Assembly Line Graphic

[largento]

I was charged yesterday afternoon with doing a graphic for a presentation. One of those "Step 1, Step 2, Step 3..." type of deals. My other work was slow, so I asked the boss if I could go home and do it in 3D. It's overkill for the job, but I thought it would be fun to do and foolishly believed I could knock it out in a couple of hours and get off work early.

 

I finished it around 10pm last night.

 

So that didn't work out exactly as planned, but on the plus side, putting together a complicated scene was a great learning experience. I had a fairly rocky false start, but learning from that, I started over again fresh and tried to do things in a more organized, smart way. (I used a lot of action files.) The boss won't see it until Monday, so I won't know how it goes over until then. I'm hoping they'll really like it and I can use this to get them to buy A:M for the office. (This same strategy worked a couple of years ago to get them to buy Flash.) I really hope it works. The more I play with A:M, the harder it is to go back to doing flat stuff.

 

Worst case scenario is they think this is way too much, tell me to go back and do it the old fashioned way, and I'm out a Friday night. Even if that's the case, at least I got some more experience working with A:M. ...and my Friday nights aren't very exciting anyway.

 

 

Obviously that's Thom with a new paint job and the truck came off of the Extras DVD (that saved me from being up much, much later.) The little picture on the tag is a render of a plant model off of the Extras disk, too (although it's so tiny it could have just been a blob). Everything else was hastily modeled by me.

[KenH]

I think it looks great. They should love it. What are the other steps? Or is this supposed to be all one guy?

 

PS Just a small point:

 

If Thom has a neck, you could probably use it in some of the poses instead of only rotating his head.

[heyvern]

It's beautiful! It tells the story perfectly.

 

If they make you redo it they are total idiots.

 

----------------------------

 

Years ago when I worked at an advertising agency as a lowly past up artist one of our clients was the local Lottery. We would do these fairly big posters for new scratch off games two or 3 times a year. My boss would intentionally use "bad" designs and awful color schemes so they would appeal to the customer demographic. According to my boss people who buy lottery tickets are simple minded and aren't able to appreciate good design.

 

"Yeah, but... don't you buy lottery tickets?"

"Yes I do but that's completely different."

"Really? Actually, almost everyone who works here buys lottery tickets."

"There are always exceptions to the rules Vern."

"I buy lottery tickets. So you think I'm too ignorant to appreciate good design?"

"Let's drop it ok?"

"Everyone I know who buys tickets is an intelligent professional."

"That's just a small percentage of lottery customers."

"Ok. If you say so... I think you're wrong though"

"DROP IT!"

 

 

It never did make any sense to me.

 

-vern

[KenH]

Hmm....yes there were exceptions to his rule......EVERYONE ELSE!!!!!! Jeez......ignorance like that drives me nuts.

[largento]

Thanks, guys! I've got my fingers crossed.

 

Ken— Thanks for the tip on the neck. Now that you say it, it's painfully obvious (well, painful for Thom... especially in the 3rd one over.) These are all the steps, so there's a Thom doing each one of them. Several of the steps seem to have multiple steps in them, so I've just sort of picked parts of them to show. It's more of an overview of a process than a how-to. The steps will be written below each Thom.

 

Vern— You are so right, Vern. I'm convinced that most clients aren't happy until the design looks bad. Have you ever heard "Stan Freburg Presents the United States of America?" There's a great bit where George Washington comes to Betsy Ross to see the flag she's designed and immediately starts questioning it and suggesting trendier colors. Betsy sings a song called "Everybody Wants to Be an Art Director" that's hilarious. I don't know if they actually want things to look bad or if they want to make endless revisions and only stop when they realize that it looks like crap... and then they don't want to go back, because it will be admitting they were wrong.

 

A former creative director I had passed on to me this very valuable tip. He called it the "Dead Puppy." He worked on mostly broadcast stuff and he said that the client always wants to feel like they have some input in it, so they're always going to change things,no matter if it's perfect. He said they used to purposely put one item on the set that didn't belong (that's what they called the "Dead Puppy.") That way when the client came in, they'd immediately zero in on this obviously wrong thing ("What's this Dead Puppy doing on the set?!" "Goodness, you're absolutely right about that. We'll get rid of it right away.") and leave the rest of the stuff alone.

[John Bigboote]

Cool image!

 

I LOVE the 'dead puppy' rule...it's SO right on... The WORST thing is when you have a creative team...then every one of them needs to make a change to justify their existance...can you use multiple dead puppies?

