I'm considering having 50-100 USB drives printed with my info to give away to potential clients in trade shows, preloaded with a promitional video of my work.
Any good place to have them made?

Well, while U.S. citizens can't travel to the island, we can. And from people who have been there we know how difficult life is outside the tourist spots. In extreme cases, girls sell their bodies for basic stuff like shampoo. Some Cubans have even migrated (escaped?) to my country, which is by no measure a developed one. Now, I don't know if those hard conditions are a consequence of their own government or of the U.S. embargo, or both.

@daniel said:

[Cuba was chummy with the USSR, perceived enemy of the West, one result being the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because of their close ties with the USSR, becoming friendly with Cuba was never really an option.

How ironic it is, then, that today Russia is also in the UN Security Council, while the embargo on Cuba continues. Oh, and Russia is still a place where human rights are... well, not really right. And Russia does not make cheap electronics the West, so.... the question is still open. No, the question is now a bit longer. Why Russia and China, but not Cuba?

You have an impressive card...
In Lumion, what's your typical render time per frame at 720p?

Even worse, now that Vray for SU was bought by Chaos Group it can't be ordered from my country. No wonder they are called "Chaos".

I just finished this for a local client. The video will be shown to visitors to a real estate trade show this coming week, so I hope at least a few people will notice my credits at the end.

[flash=853,505:ut8ldkca]http://www.youtube.com/v/H5OxgQHB4S4&hd=1&fs=1[/flash:ut8ldkca]

Overlaying works good when you can easily tell which line belongs to each drawing... I remember this was easy when I was an ArchiCAD user (it has a "trace" function), but unfortunately I don't have it anymore.

Any other ideas?

Thanks everyone. I already delivered that animation, but it's good to be on the lookout for new solutions. I also noticed that Got3D does have a collection of children cutouts that could be useful for still images.

Watching Obama on TV explain that they do not support Cuba because of their lack of democracy and human right violations, it's giving me a headache trying to understand why, then, they are close friends with China, another non-democratic country and human rights violator, even to the point of kicking Taiwan, a democratic country, out of the UN security council in the process...

Only explanation I see is: Money. China produces cheap goods for the US, while Cuba doesn't. But this would mean all that "fighting for freedom and democracy" thing is pure B.S... It's giving me a headache. Or maybe it's just that I haven't slept enough after a week full of work.

V-ray is something I always say: "One day I'll buy it and learn to use it". I was glad to see it was sold WorldWide. But today I checked and...

@unknownuser said:

Unfortunately due to Chaos Group territorial restrictions, we can sell V-Ray for SketchUp in Canada, USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama only. To purchase V-Ray for SketchUp, you will need to locate a reseller within your region.

Thank you, mate! I wish this forum had a "Thank You" button!

Part of the job is to do this when clients send updates of their designs. How do you guys compare the two files? Do you just import the new plan into your SU model, or do you have a smarter way?

BTW, I don't have AutoCAD. I just use Draftsight and the free Autodesk Design Review (formerly DWG Viewer).

Just wanted to chime in to say that a powerful graphics card is a good investment now that more and more renderers use it in one way or another: Indigo, Thea, Lumion, LightUp, Lumen RT, Octane... So even thought SketchUp itself might not benefit a lot, you will benefit when you render with those programs (and others I'm forgetting). And, quite ironically, most of these rendering programs benefit more from a gaming card.

My try, using Lumion. Glass was warped using good old Sandbox tools. I created two variations, distributed them in a checkerboard pattern and then randomly rotated most blocks.

@solo said:

2D cutouts of kids being illegal or dodgy at least due to some child protection act, especially I'd guess kids in bathing suits.

I believe it was one of Lumion's representatives who said so, explaining why their provider of reference photos does not carry photos of children.

So I ended up recycling the same two models with different colors.

@sojourner said:

(or costs about the same as a computer game)

I agree that the "same cost as a computer game" price point, that is, US$60, is a non-explored market. For a hobbyist, even a $99 program can be too expensive. If there were more in that price, I'd collect them like videogames.

Oh, yeah... I forgot that Lumion has a free version. If you have a powerful graphics card, it's really fast. My clients love the Lumion look, and my friends tell me my animations made with Lumion "look more real" than the ones I've made with other programs (Kerkythea, Twilight, LightUp). This is quite ironical, as from a technical point of view Lumion is actually the fakest of them all, as it uses only SSAO to simulate indirect lighting. But people who don't have this technical knowledge simply love the final product. And who am I to go against the preferences of non-nerds?

The free version is limited in resolution and adds a logo. However, the full paid version is €1499. If you don't mind the logo, the resolution limit of 1920x1080 for stills and 1280x720 for animations, and the limited library of people/vegetation/stuff, give the free version a try.

Site seems to be working for me:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/maxwell_for_google_sketchup

Some of you have probably watched the "F*ck you. Pay me" presentation by Mike Monteiro, in which he and his lawyer highlight the importance of using a contract when you work in creative services:
http://vimeo.com/22053820

Do you guys protect yourselves with a contract? Could you please share some tips on how to write one, or maybe a place where I can purchase a template? Of course, in the end I'll have to hire a lawyer myself to improve it and make sure it's compatible with local laws.

I'm modeling a water park for a client. I have a FormFonts subscription, but they have only two children that look like they belong in a pool/water park environment. Can anyone please point me to any free/paid gallery of children for water park, be it models or cutouts? Preferably low-poly models as it's for an animation.

Or maybe I'll have to just copy them with different clothing/hair/skin color...