Great Moments in SC History

It was exactly one year ago yesterday that SceneCaster quietly opened its doors to the world and hoped that someone would walk in.

I have to go to the U.S. occasionally for work and I always get uptight when the customs officers ask me what I do for a living: "Well, I work for this software company and we have an application that lets you create 3D scenes where you can add objects and then there's this Google component to it and you can add video links and..." At this point the officer's eyes usually start to glaze over and I begin to wonder if I should have just said "Boxes; I make boxes."

I can't wait for the day when I can say "SceneCaster; I work for SceneCaster. No need to hug me."

We're not quite there yet. We're getting close, though. Here's a look back at some highlights of the past year.

Sept 25, 2007 - The First Scene
As far as I can tell, this is the first one published (not half bad, either):


Jan 4, 2008 - The Joker
Ellen Solem's television breaks down, prompting her to create her own fun and some of the most visually compelling scenes ever (with the worst titles). Who can forget the sheer suspense and dramatic tension of "26" (see what I mean?), in which a giant beer can with a grudge stalks an unsuspecting hiker out for a stroll?


March 26, 2008 - The Favorite
Lesley Bergen begrudginly accepts a friend's invite to join SC...as far as I know, her family have not had clean clothes or a hot meal since. She develops such a devoted fan base that her scene "Invisible" scores an astonishing 542 page views ...and there's nothing in it! NOTHING!






April 15, 2008 - The Addict
Joy Brewer joins SC; author of 163 scenes and counting - that's a new scene just about every day. She says SceneCasting "is the most relaxing thing I have ever done." Must be a nice break from her day job on the bomb squad.






April 15, 2008 - The Innovator
We add the 'link' feature that lets you create your own links to other scenes and other Websites. Some smarty pants named Diroshi Raja uses this to create SC's first interactive graphic novel:


July 18, 2008 - The Ambassador
SC's rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population prompts Isabel Christina Restrepo to guest blog for Designer's Den because frankly, my Spanish is muy malo!







Sept. 25, 2008 - The Crew
Our sincere thanks to all of our great contributors for their imagination, their skill, their humour and most of all for sharing their scenes with us.

Favorite Google Things - Library Sofa

We're really proud to be the only online design software that can import models from the Google 3D Warehouse. It's like having access to a great big online store where all the merchandise is totally free! It's a shopper's dream!

The downside is that their content is sometimes hard to find, poorly named or (worst of all) has that little annoying little 2D man attached when you download it. Being in the fortunate position of browsing through all of your scenes every day I often find items I did not know existed until they pop up in someone's design.

My new fave is this little beauty:

Curvy, tufty, cushy: she's got it all. If I were a single man I'd take it for a drink. It even accepts textures from our library if you drop them on the right spot. Zoom in and try to hit it right about here:


My sincere thanks to Eliana Lombardo Teran for finding it and using it so well. And if you're looking to download it yourself, the magic search word is "chester".

One Percent Inspiration

Inspiration for a great scene can come from anywhere. I've been known to drop everything because I spotted a new Google object and decided that I had to build a 'home' for it in SC immediately. Just lately I seem to be on a bender for re-creating images I find of beautiful residential architecture and interior design. I like the idea of being able to spend a few hours in these spaces I will likely never get the chance to visit in real life (unless the company finally caves in to my suggestion that I take a world tour with unlimited license to barge into people's homes uninvited). It's sort of like trying on a suit you know you can't afford and isn't necessarily your style, but you just want to see how wearing it will change you, if only for a moment.

My two favorite online destinations of late are both blogs, and I put them out to you only because there's a lot of budding designers amongst the SC population who may find them inspiring as well. The first is Design Milk, which is a showcase of what's new & inventive in art, architecture & industrial design. There are some very out-there ideas here, but you'd be surprised how much of this stuff gets filtered down eventually to your local IKEA. DM was the source of this scene:


which was inspired by this home in Costa Rica:

The second is Apartment Therapy. They're all about livin' large when space is at a premium. They've got specific sites for many of the major metropolitan centers across the US (I feel only slightly snubbed that Toronto is a no-show). The nosy neighbour in me is addicted to one of their regular features called 'house tours' which was the source of this scene:


which was inspired by this home in San Francisco.

So, while I may never live in a modernist glass home in the Costa Rican jungle, or a mid-century bungalow in San Fran, I can still spend a few hours 'living' if not actually living there. In dissecting and re-assembling these spaces I garner two major benefits. One: I get to rip-off great ideas for use in the ever-evolving, never-ending, please-make-it-stop renovation of my own home, and two: it's a good design exercise to imagine what was on the other side of the photographer and 'fill in the blanks' as it were.

No wait, there's three: by taking things apart you get a good handle for what makes them work, and this gives you the tools to build things better in the future.

New Catalog Content

Hey SceneCaster-ites!
You've been doing such a great job of creating scenes that our poor servers are smoking. We're doing a bit of clean up over the next few days to distribute the load a bit better and during that time you may notice some inconsistent performance. Patience please - it's all for the greater good.

Now the good news - new content release!

Art.com
The internet's biggest supplier of art & decor is now on SceneCaster! We've chosen 50 of their best-selling pieces to add to our content library, both framed and un-framed. Plus, we plan to continue to add to this collection over the coming months. Their website offers over 500,000 prints, so we're going to be pretty busy for some time. But that's not all: Art.com's sister site has also joined us....

Allposters.com
The world's largest poster store is available, too! We've got classic movie posters, rock & roll favorites and even some more tongue-in-cheek pieces:



which inspired my 'back from vacation' scene here. Look for Art.com and Allposters.com in our 'Featured' content category.

Back To School
Speaking of things getting back to things (how coherent do you expect me to be after that many coffees?), the wee ones have gone back to drink from the fountain of knowledge. Look at their little shiny faces and empty heads just waiting to be filled up! It does the heart good:



Remind me sometime to sing you the song I wrote to memorize the periodic table. Sounds nerdy, but you can kiss my 'A'...in chemistry! Take a look in 'Themes > Back to School'

Recess!
Lest you forget that thing you use to carry your brain around in needs a bit of exercise too: we expanded the 'Outdoor > Playground Equipment' category with a whole bunch of swinging, climbing, teetering & tottering fun.



Alright - it's SceneCaster September: everybody back to work!