6 years ago today I sat in-front of a blank white screen and wrote A blog is born. In actuality it took a few months of preparation to get to the point I could put the blog on air, knowing it will be a continuous project and not something that fades away. I’m happy I did not ponder for too long and got this started when I did. Knowing myself back then, I could have easily go down the quicksands of perfection, and along with me a great online blogging journey that made a big difference for me and you.

You – My followers!

I know this from all the great feedback you been sending me during the past six years, which in turn fuelled my efforts to keep pushing on.

To you I say THANK YOU!

Thank you for doing so, and I hope we can keep this going for a long time more on the blog, the forums, the job boards, social media (which actually passed the 70,000 followers mark on Facebook today… Great timing ya’ll) and more to come.

A Year in Review

Let’s see what we had in the past year and what is ahead of us next!

Getting Real in Realtime / “The Vineyard” Challenge

Although launched only two months ago, “The Vineyard” challenge was long in the making since late last year along with the great people at Epic who embraced this idea and the architectural visualisation community in general as part of their effort to make their Unreal Engine platform reachable to all who want to use it.

It was clear to me a major shift is coming to our field and with “The Vineyard” challenge I’m providing, along with Epic, the testing grounds for the integration of realtime technologies such as Unreal Engine 4 into architectural visualisation.

I’m seeing a lot of work being done with UE4 in the past months and I’m inviting all of you to join the challenge and add your entry to the 208 already started. There is enough time left with the biggest cash prize pool waiting to be awarded in a challenge of this kind – $60,000 total to be exact!

Nvidia will also award each winner with a GeForce TITAN X / 980 Ti cards.

The Grid / Blog Redesign

The blog was employing the same design from day one, with minimal changes and an initial attempt at responsiveness for mobile devices a while back. Keeping the single post focus with big image up top was a priority for me, but in doing so I have neglected the large screen real estate we all had.

After exploring various options, and getting some feedback, the quad grid you see now came to be. It adapts to the full width of your screen, mobile devices included, and helps expose more of the blog content by showcasing the latest posts and fixed / event-driven tiles such as BEST OF WEEK and “The Vineyard Challenge” as an example of current event.

Below the grid it is all pretty much the same good old thing, but under the hood all has changed and will allow cool stuff further on up the road. That being said, there are two options I’m exploring that will help me introduce a full-fledged mobile app of the blog that will include all aspects of it – articles, forums, jobs and more in a single app.

For great experience browsing the forums on mobile, right now, I highly recommend TapaTalk. Some of you are already familiar with it and use it… based on the feedback I get more of you should try it out!

Putting the Job Board on the Map!

Literally so!

I thought it would be pretty cool to actually see who is looking for great talent on the world map and the latest, and biggest, Job Board update is offering that along with new features and improvements in-front and behind the scenes.

The job board will keep improving over the next weeks and months with emphasis on artist resumes, making sure they provide key indicators for employers and showcase your work in all its glory! As it is now, a resume already acts as your mini-portfolio on the board so I’m highly recommending everyone to sign-up and get yours up there… Just like Alberto Liners did. Check out his resume as an example.

Home Improvement

I spent the month of June at SOA Academy taking time off the daily routine and learning a great deal of new things. You never know what you don’t know and I’ve set my mind on attending a Masterclass at some point. It took me a while to get clearance for this from the boss (you know who), but I’m very happy I did this. It was an amazing experience and I can’t praise Gianpiero and Roberto enough… It takes a lot of dedication and love for the craft to be able to do what they do with the help of Riccardo, Manuela and Denise.

The Masterclass page on SOA website shows the details, but I can tell you right away there is a lot more between the lines. This month is jam-packed with information and great times with your fellow classmates and teachers near one of the beautiful cities in the world – Venice!

The month at SOA had such an impact on me I would like to do something special for the Blog Birthday involving them. The fine details are not locked in yet so you’ll have to wait a bit more before I can share this with you all.

Big thanks to my classmates Aimilios, Aristotele, Armagan, Bence, Elpidio, Ismail, Sumeet, Terry, Yusef, Fellow Israeli Dan and my “partner in crime” Emanuel! It was a great ride with you guys 😉

Here are their final works…

ReaLIGHT

Long time due, ReLIGHT will go into public beta in the 4th quarter of 2015. I’ll be sending information soon about how you can join the beta program and help ironing out the final stage of production.

The PureLIGHT Skies will also get some attention, along side ReaLIGHT, with new skies on offer on top of the original 9 pack.

The Giveaways

I’m celebrating the 6th birthday in partnership with my great sponsors over the years with a series of Giveaways and Promotions. Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect in the next 2 weeks, in no particular order :

• iToo Software
• Vizpark
• Design Connected
• Peter Guthrie
• Grant Warwick
• Vizpeople
• Rebusfarm
• Next Limit
• VIShopper
• model+model
• AXYZ Design
• Exlevel
• Laubwerk

All the good stuff will be is available on a dedicated page live and ready for you to storm in!…

Enjoy!