Recently I’ve been chatting with some artists who also like to write. The result? Guest blogs! This is the fourth in a series, written by Craig Lew.
Rain. Not like a gentle spring shower; we’re talking a street flooding down pour of rain drops the size of small rhinos. But my film, Lil Emo’s HalloweEmo, was screening in Santa Monica so I wasn’t going to let a lil water dampen my spirits.
It’s around that time where people look back and take stock of what they’ve done over the past year. For instance, this past year I have written about Poser 95 times, Manga Studio 71 times and pie 18 times. (You’re surprised? I didn’t think so.)
Another, more notable mark is StuffIt Expander’s achievement in 2010. It was the number 5 most downloaded Mac software on Download.com. It was downloaded 353,042 times in 2010! Dang, that’s impressive!
“For Mac users who need more than simple RAR extraction, this longtime compression tool is the first pick on Download.com.” Continue reading
At one of the first company meetings I went to here at Smith Micro, The Boss introduced one of his newest ideas: Sock Puppets. The idea was that you could animate socks, make silly voices and share your creations with friends.
It’s a super-fun idea, but I have to admit all I could think of was Lamb Chop. And from there all I could think of was lamb chops. *drools* What?!? I can’t help it if the meeting was right at lunch time!
Fast-forward a bit and I’m proud to say that we’ve released Sock Puppets for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch! And it’s free.
A coworker and I were talking about taking long international trips, and she said how they really impact the person you are. They inspire great changes and things inside of you. I concurred. After talking to John W. Lane and seeing his animations, I agree even more.
As much as I’d like to deny it, I’m kind of a sucker for romantic comedies. While the plots are pretty cheesy, I can’t help but adore the story lines, particularly the ones that involve a neighbor/friend in love with the oblivious girl/boy. The lesson? Don’t forget to look in your back yard for treasure.
In my quest for the treasure of excellent Manga Studio artists, I have searched the Intrawebs far and wide. But it took me almost a year of chatting with artists to get in touch with Lincy Chan. Continue reading
Even with all the calendars and reminders I set up for myself, I’ve never been accused of being too organized. It just dawned on me the other day that it had been months since I had answered a Question Jar question on the blog!
When I checked it, I thought this was most appropriate, what with Miki 3 just being released:
I own Poser Pro 2010. I see a lot of content I would like for the character Miki. This isn’t in my program anywhere, and I can’t find the figure in Content Paradise. Where do you find the digital figures for Poser?
I talked to Mr. Steve Cooper, the product manager for Poser, and he gave me the lowdown. “Try out the search tab in the Poser Pro 2010 library. There’s a toggle to search on Content Paradise, and if he enters “Miki” into the search field, he’ll see a bunch of content items for her, including the figure.”
After a quick trip overseas for the Thanksgiving holiday, I’m beginning to rethink what my superpower would be. Maybe being able to teleport is better than being able to breathe underwater. After all, I’d still have to swim the Atlantic if I wanted to travel.
This got me thinking more about how great our new StuffIt Deluxe 2011 for Mac is, what with its super-easy file-sending ways. Check out one of the latest video tutorials, which explains how to use StuffIt to send ginormous files with SendStuffNow:
I am a sucker for giving kids presents. They’re so dang cute and excited around this time of year. And since I don’t have any of my own, it’s pretty easy to drop some cash on them because I don’t have to the rest of the year.
But if you’re a parent, that’s not always the case. So finding something spectacular to do with your kids can get expensive fast. If you’re in the southern California area next weekend, you can check out the L.A. International Children’s Film Festival. It’s free 
A very cool part of my job is being able to chat with people from around the world, which is how I learn about things like Chawan mushi (a delicious way to cook eggs in Japan). Unfortunately that also means I don’t get to meet many people in person.
This was not the case however with Mike Norton, whom I met in San Diego during Comic-Con this July. We all happened to be eating dinner with Dave Gibbons, who aside from being comic legend, also has excellent taste in beer.
Mike was pretty stoked about having dinner with him. “It was awesome! I got to meet and talk to a modern master of comics and he didn’t try to stab me in the eye with a fork! Seriously, it was big deal for me. He was very gracious and I learned a lot.”
When it comes to inspiration, nothing helps me more than reading or chatting with someone who already does what I aspire to. Some advice I got early on was find out how they got there and follow their path. If it ain’t broke, right?
If you want to get into CG in movies, television and commercials, you might wanna check out this artist profile of Scott Billups. His resume is impressive, from PBS to David Lynch, it seems he’s got his hands on everything.
“I’ve been using Poser since before it was called Poser.”
