) Monthly Meeting, November 20, 2007

WHO:

Alan Lorence, president of wondertouch, the developers of the award-winning particleIllusion particle effects application, will be a featured speaker at the MGLA monthly meeting on November 20, 2007.

WHAT:

Lorence will give a "sneak peek" of the long-awaited particleIllusion plug-in for Adobe After Effects: pIllusion AE. The plug-in will afford motion graphics and visual effects professionals to easily access the powerful and highly-acclaimed particleIllusion 3.0 engine from directly within the After Effects environment to efficiently add and modify spectacular particle effects from the huge particleIllusion library.

Lorence will also include a brief overview of particleIllusion 3.0 (the standalone application), compare it to pIllusion AE, and show how the two products complement each other. Calling on his many years of experience as an industry-leading particle effects designer he will also demonstrate several particle emitter creation tips that can be applied to almost any particle system - not just particleIllusion - resulting in more realism, more complexity, and better performance.

WHERE:

Gallery Theater
Barnsdall Art Park
4800 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90027-5390
View Map: http://www.laparks.com/locator/maps/barnsdallartPk.htm

WHEN:

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. (Lorence presentation 8:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.)

HOW:

The event is open to members of the press, MGLA members and the public. Admission to the event is free-of-charge. For media inquiries regarding wondertouch please contact Vicky Gray-Clark, 408-243-8880, vicky@ambientpr.com.


About Motion Graphics Los Angeles

Motion Graphics Los Angeles is an association for professionals creating imagery for video, film, and other media using desktop tools. Formed in August 1997 through the merger of several previously-existing groups, MGLA's area of discussions are not restricted to a specific hardware or software solution, understanding that an artist often has to employ 2D, 3D, and editing tools to realize their vision - and that artistic inspiration can be universal.

Additional information on MGLA is available on the web at: www.mgla.org

About wondertouch

wondertouch, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., is an award-winning software developer specializing in particle effects for the visual effects industry. The company's flagship product particleIllusion, a sprite-based particle effects application, is designed to provide the most comprehensive effects creation tool and efficient workflow. Considered one of the most popular solutions for effects creation, particleIllusion is now used worldwide by creative professionals working in film post-production and pre-visualization, standard and HD video, commercial broadcast, motion graphics and game content creation. Additional information on wondertouch is available on the web at www.wondertouch.com.

Labels: After Effects, Event, MGLA, particleIllusion, wondertouch

From Chris Meyer:

For those in the SoCal area, the next MGLA meeting is this Tuesday, September 18, at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood.

• Alex Lindsay of Pixel Corps will be showing Conduit Live - the new standalone version of dvGarage's nodal compositing tool (for $200!), including live capture
• Elliot Mebane of Roguish will be showing how to use expressions in After Effects to fake a "steadicam" look to smooth out footage that has unwanted bumps
• Guest artist Asheley Postlewaite of Renegade Animation will demonstrate their "Paperless Animation" workflow
• and we'll be showing _your_ demo reels and recent projects at the end.

Visit the MGLA site for full details of the meeting.

Labels: After Effects, MGLA, Pixel Corps

I wasn't at the meeting since I'm clear across the country, so I'm living vicariously through those who were lucky enough to attend. First, Dave Basulto has posted some images from last night's MGLA meeting on his site.

Second, Chris Meyer of Cybermotion had some great things to say about the meeting in a post to the AE List. Imagineer Mocha was shown. It's a planar tracker that uses the technology in the more advanced Mokey and Monet. Chris says, " It did some pretty darn amazing things, including continuing tracks successfully when large portions of the tracked object went off screen."

Marco S. from Digital Anarchy showed PlasmaFX and ToonIt! Chris says about ToonIt! " It was also an excellent example of the role frame rate plays in whether we perceive something as real or fantasy; keeping the result at normal video rate didn't look like you would expect it to."

Peder Norrby showed Trapcode Form (codename Flux). Form is the plug-in that people are really keyed up for the release, which will hopefully still happen this summer. It's similar to Particular but does lots of other cool things. Chris says "The couple of examples Peder showed using displacement maps and alpha mattes were particularly impressive".

Sean Safreed showedMagic Bullet 3 at the meeting. Chris says "...the new UI... it makes things soooo much easier for quick, broad strokes to get the look you're after without having to come to terms with a bunch of sliders (however useful they are)."

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Labels: CyberMotion, Digital Anarchy, Flux, Imagineer Systems, Magic Bullet, MGLA, mocha, mokey, monet, PlasmaFX, Red Giant, ToonIt, Trapcode, Trapcode Form

From Ko's Ninja Crayon Blog:

After you decompress from SIGGRAPH, remember that the next MGLA meeting is Tuesday, August 21, at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. It is Plug-In Night 2, with a stellar line-up:

• Imagineer Mocha motion tracker (okay - it's a standalone rather than a plug-in, but it's a heckuva tool)
• Digital Anarchy ToonIt! and PlasmaFX (Jim Tierney will be down to demo)
• Trapcode codename Flux (Peder Norbby is over from Sweden and will demonstrate in person)
• Magic Bullet 3 (the upcoming version of this much-loved film look suite)

$36,000 IN DOOR PRIZES!

Details are online at the MGLA site. They will be posting prizes and sending out a full email in the next week. This will be one of those don't-miss meetings. (And by the way - it's MGLA's 10th anniversary that night as well!)

Labels: Digital Anarchy, Event, Imagineer Systems, Magic Bullet, MGLA, mocha, PlasmaFX, Red Giant, ToonIt, Trapcode

After Effects Product Manager Michael Coleman and Premiere Pro Senior Product Manager Giles Baker will demonstrate Creative Suite programs, with a focus on After Effects CS3, and answer your questions on these latest tools. Cost: Free.

MGLA/Adobe CS3 Meeting - Wednesday, April 11 (7pm-10pm), Gallery Theatre at Barnsdall Art Park

Find out more by visiting MGLA's website. [ via ]

Labels: Adobe, Creative Suite, MGLA