Inside Hues
Product Marketing Manager Lisa Crounse takes you on a behind the scenes tour of what goes into developing a new technology for Autodesk Labs. Lisa introduces you to members of the Impression development team and shares their unique ideas and insights.
Latest Post
- posted 01/30/07 by Lisa Crounse Entourage - Its not just an HBO original
- Okay, so our Impression entourage doesn’t include a guy trying to make it big in Hollywood, and you won’t see any of us presenting at the Golden Globes, but the Impression entourage library will soon include a cast of characters from the Impression team. (Coming to a Tech Preview near you…)
We’ve had a lot of requests to ship with more entourage elements – cars, plants and people, so Product Manager Michael Perani came up with a solution, “How about we take some photos of the team, and have them stylized, and voila, we’ll have a library of royalty-free library of images.” (Okay, that is my paraphrasing what was going on in Mike’s mind.)
Before we knew it, we were all posing in front of a giant tarp out by the dumpsters in back of our building. Let’s just say that it wasn’t exactly like walking the catwalk at fashion week. Oh, and we were instructed not to wear black or patterns. Imagine that – designers - not wearing black. Many of us felt really out of our element.
Step 1: Work the parking lot.
Step 2: Become part of a software application.
What began as a simple idea to solve a problem quickly became a fad, and before we knew it, people were clamoring to become blocks. As we were trying to set up a schedule for additional photo shoots, Michael wrote me, “So do you think that being Impression entourage will be the super trendy thing to do. Kinda like when the biggest stars of the 60’s were begging to be villain guest stars on the Batman show? Hmmmm…probably not quite THAT trendy eh?”
Some shots that might not make it into the product
So far, the trend hasn’t gone far past the parking lot of an office building in San Rafael, but who knows…maybe one of us will make it big in one of your Impression images! You can't wait to get your hands on Technology Preview 4, can you?
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Team Spotlight - Rod Recker
Posted 01/24/07 by Lisa Crounse
Today’s team spotlight is an interview with Rod Recker. I started working with Rod back when I was the Product Marketing Manager for Autodesk VIZ. Rod works remotely from his home in Connecticut, which of course I thought was fabulous as it clearly meant that we now I had one more Red Sox fan on the team. Boy, was I wrong. I forgot that half of Connecticut roots for a team from New York that wears pinstripes.
Apart from this major flaw, Rod has been great to work with and here’s a bit about what he’s doing with the Impression team.
Q: Who are you and how did you end up working on Impression?
A: I’m the Engineering Manager for the team, responsible for managing the software development and testing of the product. I’ve spent my career working on 3D graphics applications, including Lightscape, 3ds max, and Autodesk VIZ. When the Impression project started, my team was assigned to lead the engineering work.
Q: What role do you play on the development team?
A: I try to do everything possible to allow developers and testers to spend as much time as possible writing and testing the software. That means being in a lot of meetings planning and scheduling the feature work and how it will be tested. It also means helping the team to stay focused on the most important areas for making the product successful.
Q: What has been the most exciting part of working on Impression?
A: The most exciting part was at AU in 2005 when we first publicly demonstrated the product. The team had worked intensely for three weeks leading up to AU and it all came together just in time for the first demo. It performed flawlessly and the crowd was obviously impressed.
Q: Tell us something about working remotely from a home office.
A: My office (at home in Connecticut) is filled with dozens of Lego sets of all types. My kids often quietly invade my office while I’m working to scrounge for parts needed for their latest creations.
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No more sneak peeks...
Posted 01/18/07 by Lisa Crounse
because its here!
Yes, late yerday afternoon we posted Technology Preview 3 to Autodesk Labs.
www.autodesk.com/impression
Download it today, and let us know what you think.
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Coming soon to a Technology Preview near you.
Posted 01/10/07 by Lisa Crounse
Time for another sneek peek! The team is heads down working on Technology Preview 3 and I wanted to give you a glimpse of one of the new features coming your way...
Yup, that is what you think it is. You asked for it and we're delivering. This new feature will allow you to update the CAD geometry in your Impression illustration if you've made changes to your source DWG.
Look closely, and you can also catch a glimpse of another re-designed UI element.
Technology Preview 3 is coming soon, and I'll post an announcement here as well as in the Communication Center as soon as it is available.