Are you a Specialist?

[Rodney]

There are many dilemmas we face as we try to learn any given subject.

Animation is no exception.

 

Where should we focus our attention?

How much about a given subject should we learn?

How many processes must we master in order to reach our goal.

 

The questions you ask and the solutions you discover will vary based upon your goals.

 

To the animator Lighting a scene for instance is often a secondary or perhaps even tertiary goal.

But if you are the one who will eventually light your own project its still a very important thing to learn.

 

Animation is our primary focus here in the forum. But others aspects are important too.

Should you try to learn it all, specialize in animation or set some other goal?

 

What are your current strengths or weaknesses?

How do they fit into your goals?

 

Its the Animator's Dilemma; a dilemma that is yours.

[NancyGormezano]

dilemma it tis

[Rodney]

dilemma it tis

 

Some master it more easily than others apparently.

 

What a dilemma I would be in without youse gals and guys.

[robcat2075]

Teh intrnts r well roon speln,

[PaulX]

I believe it would be impossible to learn it all and increasingly the basic choice will be between traditional art and story-telling skills and the computer/technical.

[filipmun]

Hi Rodney, everyone.

I do children's book and education related multimedia, I think it is the role you want in the

entire 3d process or may not need video animation just still redering or assemble in Flash.

 

Anyone can learn 3d, only some can paint. A good model is followed by proper decal and lighting,

texturing is the most tedious. Depending on how serious you are to achieve the goal, if it is career

oriented, you have to consider team work.

 

I have found A:M to be the most versatile because you can design your own work flow, create your own

module as I am doing. Not with the SDK but artist's tools within A:M. reusable content that cater for

your day to day work, I can merge 2.5d spline patch drawings with 3d body parts just to meet the deadline.

The fact is, no simple answer to such question, use it as you like and when you have reach the level where

you can handle the software, you can do more then what is meant to do.

 

By the way Rodney, I am looking for the tutorial to the latest feature since ver.12 such as: SSS, terrain... thanks!

[Rodney]

By the way Rodney, I am looking for the tutorial to the latest feature since ver.12 such as: SSS, terrain... thanks!

 

Good luck in finding those. Specialized features required specialists to demonstrate those features.

As many of us tend toward being generalists that often leaves little time for creating such tutorials.

Its good that we have a very active forum though.

Where someone posts a WIP demonstrating their exploration of a feature others are sure to join in.

 

TWO provides a nice demonstration of the teamwork you mention.

There are many examples where multiple hats were worn in production but its also a showcase for specialists too.

For instance, the TWO characters could not have been animated easily without knowledgeable Riggers.

If TWO had relied on my rigging skill it would have been dead in the water in the preproduction stage.

 

You also raise a good point when you consider A:M's workflow and extensibility.

For many projects a little knowledge may be just enough to get the job done.

In a project where only basic rigging is required the aid of a specialist might not be required.

 

Collaborative projects are a great place to shine as specialists.

[largento]

Myself, I find the options that A:M give you to do the entire job yourself very appealing. This is not my career, this is my hobby, and I like that I don't have to compromise. (I have to do that too much in my "real" job.)

 

My viewpoint is my own, of course. If I were 20 years younger, or if this was a career, I'd be in a different frame of mind.

 

It's certainly not likely that many people will ever master every aspect of the process, but it is possible for folks to do enough of them well enough to accomplish their own amateur endeavors. Animation is something that's always required an army to do... and it still does to do big projects really well, but it's possible now for one (or a few) people to do something small the way they want to do it and actually get it out to people to see.

 

Harry Chapin told this story of his grandfather telling him that there are two kinds of tired...

 

"My grandfather was a painter. He died at age 88. He illustrated Robert Frost's first two books of poetry. And he was looking at me, and he said, `Harry, there's two kinds of tired.

 

"'There's the good-tired and there's bad-tired.'

 

"He said, 'Ironically enough, bad-tired can be a day that you won, but you won other people's battles, you lived other people's days, other people's agendas, other people's dreams, and when it was all over, there was very little *you* in there, and when you hit the hay at night, somehow, you toss and turn. You don't settle easy.'

 

"He said, 'Good-tired, ironically enough, can be a day that you lost, but you don't even have to tell yourself, 'cause you knew you fought *your* battles, you chased *your* dreams, you lived *your* days. And when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy. You sleep the sleep of the just, and you can say, "Take me away."

 

"He said, 'Harry, all my life I've wanted to be a painter and I painted. God, I would have loved to have been more successful. But I've painted and I've painted. And I am good-tired, and they can take me away.'"

 

I don't know if this is more relevant to creative people or not, but there's an element of doing art professionally that I think is more personal than most jobs, at least to me. Usually, the person telling you what to do can't do what you can do, doesn't understand how it's done and what it takes to make it happen, but you have to do it their way, and *everybody* feels qualified to judge it. It can really beat you down some days.

 

Too much of life is spent getting "bad-tired." I like that A:M offers me some "good-tired" days. :-)

[Rodney]

Well said.

[apprentice]

I think this is an important topic Rodney. I found that sometines I got occupied too much in trying to learn "all" of the possible features that I forgot the goals. I once made elaborate storyboards with shadings and stuffs and lost my energy to ever finish the animation. What was I thinking?!

[NancyGormezano]

"'There's the good-tired and there's bad-tired.'

 

"He said, 'Ironically enough, bad-tired can be a day that you won, but you won other people's battles, you lived other people's days, other people's agendas, other people's dreams, and when it was all over, there was very little *you* in there, and when you hit the hay at night, somehow, you toss and turn. You don't settle easy.'

 

"He said, 'Good-tired, ironically enough, can be a day that you lost, but you don't even have to tell yourself, 'cause you knew you fought *your* battles, you chased *your* dreams, you lived *your* days. And when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy. You sleep the sleep of the just, and you can say, "Take me away."

 

"He said, 'Harry, all my life I've wanted to be a painter and I painted. God, I would have loved to have been more successful. But I've painted and I've painted. And I am good-tired, and they can take me away.'"

 

I don't know if this is more relevant to creative people or not, but there's an element of doing art professionally that I think is more personal than most jobs, at least to me. Usually, the person telling you what to do can't do what you can do, doesn't understand how it's done and what it takes to make it happen, but you have to do it their way, and *everybody* feels qualified to judge it. It can really beat you down some days.

 

Wow.

 

I needed that - especially today. I sincerely thank you for posting that.

[johnl3d]

I am not a specialist I just treat AM as something to relax with and have fun ..I enjoy seeing what others do and in some cases assisiting they doing it.

Every time I start up AM it is usually to do soemthing different depending on my mind set and lack of concentration but it always is fun

 

 

[largento]

Wow.

 

I needed that - especially today. I sincerely thank you for posting that.

 

You're welcome, Nancy. I was going to point to you the track on iTunes, but it's one of those "Partial Albums" and they don't have it. It's on the 2-CD " The Gold Medal Collection." It's called "My Grandfather."

[frosteternal]

...

Too much of life is spent getting "bad-tired." I like that A:M offers me some "good-tired" days. :-)

...

 

I so very much needed to read that story today - thank you. I printed it out for everyone here at work this blustery day.