3D work will be seen by thousands today!

[D.Joseph Design]

Answers in Genesis (AiG), Christian apologetics and creation science organization, as well as builders of Creation Museum in greater-Cincinnati, has redesigned their extremely popular website. A key feature of the redesigned site is a new "Get Started" section that features an introduction video ("About AiG") that includes one of my 3D animations that I created for them.

 

www.AnswersInGenesis.org is the single most-popular Christian apologetics website, receiving over 50,000 unique visitors (not hits) every day, which is about 150,000 page views. In a month, the website reaches hundreds of thousands of unique vistors (again, not hits because that would register in the millions).

 

Check it out!

 

I think it's awesome that the animation fits so well without alteration from the original design. I offered to reanimate as needed, but they did a good enough job that reanimation wasn't needed.

 

Too bad I don't get advertising from this.

[Dearmad]

The logo part? Is that the animation you did?

[D.Joseph Design]

Oops. I forgot to specify that. Yes, I did the 3D logo animation.

[Dearmad]

Ok.

[agep]

that is cool. to bad you don't get advertasment. but cool anyway

[heyvern]

Nice web site. Very clean and simple. I would have gone with a flexible width... but I am sure you had nothing to do with that.

 

Congrats on the logo animation. Great job. I may not agree with the concepts but I appreciate your talent, hard work and devotion to this project.

 

You must be a proud papa right now eh?

 

(I hope the horrors of the R&R fiasco is water under the bridge. No hard feelings right?)

 

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[pixelmech]

Having been in the horror that was R&R Vern, I can tell you that undoubtedly there are no hard feelings on my part and I can guarantee you Daniel will say the same thing

 

Good work Dan, looks good. I've visited the site before and appreciate the ministry.

 

Tom

[D.Joseph Design]

(I hope the horrors of the R&R fiasco is water under the bridge. No hard feelings right?)

 

None at all. We're like brothers here—we can duke it out over certain issues, but stick together over others.

[Nosferatu]

Excellent job, Dan (from one who does "agree with the concepts").

 

How did you acheive the reflections..Just with light or with some kind of environment map?

[D.Joseph Design]

Excellent job, Dan (from one who does "agree with the concepts").

 

Thank you! I think that it's cool to hear from my friends in AiG's web team that many skeptics are writing complimenting the website redesign but hating the content. Many would probably agree with me that it's nice to see a Christian company with quality in their production since so many religious organizations are known for poor-quality stuff.

 

How did you acheive the reflections..Just with light or with some kind of environment map?

 

The reflections are using my metal material with a slight glow, and a particular lighting setup that I should diagram sometime for everyone. The basics of my metal are:

• Gray diffusion
  
• About 60% reflectivity
  
• Reflectivity blend to 0% (very important)
  
• Additive environment map of just white strokes on black
  
• And a glow, which I can't recall
  

I'd give you the link to the material, but I'm redesigning my own website, so stuff is moving around.

 

BTW, I checked with the AiG web team and they said that AnswersInGenesis.org averages over 200,000 unique visitors every week, with about half a million unique visitors every month. Page views are in the millions each month.

[mediaho]

Congratulations, Daniel! Well done.

[ddustin]

Very nice work Daniel.

But R&R Fiasco????

What's that?

David

[Rodney]

But R&R Fiasco????

What's that?

 

A distant memory.

 

Daniel,

Congratulations on the sites update and your included animation!

[nibble]

That's really cool Daniel, I saw the new site design before as I keep up on it and it truly is a great improvement even considering how good the previous was.

 

The museum construction shots with Buddy's full-size dinos and everything are worth visiting alone.

[D.Joseph Design]

Thanks for the compliments, guys!

 

The museum construction shots with Buddy's full-size dinos and everything are worth visiting alone.

 

Oh yeah! You should see the lobby! They're really built that up nice in the past month.

[nerrazzi]

Ken Ham is the man!!!

 

Nice animation Dan, looks high-end!

[OdinsEye2k]

Ken Ham is the man!!!

 

Just out of curiosity, does AiG do any ministry other than blow hard against established scientific theory? I find it hard to find on the website.

 

I heard one of the best explanations on C-Span a couple of days ago. Science has a thorough and brutal vetting process for all theories. You don't go directly from idea to textbooks - you've got to win over the crowd first. You start as fringe science, become frontier science (when people rush to your schools to learn what's happening and big research grants show up) and eventually become mainstream science. That is when you get your textbooks.

 

Even quantum theory has made it through this gamut, despite rejecting many pre-conceived notions about a smooth, deterministic universe. It can be done - you just need to not be full of crap.

 

Meanwhile, you're more than welcome to burn money on private museums of dubious scientific value. Lots of tourist attractions do that with varying degrees of technical accuracy (you usually spare the public the details).

[heyvern]

Just out of curiosity, does AiG do any ministry other than blow hard against established scientific theory? I find it hard to find on the website....

We all have different views here.

 

Everything done anywhere by anyone will offend someone, somewhere in some way. Unless it is a bunny with flowers, someone's going to complain. (even then, the animal rights people might complain, or people who kill and eat bunnies, you never can tell.)

