Light Plot Deconstructed Contest

During the month of October, iSquint.net and JimOnLight.com will be running a very special contest together.  Rather then butting heads trying to out do each other with this contest, we decided to work together and give you, the value reader more chances to win.

Greg Hillmar, the author of Light Plot Deconstructed has graciously donated not one, but to copies book, AND signed for the contest. So what is the deal, what the contest, how do I win?

Easy, leave a message on the posting with your name, email address, (it will not be published), and a note, (if you want to, we love notes!). The first drawing will be taken from comments left on this posting on iSquint on Friday October 16.

The second part of the contest will be held on JimOnLight.com starting October 19 and conclude on Friday October 30.

Easy Right?!  So what are you waiting for?

Light Plot Deconstructed is a great companion guide for anyone seeking to learn the fundamentals of lighting design with Vectorworks Spotlight. You can read our review of Light Plot Deconstructed here on iSquint. If you can not wait to win one and want to purchase your own copy of Light Plot Deconstructed, visit www.lightplotdeconstructed.com to purchase it for $40.

WYSIWYG Release 24: Virtual Lighting Designer Heaven

Jim Hutchison from JinOnLight.com was kind enough to allow us to re-print parts of his recent review of WYSIWYG Release 24 by CAST Software. WYSIWYG, (What You See Is What You Get). is a Pre-Visualization software package to plan and design your lights for theatre, events, concerts, whatever, WELL before loading in a single piece of gear into the space. You can see you lights fuction in real time in the virtual stage. Without further ado, here is a sampling of Jim’s review which you can read in it’s entirety with pretty pic’s at JimOnLight.com.

Over the last few weeks I have been testing out Cast Lighting’s new release for WYSIWYG – Release 24.  In the last year, R22 and R23 have revolutionized the way that we’ve been thinking about viz software, and R24 is the crown jewel of the improvements in R22 and R23.  The real-time rendering engine in R24 is so full of awesome that there is next to no need to sit and wait for a rendering of the look.

The interesting movement in R24 is that the processing feels like it has been allocated in the most efficient way – meaning graphic properties seem to be moved to the GPU, and numeric functions have been retained into the CPU.  I could be totally off here, but I have used the program on a very, very slow machine and on my laptop, which is configured to be a desktop replacement.  Nothing lags, nothing drags, and I have not crashed it yet.  Believe me, I have been trying!

There are some excellent new features in Release 24 that everyone should know about – from the ability to snap a pic of your instrument’s focus and send it up to the electrician in the cherry picker for focus, to live beam-in video for digital lights across a network:

You have to visit JimOnLight.com to read the rest of his review.  Thanks Jim and great job!

Congratulations JimOnLight, One Year and Counting!

Way to go Jim!  All of us here at iSquint congratulate you on bringing excellent lighting news to the interwebs with JimOnLight.com.  You really have the ability to find some interesting uses of LEDs in the architectural world! Also, kudo’s to your wife and web designer, the new layout looks fantastic!

If you do not know JimOnLight.com, be sure to stop by and pick up a subscription to Jim’s site.  To thank his readers, Jim is having a day of giva-ways which we have been included on.  We put up a pair of Setwear Hot Hand Gloves.  How do you win them?  See this morning post about how to win and good luck!

Safe Travels Jim!

A good friend, fellow blogger and contributing author, Jim Hutchinson from JimOnLight.com heads to Sweden this week.  Jim is heading over the great big blue to study, you guessed it cooking… just kidding.  Jim is heading to Sweden to study lighting design for a year.

All of us here at iSquint wish him safe travels and of course BREAK-A-LEG.  But seeing as he is going over sea’s, we have a couple of tips for him.

1. DO NOT MENTION THE MUPPETS SWEDISH CHEF.  I really think Sweeds resent Jim Henson for that character!

2. Don’t forget your pass port.

3. Swedish meat balls are just called meat balls over there.

4. Play nice and don’t get into any fights, we don’t want to see any notes come home from the principals office.

5. In Sweden IKEA is a cheap store, not a trendy store and you STILL have to put it together yourself.

6. recyling there is HUGE, as in jail time for litering.

Don’t forget us “snooting American’s” only a couple of hours behind you.  From all of us at iSquint, we wish you the best of luck, safe travels, and the strength to remember a good swedish meat ball recipie!

Hi, I’m Jim from JimOnLight.com

Allow me to introduce myself – I’m a fellow lighting blogger and lighting designer.  I write JimOnLight.com, and I own Alive Lighting, my design and consulting firm.  I’ll be doing my best to keep up the fine work that iSquint produces, and hopefully bring you some interesting articles in your daily read!  In a week or so I’ll be contributing from the land of Sweden, so I hope to bring you some crazy Swedish flavor along with interesting news about our beloved industry.  Have a great day!

New iPhone App: ShowTool LD

We just read over at JimOnLight.com about a new iPhone app for Lighting Designers called ShowTool LD by Daniel Murfin.  ShowTool LD packs 4 applications into one, dispswitch calculator, DMX calculator, gel calculator and a beam calculator.  All of this for only $3.99 through the iTunes App Store.

What is nice about ShowTool LD is first, 4 individual apps that are currently available through iTunes have been rolled into one application.  Next of course is the price.  Buying the four individual apps through iTunes can cost up to $7.97.  Then there is the fact that you have four individual applications to keep track.  and of course, only one of those apps can be open at one time.

JimOnLight.com has six free versions to give out in a contest.  We recommend high tailing it over to JimOnLight’s post about the ShowTool LD to win a free copy.

More information about Daniel Murfin’s ShowTool LD iPhone app can be found on his website at http://www.dsmurfin.co.uk.

Lighting Industry Professionals: PassPorts and Touring on A Budget

We follow one our our fellow bloggers, JimOnLight as he has some great information about the lighting industry.  Recently JimOnLight write about two things that we feel that every lighting professional should know.

The first being having an up-to-date passport.  Why is this important?  Traveling outside of the United States even to Mexico or Canada, US Citizens are required to have a passport for re-entry to the state.  In addition, we here at iSquint have found that having a PassPort for 1099 work is much easier then carrying around a drivers license and a birth certificate as verification. Be sure to read JimOnLight’s post, Lighting Industry Folk and Passports.

The next post we want to point out from JimOnLight is about how to save money while traveling and or touring for work. In this tough economical times, getting a gig can become increasingly difficult.  There is a lot of competition in the industry to land a gig.  So, what happens when you do land that gig and you have to travel away from home?  JimOnLight has been traveling a lot lately and has put together a great post about how to save your hard earned money while on the road.  Be sure to check out his post, On Th Road: Save Your Hard Earned Money!

Thanks Jim for these great post!  We wish you luck in Sweden!

Where is the Indusrty Heading: Interview with Jim Hutchison

In our continuing column called Where is the Industry Heading, we bring you another interview of a professional lighting design, Jim Hutchison with Alive Lighting.  Mr. Hutchison is the Chief Design Consultant and founder of Alive Lighting. Jim has years of experience in the Entertainment Lighting industry, and has years of collegiate teaching experience, helping young designers visualize their careers in design. Jim is also a member of United Scenic Artists of America Local 829.

Click read more to read the entire interview. (more…)