From Beginner to Master... How hard was the learning curve?

[ryancz1]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm Ryan and just purchased this software this weekend and I must say the examples of people's work is astounding for what this thing can do!

 

I've always been looking for an affordable piece of software to do 3D, but they all seemed to be way out of my league. This software looks very promising and the work that's been coming out of this community is very impressive.

 

I was wondering for those of you who have learned the program how hard the learning curve was for you? I barely used Maya and I do catch on rather quick to things, but this is pretty much my first 3D program I bought and am very excited to bring some of my ideas to life on screen in 3D.

 

I am just wondering for animations like the Duel and then also the amazing lighting and movement of The Hunter videos how long it took to create these things? I'm sure the hardest part in the whole process is the modeling and moves and assigning all that. To build a character like that from the ground up does it take a very long time? I guess I'm not going for as much realism as The Hunter, but something of a Cartoon Hero looking character or that of like Briar Rose. Some of these must take a very long time.

 

After learning the software does animating these things get to be pretty easy? I see all kinds of things like gravity for hair and cloth movements and don't know just how automated a lot of that is.

 

Thanks for reading and I'm excited to be part of the A:M community!

[largento]

Welcome to A:M, Ryan!

 

I've been seriously trying to learn and work with A:M for closing in on a year and a half, and there's still much I haven't learned yet, but I'm getting there. :-)

 

The biggest help for me (apart from the great folks on this forum) was Barry Zundel's series of tutorial DVDs. You can find out about them here. He's recently made them available as downloadable movies at Lulu. They aren't free, but they are really worth the price if you're serious about learning A:M.

 

There are some additional resources out there that have also helped me on the path. A:M has a pretty amazing feature set, so there's so much in it that you can learn. It's certainly not necessary to learn everything, of course.

[robcat2075]

Welcome to A:M!

 

"Duel" might have taken less than a year but is the product of a whole group of people at Anzovin Studio all with several years of experience. I'm sure that helps.

 

Stephen Millingen spent several years on "Briar Rose" in his spare time.

 

The fine artists' good work you mentioned is daunting sometimes, but it helps to remember that none of those were their first (or second or third...) attempts at A:M. They built up the skills that made those possible over a number of earlier projects. Along the way they may have shortened their learning time by learning from other people's successes and studying them.

 

The thing I found most difficult about A:M at first was trying to connect the flat image on my monitor with the 3D thing inside I was trying to make. I found that (T)urning my model often helped give me a better sense of it's shape. That and frequent changing to front/side/top views to remind myself where things were.

 

Dont' start your dream project at first. Start with little things you are not so invested in, then the initial failures wont' be terribly disappointing. Ask specific questions on the forum and someone will probably jump in with an answer.

 

"The Art of A:M" manual is something you should definitely work thru first as it has many of those little things you will eventually want to know about.

 

Good starting point: http://www.hash.com/2007web/newuser.htm

[DarkLimit]

Hi Ryan,

 

I have been using A:M for a while and for me I invested alot of time, sleepless nights just trying to get the hang of things...A:m is simple and powerful and it will amaze you the more you use it, I suggest doing alot of the tutorials as much as you can so you can see quickly how the features work and the overall work flow.. There is alot of inspiration here just feed of it and have fun learning.....

 

I will leave ur other questions for the pros to answer...

 

 

Welcome to A:M!

[ryancz1]

Thank you all very much for the welcome on the boards. The training videos look like something I should invest in. It's one of those things you have to balance what it is worth to you and if time is something you don't have a great deal of time for then the benefit of cutting out all the guesswork and getting the proper training is worth every penny for the knowledge and I'm always open to learning new things. Thanks for turning me on to that!

 

It's really amazing the advances in 3D programming things have made. I find this to be quite an amazing tool and from what I've seen people put together on here I'm sure I'll be able to come up with some great stuff... over time.

 

Also thanks for reminding me that I shouldn't work on my "next big thing" as my first project. I tend to fall in to those traps where you bite off more than you can chew at the time and that can set yourself up for failure.

 

I'm really looking forward to this and thanks again for all the great words and welcomes!

[PaulX]

Welcome - I'd say it's like learning anything - take the long short cut. Start at the beginning and don't rush ahead.

[Jeetman]

Welcome Ryan

 

As Robert pointed out, the TaoA:M tutorials are the best way to learn this software without having to pay for the knowledge that is. It's provided free.

 

Rodney has a certification program that once you complete TaoA:M, you get a certificate of completion. It's a way I guess of motivating people by giving you a feeling of accomplishment. It's a great way to stay motivated in using A:M especially when you're having particular trouble in an area. Also (as you should know by now), other's are here in the forum to help answer any questions you have.

 

Checkout the tech talks. A lot of good tuts there as well. Jason Simonds, Holmes Bryant (HomeSlice) and James have done an outstanding job explaining the inner workings of A:M.

 

I wish you the best in your A:M journey,

 

George

[Masna]

Hey Ryan,

 

Welcome to the forum, and the world of Hash! I'm also still trying to learn how to work A:M, but I would start with Tao A:M. (The Art of Animation Master) There you can learn some of the basics, and enable you to mave on to some more advanced tutorials. I'm just warning you now, the tutorials aren't in order of difficulty, so watch out for tutorial 6, 11 and 12. At least those are the ones I had problems with.

 

Have fun learning, I'm looking foward to seeing some of your work,

Jared

[phatso]

You know what we oughta do? Everybody post the ONE thing they think is most important to shorten the learning curve. After a while we could gather them up and have them in a file for every newbie to peruse.

 

I'm going to cheat and post two.

 

1. Learn the keyboard shortcuts. Get off total dependence on the mouse as fast as you can. A:M is designed for use with one hand on the keyboard, the other on the mouse.

 

2. Do the exercises in the book. Do them a second time. Then do them a third time. This is to build up speed and mastery; the second time will take 1/3 as long as the first time and the third will take 1/2 as long as the second.

[Cross]

I'd have to say that probably the most important things of making it from newbie to master for me were:

 

1. Make sure that the spline is going the right way!!! It's very important that you make sure which way your spline is going, If it makes an ugly black mark, it's probably something the program isn't going to appreciate! (note upload picture)

 

2. The step from making things i've seen, to making things of my own. Major step in creating unique projects!

[paradymx]

3. Work your way up to a project. The fastest way to frustration is to think: "my first project is going to be a four minute fight scene with lasers and explosions between six or seven character models all with dialogue." Start small. A ball in an empty room. once you get that down add a texture, then light the ball on fire, then........

[Masna]

4. It's important to plan out your animations first. I'm no expert but I always find projects easier to first plan out story boards and rotoscopes. [Reference backgrounds]

[Eric2575]

Make sure your rotoscopes are the best you can reasonably find and be sure they are the same scale on all sides. (This is actually a little on the advanced side - you should learn modeling basics before even starting a model that needs a rotoscope.)