MikeV Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Hi all, So, as my subject says, I'm a returning member here to the world of Animation Master. My last trek with it was around 2007 or so I guess. The last version update of the software I own is 2006, the Sasquatch CD. I also have the 2004 disc with the Gorilla. I took time away from pursuing A:M as I was really devoted to working on my own upstart game projects, and life very rudely interrupted me a few times in the interim (lots of moving around). I am still interested in getting into game design, however, not with something of my own. I have the goal of being hired at a major game studio as a level/environment designer. I veered away from "doing my own thing" because, really, there's so much that goes into game design and development. Tons of work, even for a small project. So much minutae and management of other designers/developers, making sure things stay on track, that people "stick to the vision" and so forth. I've realized that what I really want to do, ultimately, is tell stories. All of the other things I'd have to deal with in a game development situation, I fear, would really detract from that focus. I've been working with Blender3D for the most part in that time and have become fairly comfortable with it. What I'm not comfortable with, however, is its non polygonal modeling systems. Its nurbs are weird. I don't enjoy working with Sub-D surfaces, they're not quite "tactile" enough for me. Low poly modeling can get really heavy resource and scene-wise after a while. I wanted something that would empower and enable me to tell these stories I have in my head. Blender, while it's certainly capable of creating fantastic results ("Sintel" and "Big Buck Bunny" were both created with it), it's not quite "immediate" enough for my liking. I've always been attracted to A:M's idea of being created with the specific focus of making the creation of animated movies as easy as it could be. And I dig the whole Hash Patch thing. It's a really neat technology. So, that's what brought me back to A:M. I went digging through my PC software collection, found both the 04 and 06 install discs, as well as my "Animation:Master QuickStart 2" discs from Anzovin. I dug out my "Art of Animation Master" book and flipped through, refamiliarizing myself with it. So, I have everything I need to get started again. On a related thought, I looked online (YouTube, Google) and was surprised to see that A:M doesn't have more of a presence out there in Web land. I was expecting to find a lot more than I did. I was a bit concerned until I came to the site and saw that the forums are still pretty active and up to date with people's questions, WIPs and such. So that was heartening. Anyway! I see that there's been a few new versions out since 2006 and I'll likely upgrade to the latest at some point. I think for now the 2006 version will do just fine for me, though. Thanks for reading and lookin' forward to speaking with y'all on the forums and hopefully having some cool stuff to show ya's before too long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Hi all, So, as my subject says, I'm a returning member here to the world of Animation Master. My last trek with it was around 2007 or so I guess. The last version update of the software I own is 2006, the Sasquatch CD. I also have the 2004 disc with the Gorilla. I took time away from pursuing A:M as I was really devoted to working on my own upstart game projects, and life very rudely interrupted me a few times in the interim (lots of moving around). I am still interested in getting into game design, however, not with something of my own. I have the goal of being hired at a major game studio as a level/environment designer. I veered away from "doing my own thing" because, really, there's so much that goes into game design and development. Tons of work, even for a small project. So much minutae and management of other designers/developers, making sure things stay on track, that people "stick to the vision" and so forth. I've realized that what I really want to do, ultimately, is tell stories. All of the other things I'd have to deal with in a game development situation, I fear, would really detract from that focus. I've been working with Blender3D for the most part in that time and have become fairly comfortable with it. What I'm not comfortable with, however, is its non polygonal modeling systems. Its nurbs are weird. I don't enjoy working with Sub-D surfaces, they're not quite "tactile" enough for me. Low poly modeling can get really heavy resource and scene-wise after a while. I wanted something that would empower and enable me to tell these stories I have in my head. Blender, while it's certainly capable of creating fantastic results ("Sintel" and "Big Buck Bunny" were both created with it), it's not quite "immediate" enough for my liking. I've always been attracted to A:M's idea of being created with the specific focus of making the creation of animated movies as easy as it could be. And I dig the whole Hash Patch thing. It's a really neat technology. So, that's what brought me back to A:M. I went digging through my PC software collection, found both the 04 and 06 install discs, as well as my "Animation:Master QuickStart 2" discs from Anzovin. I dug out my "Art of Animation Master" book and flipped through, refamiliarizing myself with it. So, I have everything I need to get started again. On a related thought, I looked online (YouTube, Google) and was surprised to see that A:M doesn't have more of a presence out there in Web land. I was expecting to find a lot more than I did. I was a bit concerned until I came to the site and saw that the forums are still pretty active and up to date with people's questions, WIPs and such. So that was heartening. Anyway! I see that there's been a few new versions out since 2006 and I'll likely upgrade to the latest at some point. I think for now the 2006 version will do just fine for me, though. Thanks for reading and lookin' forward to speaking with y'all on the forums and hopefully having some cool stuff to show ya's before too long! Welcome back Mike . Nice that you are back and it will certainly be fun . Best wishes! *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Welcome back Mike . Nice that you are back and it will certainly be fun . Best wishes! *Fuchur* Hey, thanks! Looking forward to getting my hands "dirty". That's quite the treasure chest of A:M related stuff you have in your signature there. I wasn't even aware they had exporters from A:M to other formats. Very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamikaze Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Welcome back! from one Mike to another ......I too have been away for a few years.. I kept checking in on and off in my hiatus ..... I needed to get back into my music and now that I knocked off the rust of playing guitar I think I can handle 2 novice/amateur hobbies at once....I just upgraded to AM 16b 64 bit and the speed improvements are freakishly amazing compared to 14c, my newest older version ...... look forward to see what U come up with..... Mike C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted July 16, 2012 Hash Fellow Share Posted July 16, 2012 Welcome back to A:M! If you have questions, this forum is the place to ask. And, yes, modernizing to a current subscription would be good move. Much faster, much more stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zandoriastudios Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Welcome back! I have some A:M tutorials on my blog and Youtube channel: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Welcome back! from one Mike to another ......I too have been away for a few years.. I kept checking in on and off in my hiatus ..... I needed to get back into my music and now that I knocked off the rust of playing guitar I think I can handle 2 novice/amateur hobbies at once....I just upgraded to AM 16b 64 bit and the speed improvements are freakishly amazing compared to 14c, my newest older version ...... look forward to see what U come up with..... Mike C. Thanks! Yeah I was looking at what the newest version's features were and saw the whole subscription thing. I think at this point, the 2006 version should more than suffice for my needs. It's nice and zippy on my system and it has enough features for me to get the results I want. Perhaps down the road I'll look into a newer version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Welcome back! I have some A:M tutorials on my blog and Youtube channel: Hiya! Thanks! I actually have seen your videos on YT, just last night, in fact. You have the series of modeling the Gorilla on your channel, right? I also recognize the hippo. Those vids are definitely helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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