robcat2075

I realize it was my idea but I'm doubtful about Monster Audition at this date. I don't think most people will be able to get a proper monster done and animated in just two months. I think we should save that one for next year and launch it earlier. On teams... the paradox about projects i have observed is that individual efforts are more likely to get done than groups efforts. It's possible that small groups might get very elaborate segments done but it only takes one person to fall out to cause the other team members' efforts to be wasted. BUS Stop and Pass the Ball were ideal because it didn't matter if anyone dropped out, everyone else's work was still usable. I've only supervised Bus Stop. I spent more time agonizing over having to do it rather than doing it, I suspect. It did take me a while to come up with an order that appropriately paced the long vs. short segments and gave them all their due. Looking at my AfterEffects files... I can see that I got started editing that thing in earnest on March 6 and got the "release" version out on March 16. A more modern editing app might speed things a bit.

May all your trains not go off the rails! Happy birthday!

There are many good ideas here, enough to last us for years of projects. The bottom line however on any idea seems to be that one person is willing to... ... supervise it, get people to make the required common assets, make sure they all work and fit together, define the guidelines for participation, set a schedule, collect all the entries, figure out how to make them fit together when someone didn't follow the guidelines, edit everything together, post it and promote it. that's all it will take to get going!

Yes, i think that's on track to the sort of hard edged flame we cant really get with sprites.

- I think the initial fade-in is late - I'm afraid to ask what these three pills do!

The side roto looks much closer to a side view than the front is to a front view. I think the front is too far off for exact splining.

If gutsy, investigative reporters still existed, that would make a good exposé.

Hey, those first few frames have real promise as a flame effect. I wonder how we could control that.

Rodney, can you post a sample PRJ that shows glow working on a streak particle? I couldn't get it.

Sprites and streaks are two different things, which do you mean?

For TWO we made a background character who could be easily be varied in such a manner. A rig that includes stretchable limbs and spines like the Squetch rig or TSM2 would likely be the easiest initial route. This won't be a novice endeavor. In that Youtube clip, Someone put a lot of work into making sure that all that characters various parts would hang together even if they were set to absurdly contrary settings. For further investigation.... I've been thinking, now that we have a constraint that will attach a bone to mesh (Group constraint), one could make a basic mesh with bones at the various landmarks. You could push and pull that mesh in the modeler then run some rigging wizard that would use the the bones that had been pulled along with the mesh to properly place the real rig.

Typical or not, it's certainly illegal. You have to pay people for the hours they work. "Animators" are explicitly included in such laws. If it were a meat-packing plant charges would be filed.

Paramount is threatening to open a new feature studio in Florida after Dreamworks Animation leaves them. That will perhaps add 100 animator jobs to the US total. But Dreamworks is scaling back its schedule, and Disney is laying off so it may be no gain over all. VFX work in the US is declining as other countries, like Canada, lure the work with large subsidies. That may have a lot to do with ILM releasing its first feature, Rango, this year. It would be great to be part of all that but I read many disappointing stories about top-tier animation work. Aja Bogdanoff a former Animation Mentor classmate of mine and the 11 Second club moderator tells how she got hired as a temp at a major studio (I suspect it was Blue Sky) and having to give 30 free hours per week on top of 60 paid in order to not get fired. All that for about 2 1/2 months "in the industry". And that's top-tier studios. Imagine what the also-rans are like.

I think the proliferation of schools is driven by two things... -an abundance of people wanting to be students -an abundance of pedigreed animators who need to make more money I don't think there's surge of animation jobs in the US.

Every time I turn around some one is starting another animation school.

You're getting better at that. I agree... unpinch the nose some.

I'm not convinced that needs another spline ring. I think weighting it right will solve the problem. Send me the bottom half of that penguin and I'll show you what to do.

First, use the primitives from the A:M data folder. If you want a bigger cube but with a same size bevel, drag each side out farther rather than scaling the whole cube If you wanted a same size cube but with smaller bevel, do the above , the scale the whole back down.

Congratulations! hmm... Wyoming sounds a bit far from IL. But maybe if it were part of bigger vacation to see Yellowstone and all that before it gets covered with oil... it might be fun to work in.

What do you do with the volume once you know it?

I looked on Steffen Gross' site and it's not listed there. It may be new for v16. I don't have it in my v15 either.

Turning into a major work!

My advice would be to do a few short tests of the sort of things your character does and see how that goes and post those.

I dont' know what all you have in it.

I presume the feet controllers are not children of the hips and that is the correct arrangement if you are doing something like my simple leg. With IK legs you will need to manage the feet so they are appropriately placed. If you've posed the hips so that the legs don't reach the feet anymore... move the feet so that the legs can reach them again. On a rig like TSM2 the feet will stay attached to the legs if you move the hips too far away, but this still leaves the foot controllers behind and causes the legs to be unnaturally pulled tight. You would still need to properly position the foot controllers so that the legs are appropriately posed. There is no animation situation where you would ever allow the legs to be pulled tight by a too distant foot controller... because it looks odd.