 

What I personally will try to do is appreciate the effort and the artwork without dwelling on the message. Within reason of course (see postscript).

 

Daniel and the supporters and creators of this organization believe in it. No one here will change that with the few words and discussions possible in this venue. However we can still appreciate the artistry, talent and effort involved.

 

He worked his butt off and deserves acknowledgment for his achievements regardless of our differences in religion or politics. We are all artists here.

 

I'm going to leave all that "other stuff" to be dealt with in more appropriate arenas.

 

He produced a quality piece of work that required a lot of effort and trouble along the way. Putting aside all other aspects of its derivation can't detract from its quality.

 

I realize now that if I allow irrelevant political/religious views to effect my opinion of this piece of work, the same applies to me if I do something that might offend Daniel or others and I would still want their technical or artistic opinion.

 

p.s. As I said... I will try to do this... I'm not perfect and there is a huge gray area involved. A line may be crossed where it is impossible for me to separate the "message" from the art. In these extreme cases I may choose not to comment.

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[OdinsEye2k]

He produced a quality piece of work that required a lot of effort and trouble along the way. Putting aside all other aspects of its derivation can't detract from its quality.

 

Vern, I completely agree. If I had title and web work to do, and he was in grabbing distance, I would happily employ Daniel. He would do a nice job with whatever concept I came up with, I'm sure. Just as he's done with this piece.

 

The comment was aimed more at this Ken Ham fellow and his organization. Since some folks here obviously know him, I was wondering if AiG has any ministry other than creationism. If they do other things, then I would be more than willing to say, hey, some misguided efforts there, but probably an all-round decent group.

[heyvern]

I hope I didn't come across too preachy Bjorn... ironic in the circumstances if I did. Just trying to keep away from those touchy topics. They can get ugly.

 

I believe the AIG organization is what it is. You either believe in it or not... like PC vs Mac... Republican vs. Democrat... not as trivial as those, but you get the idea.

 

Creationism is only a piece of the larger picture.

 

I guess we should just agree to disagree.

 

p.s.

I have many relatives who follow this as well.

 

We have our "discussions" at the reunions... then go back to the loooong food table for more home cooked mennonite cuisine. Can't argue while scarfing down barbecued chicken, fresh potato salad and mint tea with lemonade.

 

They won't tell me exactly how they make that tea... I have like... 12 aunts... and they get mad when I get them mixed up or forget all their names. Now they call me "Steve" or "Joe" and laugh at me. I tell them they should wear name tags and we wouldn't have this problem.

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[OdinsEye2k]

It's all right, Vern. I mix it up with fellow designers on all kinds of things, never mean it personally although it may sound that way.

 

One minute, we are hacking up a tough problem, I start off with a Bush crack or someone calls me a pinko and we go into it for a few minutes. One of us ends up ruffled, (often me), and then there's a Simpsons or Family Guy reference and we're back to work soon after.

 

I've even had a couple of friends from my undergrad days that have been very much interested in science even as evangelical Christian types. One would ask me questions from time to time about what I thought was interesting. But when I tried to explain meme theory (which is genetics and evolution applied to ideas), she became very upset and asked me to leave.

 

That's just something that I don't understand. It almost hurts to look at someone and ask, don't you want to know the truth?

 

I wish I could explain more, but I don't entirely know why this topic brings up such a hot fuse with me. I seem to associate many of the more vocal religious tenets with anger nowadays. That goes for Christian and Muslim sects.

 

Although, to be honest with you - the more I read, the more it looks like all 'visions' seem to go horribly wrong. And any vision that regards its own truth and the highest priority almost always winds its way to moral backrupcy in some way or another.

[D.Joseph Design]

I didn't see this until today. I've enjoyed a nice vacation the past week.

 

Vern, excellent post. I, too, often have to remind myself to examine the work, and not necessarily the message (in constructive criticism instances).

 

Bjorn, we can go around and around all day on this, and we would probably both enjoy it. But to answer your basic question, AiG is not just a "creation vs. evolution" organization, but they are all about the Bible being the accurate, authoritative, inspired Word of God and literal history of the universe. They focus most on the origins debate because that's where "the world" attacks Christianity the most ("The Bible isn't true because evolution proves it false").

 

But the one issue that really discourages me is when people turn this issue into a "science vs. religion" debate, which it is not. Creationist and evolutionists share the same evidence, the same facts, but have different interpretations.

 

I better stop there before I get into another debate and this topic gets closed.

 

I wish I could explain more, but I don't entirely know why this topic brings up such a hot fuse with me. I seem to associate many of the more vocal religious tenets with anger nowadays. That goes for Christian and Muslim sects.

 

This does grieve me. Like Vern has experienced, many Christians are not actually living by the words that they preach. Truth and love; that's what it's all about. But so many Christians shout the truth without love, and end up hurting people. Especially in my field, I hear many Christians say (in some sense), "You're going to hell because you believe in evolution." Without being judgmental, I try to distance myself from attitudes such as this because it is hurting Christianity. I'm sure almost all on this forum have had some bad experience with Christians. The best answer that I can give to that is that those people were not living by the Word they preach.

