I had a whirlwind month last month. I went to NAB and released mocha V3 with my company, Imagineer Systems, which you can read all about here. It’s a long post, so be forewarned, but there’s lots of pictures and video!

But what I was really happy about was I got to see my twin sister. I don’t see my sister much. She’s on the East coast and I’m in LA. We’re on the same latitude but just 2,500+ miles apart. So she took a few days off and flew out here for a few days. We did LA up right. We went to Disneyland and had a great time, we met friends in Orange County for dinner, and then hit the park again for fireworks. And then we came home and crashed out.

And then…. we hit the Ren Faire! Ahem, The Renaissance Pleasure Fair, and we hit it hard. If you have never gone to The Renaissance Pleasure Fair and had a Pony ride, I recommend you do so. It’s delightful. There are no horses involved, but there is port involved. And cider. And I do so love both of those things. And as I have two huge trunks of costumes and a portion of my clothes rack dedicated to more garb, I was thoroughly decked out.

Though I got sick from the heat again. I am a fragile, pale thing.

But Margaret has flown home now, so I am recovering from the weekend, and NAB, and a bit of OT. And getting back into the swing of work. I have more videos yet to release on mocha and not much time to do them in. Here’s hoping I wow you guys. I’m just out here living hard and playing hard. Try and keep up!

Cheers!
Mary

I’m not sure what to say about the whole experience except that when a door opens you had best walk through it and see where it leads before it closes forever. It might be that I get more acting work, it might be that I don’t. But I’ll never know unless I take the plunge. So here I am, working an awesome day job, and pursuing acting work as well. Can I balance it? I think so. It’s an amazing opportunity, I have a huge support network, and I think I have the right attitude. I want to pursue the work, not build fame. I think if I approach it with the same attitude I give to my work and my art I should be OK.

Thanks for all the support, guys. Love, love, love you all.

Cheers!

Mary

As I am a bit of a more advanced painter, I decided not to follow the lesson and instead paint Shelly. This is what I came up with in the time we had to paint.  Shel followed the lesson and ended up with a lovely landscape of boats on the water. It’s so hard to paint people you care about, because you never look at them as dispassionately as you do most models. You have preconceived notions in your head about what they look like and its hard to not put that on the canvas.

But! I am happy with the result. He has since shaved off the EPIC mustache, and I miss it already.

Cheers!

Mary

I made a boffer lute this month, for my Bard character I made in Dying Kingdoms, the Live Action Role Playing game. Basically, I can’t play a lute, and I don’t want to learn how, but I do want to smack my friends at game with an entertaining weapon that is made of awesome. I also wanted it to play music. So I have two lightweight speakers cleverly concealed inside. This thing is pillow-soft and surprisingly light, and I can’t wait to use it. Obviously, I don’t want to use it often, due to wear and tear, and also because my character is not a fighter, but I can’t wait to see the look on my opponents faces when I come at them with this instrument of destruction! And also of rock and roll!

It plays music by way of a tiny MP3 player concealed in a leather bag on the guitar strap I have attached to it. Needless to say, I am pretty proud of this project.

Cheers,

Mary

Hi guys,

If it’s been quiet here, it’s because I’ve been travelling! If you want to know more, please check out our blog on Imagineer Systems and see what I’ve been up to!

Stay tuned for more awesome!
Mary

As you might have seen online, I am speaking tomorrow at Motion Fest this year for Imagineer Systems. Many other talented artists from all kinds of awesome companies in the industry are here with me in Albuquerque, New Mexico, all waiting for the upcoming week to speak. I’ll be talking a little bit about our planar tracking software and how best to use mocha in your VFX and motion graphics pipelines. I’m very excited! To find out more, please visit the Motion conference here. I will be speaking in The Hotel Andaluz.

This is a great opportunity to find out more about our software and to visit and get to know me in person. Make sure you stop on by our table, I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.

I will be giving two talks tomorrow, Sunday, October 9th, 2011:

STEREO CONVERSION FOR FILM & BROADCAST 11:35 AM

Planar Tracking for Graphics & Effects 2:40 pm

What is motionfest?:

“Motion is known for bringing together the brightest and most creative minds in the motion graphics, visual effects {VFX}, and animation industries. This year is no exception…”

“motion is our annual event. Hundreds of brilliant minds – pros in the film, broadcast, and game industries – all coming together to share unique ideas that revolutionize the industry, change the way they look at their work and serve as inspiration for one another.

It all starts off with motionfest (10.9.11) – our pre-conference event where you’ll experience a full-day of rapid-fire tips, tricks, and technique sessions.

