Offline
Hi Tom, it looks like very high quality work. Publishable quality! I'm not sure what the normal cost would be for something like this, but $25 per hour seems incredibly low...mechanics get $65 per hour...
I'm sure others will chime in on rates/cost/value, but I think this is beautiful work and should cost accordingly!
Cheers,
Google SketchUp
LOL! Well today's training was all Qi Gong and speed drills...no heavy kicking.
Alan - I also find that starting the day with breathing exercises sets a very good foundation. And like many things, I agree that they are almost completely in the mind first. Mental imagery is extremely important regardless of what activity.
Susan - What? You wouldn't want to sit in a closed door meeting with a sweaty, bloody person for a few hours? 
Yes, there is a shower here...which is good. Many folks in this office ride bicycles in the canyons at lunch and they come back pretty sweaty!
Eric - yeah, I guess that's not too helpful, but it is a snapshot of my days. I will look up some more helpful topics and post them when I have time.
This is really only a tiny set of training activities that I do, however it's about all I have time for during the busy work day. I will add to this thread as I get a good routine going...I have a jump rope training routine that is a bit easier for others to adopt, so I'll post that when I get some time.
The main thing I find is to be creative and more naturally. I am not a big fan of machines that limit one's range of motion.
Stay active everyone! ...as they say, use it or lose it! Wink
Cheers,
I thought I would post a recap of my physical training of the day, at Eric's request! Smile This morning was 
I did Qi Gong deep breathing exercises, light hamstring stretching and some stance training. I combine my stance training with brushing my teeth...5 minutes in a very deep horse stance while I breathe through my nose and brush the pearly whites, focusing on the power source for the day. I was rushed this morning, so only some shadow boxing before my shower and then out the door to Google.
The afternoon; ...I usually leave the office while the line starts for lunch, and go to the top of the parking garage to practice Kung Fu and Iron Qi Gong training while looking at the Flat Irons and foot hills of the East Range of the Rockies. Today however it was too hot...around 100 degrees...so I went down to the lower level of the garage. It's cooler down there, and has a very tough, stark city feel...which always gets me in a good mood for a fight! Pre garage, I scaled a pipe and did a spin turn in mid air to hang from an I beam in the stairwell. I wasn't warmed up and didn't want to work my slow twitch muscles too much so I only did 15 wide arm pull ups, and the 15 curl pull ups. Then I did a number of high kicks and low stances until I hit the steel railing (doing Iron forearm training while in low stance) hard enough to resonate the entire stairwell! That's when I decided to go down to the parking garage and turn it up a notch.
In the parking garage I did 15 minutes of shadow boxing and high kicking. I was kicking and hitting the concrete wall at 3/4 force and going for cross over, shuffle, stutter, and front shuffle kicks into the concreted pillars. Then I'd shadow box against the raw shadow of the concrete wall, combined with high and medium kicks at full speed. I continued with very hard hip level, thigh level, knee level and shin level kicks against the concrete walls. My goal was to practice the kicking strength that would be enough to crack the femur bone, smash a pelvis, and/or dislocate the hip socket. The lower kicks can cause far easier damage and don't require the strength, but must be as fast as a flash of lightening and below the opponent's gaze to catch them off-guard and unbalanced. I finished with a couple dozen high heel kicks into the concrete, then followed with a number of high wheel kicks into the concrete about 5' 11" - 6' 2" high. One of my last kicks had me rotate the hip sooner than I wanted and I wasn't able to strike the concrete squarely with the ball of my left foot and instead hit it straight on with the point of my foot, smashing my toes into the unforgiving wall. This would have been fine if I had struck the temple, eye socket, ear, jaw hinge, or base of skull of a human, but instead I was kicking the pillar of concrete that supports a portion of the garage. I buckled the toe nail of my big toe instantly and sent quite a nice sharp pain down the joint structure, deep into the small bones of my foot. This made me furious, so I went into an explosive flurry of left and right punches followed by very hard side and spinning side kicks into the concrete, my sweat and snarls accompanying the sound of pounding feet. I decided that the concrete would stand stoically in my presence for as long as I could continue and that I should head back in to the office to clean up, get lunch and continue testing SketchUp. I had a lot of areas to cover before the day was through and the garage would wait for another day.
