Grafikimon

I am going to rough out a city layout in illustrator just to get the ball rolling. No one has made any decisions yet so lets throw some ideas out there and see what we come up with. I am going to use meters since it is a good rule of thumb and will accommodate windows and doors within one grid unit. I am also going down to barnes and nobles to browse through that Batman Begins book because it had some great maps. Google Earth is also a great piece of software since we can look at existing city layout for inspiration. It has 3d models of buildings in NY and some cities in California so it will help see the general layout. You cant extract the buildings.

From what I remember from teh book the character should have an emotionless face. Something completely neutral. The eyes right now are so wide that they will make it hard to show suprised since that will be your default expression for them. I would close them to a neutral position the rest looks good. Can't wait to see how you do the rigging of the face.

Here is my current progress. No not talbot.

yeah it si for fun mosty and to explore some of the more odd things I learned when I started tehn unlearned later on. Dangling splines and other things that most people I asked told me to avoid. The images have been around for years up on the resource website. link is on the main hash page. Might be called tutorials. In any case the site is gone and teh images are no longer available. I ad downloaded them a while ago and just decided to build one of them

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Been looking at these reference images for years and finally decided to see how effective they actually are. Trying to develope a low spline style to work in. The refrence image is the one on the right

I see an apprentice/mentor relationship as primarily the apprentice working on the mentor's project/work. In any case the mentor and apprentice have to discuss who each of them expect since no one wants to give out valuable model files and resources to a stranger and then have them quit a few days in because they don't like being stuck with tweening duties for the first few weeks. This relationship requires dedication on both halves to complete what ever projects that are going on. Some things to consider in order for this to work. The apprentice has to tell the mentor how much time they have available and what skills they have (samples would help here). Time is really important as it will determine if the apprentice is given too little to do or gets overwhelmed. The apprentice will need to be very clear about how much time they will actually spend on a project. I may have 3 hrs a night free but reality is that i spend an hour winding down from work or playing a game and another hour working on my own stuff so I really have an hour free for my potential mentor. There is a big difference between 5 hours a week and 15 and the difference can spell dissater for a mentor who uses an apprentice on a paying job. The mentor has to discuss what the apprentice will be required to do and how they will go about sharing files and resources. Also the mentor has to make clear what they can teach. If the mentor is a great animator and a bad texture artist then an apprentice who is looking to improve their texturing will have wasted both his and the mentor's time. That brings up another point. Trading skills might be a cool thing too, an animator may teach the texture artist his skills in return for learning how to texture. people who want to apprentice have to realize that they are not only learning how to animate/model but may have access to models, cho, actions and other material they would never have access to otherwise. Think of it like a class but with a private tutor you don't have to pay.

there should be an understanding that if you apprentice that you will be working for a pro animator on their projects or jobs. Like most apprentices you don't get paid but gain valuable experience in doing production work. Yeah it may be only tweening work or just cleaning up keys but over time as you get more skilled the master will give more tasks to the apprentice. I know someone at my job that makes good money as a manager but is studying animation at a local 3d studio and doing the crap jobs but learning so much from being around them that it makes up for the lack of pay. I know an oil painter that apprenticed to a sculpter for free and came away with enough knowledge that he now works in sculpting. The idea of apprenticing, to me, is working with a professional on his normal workload and helping him in return for getting exposure to how things are actually done. I would be willing to trade some of my time to help someone out. The only thing the pro animator needs from the apprentice is to know exactly how much time they have to dedicate each week to helping him. pro or not I see the apprentice setting aside time to help in animation duties and beyond that they can discuss the apprentices own projects or animation problems. The main question in all this is if any animator needs help and can work out a decent workflow since some of the work will be sent off to a practicle stranger.