Then at motion, (10.10.11-10.11.11) we’ll take you on a mind-bending two day ride – what we refer to as the “TED talks” of our industry. motion speakers are the top creative thinkers and innovators in motion graphics, animation, and vfx. A concept borrowed from TED, each speaker is on stage for 20 minutes giving the talk of their life on subjects they’re passionate about. Talks that revolutionize the industry. Talks that revitalize the creative muse.

The audience becomes a integral player in the motion experience. Utilizing the latest technology, participants are encouraged to join in the open discussions provided after each segment. It’s their turn to share their expertise and insight in this process of innovation.”

I’ve started to blog with imagineer systems now. You can find our company blog here: http://blog.imagineersystems.com/

I’ve also uploaded two new video tutorials on vimeo, you can find them on my blog post.

Just checking in, nothing much has been new lately. Just making things happen at work, on my extra curriculars, and at home, and generally working hard. I’ve gotten to play hard too though, and went and sang some karaoke last weekend until I couldn’t sing anymore. So. All in all, life is good.

Cheers,

Mary

I always wonder how I come across in demos for imagineer systems, nice to be able to see it on camera!

Ricky Grove came by imagineer systems’ booth at SIGGRAPH and took this nifty handheld video of me for his publication. His 4 part coverage of Siggraph 2011 started last week and continues this week at Renderosity.com. ”Mary Poplin, product specialist, demonstrates the “Remove Tool” which is part of the planar tracking program mocha Pro developed by Imagineer Systems. This video was shot at the IS booth during Siggraph 2011 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.”

Mary Poplin mocha Pro Remove Tool demo at SIGGRAPH 2011 on Vimeo.

Mary Poplin demoing the remove tool at SIGGRAPH for imagineer systems on YouTube.

You can go to imagineersystems.com to download a 15 day free trial and try mocha Pro out!

As you might have seen online, I am planning to be speaking at Motion Fest this year for Imagineer Systems, with many other talented artists in the industry in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 9, and I can’t wait. I’ll be talking a little bit about our planar tracking software and how best to use mocha in your VFX and motion graphics pipelines. I’m very excited! To find out more, please visit the Motion conference here. Motion takes place at the historic KiMo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque.

A brief description of the conference from their website:

“Motion is known for bringing together the brightest and most creative minds in the motion graphics, visual effects {VFX}, and animation industries. This year is no exception…”

“motion is our annual event. Hundreds of brilliant minds – pros in the film, broadcast, and game industries – all coming together to share unique ideas that revolutionize the industry, change the way they look at their work and serve as inspiration for one another.

It all starts off with motionfest (10.9.11) – our pre-conference event where you’ll experience a full-day of rapid-fire tips, tricks, and technique sessions.

Then at motion, (10.10.11-10.11.11) we’ll take you on a mind-bending two day ride – what we refer to as the “TED talks” of our industry. motion speakers are the top creative thinkers and innovators in motion graphics, animation, and vfx. A concept borrowed from TED, each speaker is on stage for 20 minutes giving the talk of their life on subjects they’re passionate about. Talks that revolutionize the industry. Talks that revitalize the creative muse.

The audience becomes a integral player in themotion experience. Utilizing the latest technology, participants are encouraged to join in the open discussions provided after each segment. It’s their turn to share their expertise and insight in this process of innovation.”

I worked on a Calendar this past year to raise funds for our game, Dying Kingdoms, and now it’s available to buy online.

Joell Rull, Ray Mosco, Myself, Morgan Buck, and Flip Cassidy did the photo work, and I did all the cleanup and photoshoppage. I am also modeling in this calendar O_o. This was a labor of love for our game, and it’s totally a “Cheesecake” pinup calendar of our wonderful (and lovely) gaming girls… IN COSTUME. So my Half Troll is in there, as is Liz’s ancient “elf”, and there’s even dark elves and lizard ladies. This took a lot of work and we would love for you to support our game by taking one of our 2012 Calendars home with you. You will not be disappointed, and they make great gifts. We can even ship them to you.

While this calendar is photoshopped to adjust colors, paint BGs into a fantasy realm, and clean up small things in the images like removing modern items; we wanted this to be a calendar of real women and their real bodies. Any changes that have been made to our ladies are meant to reflect this and do not change the type of our ladies’ bodies and their overall appearance. These are real women in real makeup and real costumes. And we are proud to celebrate the natural beauty of our wonderful women that were brave enough to model for this project.

The game itself is written by Jesse Heinig and DK wants to thank all the wonderful players and staff who makes this game run every day. We appreciate your support and couldn’t do it without you guys.