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Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

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61–70 of 116 posts

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#61

Blender, Cinema4D, AfterEffects and Ableton Live users here. Only a semi-pro in the music category (paid to do music but nowhere near my main income). I started in the 90's with Sculpt3D and REAL3D on Amiga. Started to do a lot more of Unity and Unreal because the rendering engines are becoming pretty good, even for postproduction VFX. Traditional renderers are much much slower.

How did you get into paid music gigs despite not being a "pro"? Did you ever work with a Video Toaster when you were on the Amiga? How in your experience does Cinema4D compare to Blender or Maya? Do you do any 2D work?

> How did you get into paid music gigs despite not being a "pro"?

Not OP but I have been playing music non-professionally in the US for about 25 years - there are a number of ways non-pro musicians can work paid gigs. I have been paid to play coffee shops, small festivals, college radio events, the occasional decently attended bar show, etc. My personal experience is primarily loud and / or experimental[0] music (punk, hardcore, noise, sound collage) and there are huge networks of like minded people throughout the US who work to set up and promote shows / concerts for local and touring artists.

Having said that, the total amount of cash I have made as a performing musician totals [0]: https://papertether.bandcamp.com

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#62
I'm a design manager in my dayjob for a brand that most millennials have heard of. :) However, I keep that world airgapped from my passion work which is best seen on kradeelav.com. Published comics, zines, erotic art, illustrations, you name it.

Since you asked about tools, I tend to live in Photoshop/Illustrator 99% of the time. I'm about to move to Kubuntu for my personal computer and fully intend on moving back to Paint Tool SAI (and a ahem "borrowed" PSCS2) which was my first love as far as digital drawing tools. I detest Adobe, but no alternatives have managed to compete other than those two (yes I've tried clip studio paint, procreate, affinity suite, etc etc. the lag drives me bananas.)

Most important thing for me with tools is longevity and reliability. I've noticed Japanese brands tend to be better about stable software for 10+ years and not updating things every six months and breaking my workflow or sneaking telemetrics in.

I'm also very conscious of tools that don't throw erotic/taboo artists under the bus - this is the primary reason I'm moving off of apple hardware after +15 years of faithfully using their ecosystem.

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#63

Senior Visual effects artist here. Hi! 20+ years in the industry, worked on movies from Final Fantasy The Spirits Withing to Disney's Enchanted and a whole mess of forgettable cinema and TV shows. My axe is SideFx's Houdini. I've been in love with it since I first set eyes on it in 1998, but didn't use it in work until 2010. Until then I was using Maya. Yuck. It's now off my resume and I've left studios that made me…

I am a former Local 600 guy that burned out and who now teaches high school English. I’ve been slowly developing a fiction project centered on ubiquitous AR. As part of my research, I stumbled upon demo from Universal Everything[0].

Are you able to recommend any websites, blogs, resources to discover similar simulations/etc?

[0]https://vimeo.com/429924982?ref=em-share

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#64
I've got into generative art lately. Originally it was a way to test-and-stretch my Javascript canvas library, but as time went on I found it was a nice way to exercise my creativity. I do most of my art coding on CodePen.

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unicorn type person What is that?

I heard that from a girl in a dance club one time, but I don't think he means the same.

Yeah...it can mean different things depending on context. The meaning you probably refer to is one of them, but generally it refers to someone rare and in-demand.

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#66
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own too many instruments than I'd like to admit and still not be a musician :(

My 8 guitars that I can't play say hi.

Hah...well maybe the 9th will be the one!

Seriously though, I do own a few but I only play for fun and don't devote enough time to practicing to get particularly good at it. But I can still hold my own just messing around for fun or sitting around a campfire. Sometimes casual/hobbyist-level can still be rewarding.

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#67

Senior Visual effects artist here. Hi! 20+ years in the industry, worked on movies from Final Fantasy The Spirits Withing to Disney's Enchanted and a whole mess of forgettable cinema and TV shows. My axe is SideFx's Houdini. I've been in love with it since I first set eyes on it in 1998, but didn't use it in work until 2010. Until then I was using Maya. Yuck. It's now off my resume and I've left studios that made me…

Do you interact with Houdini via its Python API? If yes, would you mind sharing your set-up (IDE, etc.)?

For a while now, I have been wanting to learn how to use Houdini or Blender for 1) data viz, e.g., animations of very large amounts of data points and 2) making short animations that I could embed into my presentations.

Re: Ask HN: Any Artists on HN?

#70
I use HUGIN to manually align photos into synthetic focus, and generate layers as big TIFF files

I use a python script to merge the various layers into a single huge JPEG

I use GIMP for editing the resulting images, and for general photo editing.

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