 

There I go again. I need to get back on topic. ...

 

I just chatted with AiG's web guys and they said that the Get Start page (with my animation on it) has received over 100,000 visits since its launch. Obviously, it's not as popular as the rest of the site because the majority of the daily 50,000 visitors are already familiar with AiG and probably don't need to "get started."

[OdinsEye2k]

Glad to see you enjoyed the vacation Daniel.

 

Yeah, I think we both would enjoy the debate to some extent. I also agree that "science vs. religion" is a non-starter for debate.

 

An irony here is that evolution didn't destroy Christianity for me, but it has been pretty steadily eroding my faith in another field - and that is the wisdom of central planning.

 

But, I will save all that for another day - congratulations on getting 100,000 people to see you work. I haven't managed 1/1000 of that number just yet.

[D.Joseph Design]

100,000 or 1,000,000,000? Does it really make a difference when one doesn't get credit or a web link?

[hypnomike]

Hi Daniel!

 

Nice work as always.

 

Your logo animation works very well.

 

Pity about the lack of a credit, but I'm sure seeing your work on the website and knowing how many view it is a reward in it's self.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[nibble]

I have to hit it, but science has never been driven by consensus, that kind of thinking is what kept people in the dark ages until thinkers such as Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, and countless others chose observation over consensus. Theories such as quantom theory aren't strong simply because a bunch of people (even the majority) buy them, but because they explain the observable evidence to a degree no alternatives do. Even that doesn't guarantee they are true but it is better validation than otherwise possible.

[OdinsEye2k]

Sorry, nibble. That was expressed sloppily.

 

What I meant was that the process is to win over the consensus. Since most people have built-in biases in many directions, the ability to win over the crowd so to speak is a gauge of a theory's strength. It doesn't guarantee that the theory is correct, but the ability to have observations that answer (or work with) everyone's biases makes it more and more likely that it does indeed work.

 

And everyone's bias leads them to attack a theory, so it's ability to fend off factual challenges also increases its strength (often through an adjustment).

[nibble]

As far as winning people over, I'd say that's about the size of it. The trick is that some biases automatically stop people from considering alternatives or the axioms they are starting from, ie. a good friend of mine recently asked me why there would be continental drift if special creation were true, and I responded that a global flood would likely produce such an effect, in fact a number of geological indicators point to a rapid shift and breakup rather than the usual slow-and-gradual idea, the leading model of plate-tectonics on supercomputers at Los Alamos was actually designed by a creationist David Baumgardner and he has some pretty good models of how the process could have occured. The axioms come into play with all kinds of vigour when it comes to origins science, and the more I've talked with others the more I've been convinced that fundamentally these things aren't decided by many biases, but by one central bias we all have (ask me if you want to know what I believe that is).

 

Anyway, we obviously need to continue studying everything, and challenging everything we think we know, that's the only way we get anywhere, and that's why creationists have their own peer-reviewed tech-journals such as AiG publishes (in answer to what else AiG does, and yes, creationists also publish whatever they can in secular as well, the recent RATE project by ICR was able to get a decent reception at geological research events in California).

 

Anyway, I won't make this go anymore off topic, this is really cool for Daniel, I hope AiG will have some more stuff for you to work on.

[Atomike]

Daniel - did you ever find that reflective material? I'd sure like to take a look under the hood of that baby. And your lighting rig too. And see what makes 'em tick...

[ChrisThom]

But R&R Fiasco????

What's that?

I think that's when Danial & Vern tried to put a band together but they couldn't decide on a set list or who should be the lead singer?

[nixie]

Haha, I can see it now, Vern as the front man, Daniel on an organ; a coming together of ex - mennonites and Christians, What sweet music such a band would create...

 

 

Regards - Nixie

[D.Joseph Design]

Here's my basic metal material. I think that this is the same as what I used. I'm still at Creation Mega Conference, so I don't have much time to check the file.

[ruscular]

Crooks and liars website feature the museum about 2 weeks ago, and I saw the video. Looks like they change the structure of the site already. Anyway, got more publicity from them. Some were positive on the media, but not on the content. There are better things to disagree, like war. If someone put up the flying spaghetti monster, and wanted to believe in that, who am I to judge that. But I did manage to see some of the comment on the website and the animation. I wanted to know if your video is still there, because I don't find it anywhere. The page you have link doesn't play the video. its been 2 years, and wanted to see if you did anymore update.

[GAngus]

Site not found, hello ?

the URL is bad here.....

Thanks, anyway...

 

 

The basic metal material URL, that is

[D.Joseph Design]

Wow. This is old. Good thing that forum subscriptions are working.

 

Yes, the video was outdated a while back. It was simply my same animation, just used as a major part of a site redesign, which was seen by tens of thousands.

 

What 3D work I've done lately at AiG has been much smaller scale, like product imagery, simple models, and such.

 

Yes, Creation Museum is now open to the public, and even critics are quite impressed with the production quality and obvious attention and thought in every detail. If you're near Cincinnati and decide to visit, I can get you a discount and would maybe be available to go through with you if you want. If anyone comes, just have someone call me up and I'd come out and meet you.

 

Okay, so now I go back to the shadows.