 

HERE's another rule for you: "There are no rules in 3D animation...break them at your peril!"

[largento]

Thanks, John. The danger of using a Dead Puppy is that the client might like it. Then you're stuck with it.

 

The assembly line graphic went over well (even if people kept calling Thom an alien... because he's green... Go figure.) I did end up doing a couple of different renders to get it as "clean" as I could.

 

 

[PeterS]

You did a great job on that one. Very clean and to the point.

[KNBits]

Awesome!

[robcat2075]

That looks charming!

[Paul Forwood]

Nicely done!

[gazzamataz]

Sweet, simple and tells a little story - nice job!

[largento]

Thanks, everybody!

[Sacman]

Awesome look. is there an animation associated with it? That is the impression I got from reading your initial post.

 

Love to see that.

 

Wade

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Nicely done... I'd like to know how the full 'advertisement' looked..

[largento]

Hey thanks, Wade. No, no animation. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression, it was just a static graphic for a presentation. The expectation was that I'd just illustrate nine little boxes in black and white. That's why I was worried that they'd think it was over-done and reject it.

[Sacman]

Some time ago I did this layout for where I work. I had some kind of misguided notion that I was gonna do something great with it but never even really finished it. I like how far i got though.

 

Now that the work requirement is behind you, You should make an animation. Zoom in enough so that the left side of the conveyor is off screen so that the boxes don't have to come from nowhere and it would look cool.

 

Did you use a vehicle from the CD or did you model that as well.

 

I really like this one I keep coming back to it. I think it is very clean.

[phatso]

"Dead puppy"... I know a tax preparer who always inserted an obvious error, so when the IRS auditor came across it he'd yank it out and think he had done his job. And a comedy show... was it Laugh-In?... where they had one writer whose stuff was so shocking it never got on the air. (It's Karen Ann Quinlan's birthday. The got her some moss for her north side.) They kept him on the staff so the censors would yank his stuff and leave the rest.

 

Hmm. Never thought of using Thom in a tutorial video. Have to give that some consideration.

[largento]

Some time ago I did this layout for where I work. I had some kind of misguided notion that I was gonna do something great with it but never even really finished it. I like how far i got though.

 

Now that the work requirement is behind you, You should make an animation. Zoom in enough so that the left side of the conveyor is off screen so that the boxes don't have to come from nowhere and it would look cool.

 

Did you use a vehicle from the CD or did you model that as well.

 

I really like this one I keep coming back to it. I think it is very clean.

 

Wow, it looks like you've already put a ton of work into that! Be a shame not to do anything with it. I'm guessing from the look of it that it's very accurate, too. Maybe you could use it to suggest a safety poster or something (show fire exits or something like that.)

 

I probably won't do anything more with this. It was supposed to be a quickie and although I do think I gained some knowledge from the process, it did take me away from my main project for the whole weekend. I could see running the camera down the line and having each of the figures doing the one action they are in the middle of, but there would be a lot of steps that would have to be filled in to actually show any kind of continuous motion.

 

The truck is from the Extras DVD.

[Sacman]

Yeah it is all made to scale. I actually got real measurements off of each piece of equipment, the boxes, the pallets, the tables, everything.

 

During the time I was in that department I had a lot of free time. I have since changed to sales with the same company but a different branch and have no real interaction with the production department so it stalled. I learned a lot doing this though and it was fun to exactly replicate it minus the dirt. It got a lot of oohs and ahs during its hey day.

 

Thanks,

 

Wade

[gazzamataz]

Actually Largento, the thought crossed my mind the other day that you should animate the conveyer belt - now that would be a challenge!

 

Go on you know you want to

[largento]

It would be a challenge, Gary, but all of my efforts are going towards my Amutt Time project... and there is sooo much left to do. Can't let myself get distracted by something shiny and lose sight of the goal!

[phatso]

No no, Gaz, you do it like this:

 

Hey, Largento! Yer just not animating the conveyor because you can't!

 

There, that'll get 'im to do it.

[largento]

Here's a ghost from the past!

 

I just got a call today about possibly animating this graphic for my old employer!

 

Only took six and a half years. :-)

 

Just waiting to find out if they are willing to pay me enough to do it.

[JackDrama]

Very nice, Lagernt! Please, can You tell me how you did the lighting so I can learn more? A tutorial would be perfect!

