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Showing posts from May, 2010

One thing you can't do too much of: BACKUP

So if yall didn't know I'm also an all purpose computer tech geek and I end up fixing all my friends and families computers both MAc and PC... lately I've been fixing a lot of problems on Mac's with corrupt hard drives where either I have to reformat them or replace the drive... NOW today I have to go fix Endika's imac... it won't boot and I'm not sure if his data was backed up... i don't think it was... I shall see_eth.. So if your working on a big project be sure your ONE using a UPS...APC's are tite... a power conditioner/battery backup to regulate voltage so as to not fry your computers etc... I use one that was like $200.... Also you need to BACKUP and BACKUP some more... ask yourself how many days work can you afford to lose? and thAt will set your backup schedule... I can't afford to lose one days worth of work so I backup my shot files everyday... I backup up my renders and project files once a week... All of those files are on 3 diff

M dot Strange film skool v2

I know since I'm lucky enough to be able to do whuT i luv erY day all daY... and that it's really difficult to find free DETAILED information about how to exactly go about creating your own 3d animated films on your own... I MUST create the definitive free learning resource for making 3d animated films on yer own... So in my spare moments I make notes... check out new tech and think about the best ways to do this... This is what I'm thinking about now... doing a month long class... like with curriculum designed by me... using a live video site like Ustream, Livestream, Veetle, or some meeting software/site like Acrobat connect pro...During the class a 3d animated short film will be made before your eyes... I will make it and you will watch every step along the way as it will be webcam lecture+screen sharing so you will see exactly what I does like a real class ya know... I will share the project files as I create them so you can "follow along at home"... the l

In it for the long run...SPRINT TILL YOU PUKE! 0_o

I think one of the most difficult things to do when your working on a huge project by yourself is to maintain a healthy, productive working pace... You want to work as hard and as fast as you possibly can BUT when you work too hard for too long with no breaks in concentration or even breaks to go anywhere else but the park at 5am to run every morning for two weeks you start to get sick... for me I get headaches, dizziness and nausea like I have right now 0_o You have to constantly remind yourself that your in it for the LONG HAUL... TRY to lose sight of the end.... because if you focus on it you might start sprinting too soon and run out of gas before the finish line... now the end of the film should be the best so that would be failing very much so... BUT its usually thinking of the END that motivates you "OMG WHEN THIS IS FINISHED?!?" etc.... So you need those thoughts to stay motivated BUT if they get out of hand you work too hard and make yourself sick... at least this

Mocap + dynamics= zero animation skill? GI = zero lighting skill?

I see a trend developing in teh world of 3d.... and it has to do with taking the power away from the user and giving it to the algorithms... I see people calling themselves "animators"... yet to do a ball bounce animation they are relying on dynamics simulations...soft bodies sims for squash and stretch?! 0_0 ... and it seems everywhere I look people are rendering with GI... Now mocap, dynamics sims and GI allow people with less skill or knowhow to complete a given task... be it a character animation or a "realistic" render... so one hand they be empowering technologies BUT on the other hand if the user never learns how to do said tasks the manual way then all the power lies with the technology.... In a world where people lack in teh patience and want to do MORE FASTER BIGGER MORE MONEY BE FAMOUS... will they ever stop and go back and learn how to do thangs by TEH HUMAN HAND?! Probably not... so in the end they will simply be a bunch of interchangeable drones....

Need vs WANT - Time vs Money

Continuing on about meh tech talks.... What you really need to think about is what you NEED vs what you WANT... Now the needs and wants kinda relate to time and money... The computer+tech you have now is probably all you NEED to do what you want... do animation whatever BUT it might be so slow that it will take a lot of TIME... its like that good, fast, cheap triangle thanG... what screws up most new cg filmmakers is that they try to emulate big studios and they think they NEED the kind of heavy iron those companies use which costs a lot of MONEY... Now I'm going to say as of right now May 2010... the average PC around $1000 will be all you NEED to make a 3d film on your own... with $1000 today in the US you should get a quad core CPU with 8gb ram a nice gfx card and a 1-2tb hard drive... this $1099 PC on sale at Frys right now is actually better than the workstation I'm using right now... also you really WANT a 64 bit OS... I'm going to show whats possible with a consumer

The end is over there------------->

So after this month I'll be on page 76 of the 94 page script... thats pretty close to the end eh?! 0_0 So I picked the best time to do my best work which is like right now eh? ^ ^ Everything is starting to click... I had to animate this 930 frame shot yesterday and at first I was tired like "930 frames!?!? 0_o" then it ended up being like one of the best shots in the film ^ ^ Because now I've gotten so far and everything has held up I can start taking more risks technically which like makes things more sophisticated so the film gets more... layered as it goes on... BUT I've devised... well I should say its something I started a LONG time ago when I first started making crappy like "art" animations... HSM has A LOT of dialogue but it has its own visual language as well so now at this point in the film its fun to play around with... it still feels weird though that now I have well over 2 hours of "raw" footage and I haven't edited anything y

More tech thoughts...