I smiled broadly ascending the dimly lit stairs, the pain in my toes rising with each step, and as the blood continued to soak into my sock and the sweat burned into my eyes, I emerged from the parking garage forged of fitter metal and ready to reengage a more civil conscience for an afternoon of testing. Pain is a familiar friend that would keep me only slight company today, as it has many times in the past, retelling a truth so raw and undeniable as to be THE truth. Joy; well that will come with the pain of tomorrow.
Cheers,
Post a revision when you have done some compositing. I'm interested in seeing how it all comes together!
Again, nice work!
HA ha! Very nice! I'd like to see them sprinkled upon a nice wood, or granite stone counter top!
Looks very good! Nice work!!
Cheers,
@unknownuser said:
And Mike,.. oh well, ignore the guy, he's just jealous!
Yeah! ...and who's he callin old!?
Great newsletter! Thanks for the mention...and oh yeah, I can't leave you guys. Who the hell would give you the skinny on workarounds!
Corner bar, right?!
Set me up.
Cheers,
Google SketchUp
@unknownuser said:
Nice image, nice effect and welcome to the forum.
1000th post!!! And who's that skinny guy in your avatar?!?!
Way to go on both fronts Eric!!
P.S. And yes DC, welcome and nice looking work!
Google SketchUp
You can make just about anything fly....once. Wink
CraigD
Hi Tom, sorry I missed this yesterday! I'm not completely familiar with this problem, but what I can do is make sure that folks see this thread and see if we can get you some answers.
Csaba is right...with it being a weekend (and the snow being so good this season!) the team is out and about till Monday morning.
I'll make sure we look into this and get you what information we have.
In the meantime, I think it would be best to use your workaround until we have some solid information to work off of.
I wish I could be more help at the moment, but we'll do what we can as soon as possible.
- CraigD
@jim said:
I'm short on time, so this is really a rough draft.
I think it's not so easy to create convincing interiors. It takes more than drawing a box and placing some furniture in it to make it work.
The models for an interior need to be higher quality than the average 3d warehouse model. Unless you use high-segment arcs, you are going to see individual segments simply because the camera needs to be closer for an interior scene.
It's hard to "mesh" SketchUp's sketchy style with photo-realistic textures.
One major deficiency is interior lighting. Lighting is a much larger part of the interior design experience than exterior. On exteriors, there's usually only 1 light source of concern.
Because of these points, your best option is to generate a photo-realistic render. But that brings another level of complexity to the process.
I'm not convinced SketchUp is as easy to use as I keep hearing.
Hi Jim, I think you make some good points. My concern with this logic however is that you are mixing "modeling" and "rendering" into the same bucket.
I believe that you won't find an easier, faster modeler out there, with the accuracy of SketchUp. Add to that the ability to very simply add photo realistic textures to your models and I think that you will find SketchUp is an excellent modeling tool for interiors.
Many folks here will agree with you in regards to photo realistic rendering and lighting, which is why there is a Rendering section to this forum. There are multiple options to easily take a SketchUp interior, add lights and shadows, and create a breathtaking interior scene. I've glanced upon many amazing interior renders, created in SketchUp and rendered using one of the favorites discussed in the Rendering sub-forum.
One possible tip I have for those who are creating interiors in SketchUp is to change your camera field of view in the VCB (Value Control Box) box in the lower right corner of the Model window. If you set it to something like 75 degrees, you'll find that it's whole lot easier to work in tight, interior confines.
Another tip is to use Section Planes/Cuts to remove some interior obstructions and give you a better, more clear view of the work area.
I hope this helps, and that you truly spend a little quality time playing with SketchUp. There a tons of people here who are more than happy to help you along your path of discovery, so don't give up on us just yet!
Cheers,
- CraigD
On this sunny Saturday morning, with my warm bowl of Meusli in hand, my dogs at my side, and the wind furiously howling against my home, I'm reflecting on the past year and a half with SketchUp....