[robcat2075]

Ghosts from the past, you and Matt both.

 

Now that there's FakeAO you can render that shot faster, too.

[largento]

I had that same thought, Robert.

 

This is one case where never throwing anything away will help. I still have the original files.

 

'Course, knowing just how new my "skills" were back then, that might not be any help at all.

[JackDrama]

Whoops! I almost forgot to ask you a question : Could I use the scene with the green Thoms, Please. It's realy important.

[Rodney]

Whoops! I almost forgot to ask you a question. Could I use the scene with the green Thoms, Please. It's realy important. sad.gif

 

 

Jack,

Considering that Mark is contemplating his former employer paying him for use of that scene that seems a bit of a tall order.

With your skills I bet you could build something similar in an hour or so.

There is a cardboard box in A:M Exchange available for use. (5 minutes)

Coloring Thom green (2 minutes)

Modeling/Lathing treadmill (5 minutes)

Modeling props (scan guns) (5 to ten minutes depending on detail)

Modeling boxes and trays ((15 minutes)

Modeling back of truck (15 minutes... 1 hour for complete truck)

Multiplying Thoms (5 to 10 minutes)

Posing/Animating multiple Thoms (15 minutes to infinity depending on your goal with the scene)

 

What did I miss?

 

Note that I added in an extra 10% or so in time for each task for taking breaks and general distractions.

So all in all it might take an hour and a half to two hours for you to create a similar scene to your own specs.

Since Mark has already given you a template for success if you are proficient with A:M I'd say you could recreate the scene in less than 30 minutes.

 

Mark,

Congrats on the potential gig.

I hope they are smart enough to pay you well for the effort.

[largento]

Yeah, Jack, that's a no-can-do. The image belongs to the company I worked for when I made it. If it's any consolation, I was VERY new to using A:M when I made it, so I feel confident that whatever you need to do, you can handle it.

 

Also, it would be unethical for you to copy the processes that are shown in this graphic. I'm sharing it with the forum so that they can see examples of work, but the company could very easily see this as a violation of their privacy.

 

In other words, do your own work. :-)

 

Still waiting to hear if they're going to go for it, Rodney. You know how these things are. People get all excited about getting something until they see how much it will cost and suddenly their excitement level starts to drop. :-)

 

The fact that they didn't jump on it probably means that it isn't going to happen, but I'm waiting for the official word either way.

[Rodney]

You know how these things are. People get all excited about getting something until they see how much it will cost and suddenly their excitement level starts to drop.

 

That is the case more often than not.

Ideas are easy but when it comes to actually investing in the idea... then not so much.

 

Something I'd like to see more of is at least an initial offer of support.

This would affix some value to gauge what the idea is worth (to others) in the real world.

Then an evaluation of the work ahead could be performed and a counter offer presented based on the laborer's estimate of the work.

 

I think sometimes these transactions break down in the imagination before any negotiations occur.

Both parties believing the work will be too expensive to perform and thereby over estimating the initial idea's worth.

 

But it's hard to gauge artistic expenditures such as these because technically they are extraneous expenditures whose value is hard to measure.

Especially in the case of graphics which support, enhance or clarify other ideas and are not the core expenditure themselves.

 

There are those out there who do understand the value of such work but they are trying to cut costs too and may have someone on contract to perform the work.

That or they settle for uncompensated work (i.e. graphics found on the internet, borrowed things, stolen works, etc.)

[largento]

The reality is that people who make money have long ago developed the ability to take advantage of other people. Artists are particularly vulnerable because there's an element of fulfillment that we get just from doing the work. The money is kind of secondary, but that's the artist's mistake. Creatives are abused constantly because of this.

 

Case in point:

 

Drew Struzan, the famed movie poster illustrator, went into the business with no idea of the business side, so he hooked up with a person he thought he could trust. Years later, the partnership dissolved and he seriously worried about every getting work again. Not only did he get more work, but he finally was able to speak directly to the people that had been commissioning his work. It turns out that his "trusted" partner had been paying Struzan $50K per year for designing and painting all those posters ...when the companies were actually paying much more than $50K PER POSTER! Worse, his partner had kept all the original art, lying to Struzan that the companies had never given it back.

[JackDrama]

Realy? You made it in a company? That's great! I didn't know that. Thanks for the long informations, Rodney and M.Lagernt!

Anyway, I prefer the first version, because it looks much more appealing than the last one!