I try not let the tech get in the way of my work but when your doing computer animation its difficult sometimes to forgot your on a computer... and then you start thinking about the computers parts especially if they seem to get in your way or slow you down... the thing that can really bog you down is thinking you NEED the newest best CPU or GFX card or whatever.... even the newest version of the software you use.... SURE it could make you work a little faster or easier but its still YOU and YOU are the most important thing... software and hardware companies prey upon and probably survive by marketing to the people who have extra money and just buy all the best stuff that has "PRO" or "EXTREME" tacked onto its name... I don't even think a lot of them use the stuff for what its intended...instead they just run benchmarks all the time and compare results... When I started WATS I was on an AMD 4400 with 2gb ram and an AGP gfx card... and I was using Cinema 4d 9.1 o

When animating in 3d more tools = more time?

Ya know you hear a lot about the more complex a rig is when given to animators the more time they will spend tweaking out with it... the more time they shots will take... does not mean it will be better animation? I da know... I find the best stuff I'm able to do these days has to do with strong poses throughout and I purposely built simple, light, fast rigs with only the essential controls... If you want to build the same rigs I'm using for HSM follow teh AWESOME Cactus Dan's GREAT video tutorials series here  So before HSM I pretty much SUCKED at rigging and all that... I didn't know much so I would press some buttons and hope it would work out... it was awkward and stressful because I just wanted to get it over with and didn't know wtf was going on... So for HSM I took a whole month just to study, practice and make the ONE master rig I use for all the characters... So I got my notebook out...watched his tutorials, practiced the stuff, took notes... watched more..

A story about grants... "films" and "Arts" organizations...

So a lot of people ask meH "Why don't you apply for grants? I'm sure you would get them" Let me tell you a true story about me and grants etc.... So back in 2005 when I was in the middle of making "We are the Strange" by myself... I saw that there was a $6000 grant offerred to a "local filmmaker" by a San Francisco based "Film" and "Arts" organization... I thought oh perfect I'm a local animator making this feature film by myself I'll probably get it?!?! The organization had offices, staff, weekly events... lots of stuff going on... So I applied... I even sent a DVD with the 30 minutes or so of WATS that I had so far... They didn't pick me... instead they gave they "filmmaker" grant to an "experimental projectionist" I'm not making this up.... they gave they "FILMMAKER" grant to a guy that had a 16mm projector that he used to project OTHER PEOPLES FILMS then he "manipulate

What is it all for? Life?

Ya know being some misanthrope weirdo I'm contacted by a lot of other weirdo's who are trying to do something outside the bounds of "normal" life and are met by TONS of resistance from "caring" family members...friends...etc... Now first off if you really are doing your best and working hard and can see a target out of range of the eyes of normal people go read LINCHPIN it will arm you well for your journey ^ ^ BUT I'm going to make it really simple.... when faced with the situation in which YOUR LIFE is being discussed... your "future" and the like... ask WHAT IS IT ALL FOR? I know normal people ASSUME that if you follow all the steps like they did and the sheeple before them did... GO TO SCHOOL, GET JOB, GET MARRIED, GO INTO DEBT, WORK TO ESCAPE DEBT, REPRODUCE, TAKE CARE OF OFFSPRING, FORCE OFFSPRING ONTO SAME PATH, DIE... die with a lame ass obituary... where they  have to really WORK HARD to sum your life up in more than a few words BE

Fun FUn fuuuuuuu... ummm.... stuff

So at the end of every month I do the FUN stuff 0_o which is backing up all the files to jes as someone asked in the comments to multiple external drives... The project files are stored in they entirety in 3 different places... 2 internal drives, one external.... and the renders are on 2 different drives..one int and one ext... I also have to organize all the shots and import them into After Effects projects prepping for the later comp phase.. and I render out the proxy mov's for the offline edit... Something that is fun that I do at the end of the month to is to re-storyboard the sequences that I will be animating that coming month... then if there are any new things added in the board I model/create those thanGS... there's actually quite a few things for this coming month so after todays backup/proxy stuff is done... tomorrow... I will model all that new stuff then record all the scratch dialogue tracks for that sequence and then start work the following day... So its not