I just want to say that I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with than you guys! My wife occasionally becomes surprised when I tell her about the personal things that we share and discuss on this forum, and say to her that it's just the way the SketchUp community is...a caring community of peers, with respect and mutual concern for one another. Ups and downs, they're "all in".
When I think about that this morning, especially in light of all the responses I got this week by folks from all over the world, (and special help from Csaba!), in my quest to help my friends in the training group find great candidates, I can't help but feel very fortunate to be a part of this community.
You guys really are the best people anyone could hope to work with, and I (along with the whole SketchUp team) really appreciate each and every one of you!
Just wanted to say that to you personally, so that you know how much of a positive impact you have on my life and our work!
With heartfelt appreciation,
- CraigD
@baker518 said:
That is something I will try to do more of in the future.
(Re: Adding back to the 3D Warehouse) Thanks Mike! It's good content that makes all the difference! We appreciate all of the contributors of quality models!
Cheers,
- CraigD
Hey CRC, I'll send ya a PM.
Thanks for the interest! We'll get you more info on the position.
Cheers,
- CraigD
@unknownuser said:
There must REALLY be a major need for trainers.
We are serious about SketchUp's bright future and we would very much like to have some more great trainers on the team. So when I was asked to help find some good candidates, I couldn't think of a better place to contact some of the BEST Sketchers out there!
I'm just excited about it, and I can imagine that having this on a resume would be impressive! Plus you get to meet a lot of fun people on this adventure. I'm impressed with the response from our European members of the SketchUp community, and am trying to get the same response from the U.S folks.
If you're out there and want to give it a try or get more information, contact me or email: training at sketchup.com
Edit: Here's the description again:
Folks, we are looking for enthusiasts who love teaching people how cool SketchUp is. We have three openings for long term (one-year) temporary SketchUp trainers. You would be working as a full-time Google temp and need to be available to travel.
The position involves weekly travel to lead our public training courses in cities around the US.
Responsibilities:
• Travel to training locations
• Lead training classes of up to 10 students
• Learn and employ SketchUp training content and methods
• Provide all required feedback and expense reporting
• Other duties as assigned
Requirements:
• BA/BS degree
• Experience with SketchUp or other complex 3D or DTP design software
• Ability to communicate complex issues/concepts clearly and effectively.
• Comfort in public speaking
• Experience in adult learning is helpful
Cheers,
- CraigD
We've gotten some good responses so I would like to encourage even more folks to take a look at this thread.
I know this must be interesting to some folks...let us know!
Cheers,
That's way cool Danny!! I hope I see that in Halo 3!
Keep up the good work! ..and then post it here!
Cheers,
- CraigD
Trick!! I love how clean it is too!
Nice job as always, Justin!
Cheers,
- CraigD
P.S. Need for Speed, Salt Flats....?
@boogster said:
@unknownuser said:
I have no idea what's going to be in SketchUp V7. My money would be on these features:
- Features that are aimed at the populace and that make it easy for them to populate Google Earth
- Annoyances and bug fixes fixed
- Dumbing down hard to use features
- Dare I suppose it.... lockable .skp files
- Fat Faces perhaps
Todd
And don't forget the 3D Warehouse that is needed to be supported from other browsers, such as Firefox. It only supports IE.
Noted. A workaround is that you can access the 3D Warehouse via Firefox (or Camino) and upload and download to your heart's content. We've added an Upload button to the 3D Warehouse...all you have to do is log in.
Hope that helps!
And all of the other feedback is great! Keep it coming! We're listening!
Cheers,
- CraigD
Some of the best teas out there: http://www.tenren.com/
There's very good info on the site and they ship anywhere. The store itself (San Francisco) is amazing!
They have a sample kit if you'd like to try a variety of green/white teas.
If you have time to read about Chinese Medicine and Qigong (Chi Kung), there are a few books I can recommend. One of them is called "Qigong Empowerment" by Master Shou-Yu Liang and Wen-Ching Wu.
Others can be found here, by my previous Sifu, Grand Master Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming:
http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/books/qigong
Qigong breathing, mental imagery, and mastery of the body's energy can be extremely powerful.
Cheers,
- CraigD