Hiya Chadms, I can't offer you any answers, but ... your description is intriquing!... How about posting a render of your mechanical beast? I'd be very curious to see it. And ... what software are you using? Good luck with your efforts. In the long run, I'm sure it will be worth it! :-) --Roy

That is COOL! -- Great lookin' creature! << i know this forum isnt the most active but i thought i would post this anyways. >> And thanks for doin' that! I check in here most days, and while it sometimes ain't real active, I've learned a lot, and been inspired a lot, by seeing other people's modeling techniques and approaches. Your mechanical spider is a GREAT inspiration! I'd love to see an animation of this gizmo! As for your low-poly modeling question -- sorry, I have no idea what works for game programs these days. I'm more into animation for film and video, so poly count doesn't concern me so much. But judging by your wireframe render, you've done a great job of making every poly count -- and I'm sure you worked hard to achieve that. Great job, man ... maybe someone else can answer that question for you. I'm just enjoying your obvious design and modeling skills -- fantastic job! Thanx for sharing :-) --Roy

Hiya Brain, I've certainly interviewed and made hire / not-hire decisions about a number of artists over the years. I'll give you my 2-cents-worth, but keep in mind that a whole slew of people in this world may not agree with me ... 1.) Do good quality work and present it well ... I don't give a hoot about college degrees. I care about the quality and quantity of an individual's work. In professions like accounting, that degree says you know what you're doing ... and in a profession like that, how could anyone ever really "show" you that they know their stuff? But in the graphics / media field, I expect to be SHOWN that an individual knows what they're doing. A good strong porfolio will impress me far more than all the degrees anyone throws out. I've met plenty of kids who went to the local "graphic arts" academy and got a degree, but who really had no talent whatsoever. Make good, complete, clean, and professional looking work, and present it in a nice, organized portfolio. That get's my attention and interest more than anything. 2.) Have a web site that actually works ... Web sites are a great way to show your work, and tell who you are. If you wanna work in the media field, you've just about gotta be able to produce a decent web site these days. It doesn't have to be fancy and "stylish", but it should be clean and easy to navigate, show your work well, and all the links gotta work. Nothing bugs me like someone applying for a job that involves website creation, and then showing me their own website that only half-works. I want people who pay attention to details. Make sure your web site works like it should (and that it includes your resume and contact information, too). 3.) Be professional and have a thick skin ... Sooner or later, someone is gonna ask you to change or modify something you've made -- don't be overly sensitive about it. Commercial artists get paid for satisfying their customers, not expressing a bunch of "high-brow-Artiste" opinions. Art directors have been known to "critique" people's work during an interview, to see how they handle it. Best not to make excuses for things (but O.K. to provide additional details if it helps explain why you did what you did). Accept positive criticism and suggestions gracefully, and don't get all defensive (the art director doesn't want to have to argue with you every time he wants something changed). And always, always, always keep in mind ... that just because your work may not appeal to one employer, does NOT mean your work isn't good -- it just means that you haven't found the best employer for YOUR skills just yet! 4.) Be hungry ... Like any other profession, if you're gonna be good at what you do, you've gotta WANT to do it. Show your prospective employer that you're serious about your career and doing what you do, because you love doing it. And you do that by showing work you've done just for your own benefit, enjoyment, and self-education. The best graphic artists don't really "create" for the money -- they do it because they're ... compelled to -- they almost HAVE to do it, for their own peace-of-mind. Include some good, original pieces in your portfolio that you did ... just because YOU wanted to do them. That's how I'll know that you want to learn and grow and improve and build a real career. So, there ya go. I guess the short version is ... do good quality work, display it well, demonstrate that you WANT to do that type of work because you really like it, and act like a mature professional who can accept direction and work well with others. And ... don't give up. Art is about as "subjective" as anything gets. Some people may not like your work, and others will love it. Keep looking and trying until you find an employer that relates to what you do (it's a big world out there). Artists tend to be a little sensitive, and it is easy to get "down" when you meet with rejection. Don't let it keep you down. If you've got talent, and desire, and energy, and smarts ... you'll get what you want in the long run. You won't be able to miss, in fact. And in the meantime, ... keep learning and trying and creating and getting better and better at what you like to do. You won't regret it. There are days when I just can't believe that I actually get paid for having all the fun I have!! It is a great way to make a living!

Hiya Bobasaur, << I take it you do this kind of stuff professionally? >> Yeah, ... kinda ... My official title is "Senior Media Specialist" ... (but when people ask, I just tell 'em that I'm a graphic artist!). So what that means is ... I've been a professional graphic artist for a long time, and 3D is something I've "tinkered" with for a number of years. The company I work for is just now beginning to appreciate what can be done with all that 3D stuff! So, I work with print, web, photography, video, sound, music, animation, etc. ... and I gotta admit -- it is a GREAT way to make a living! :-) (The Space Elevator is a "professional" piece ... the other two were just for fun and my own education!)

Attached Link: http://www.gromada.com/VideoMach_dl.html

Hiya Brainmuffin ... ... and thanks! ... for sharing your demo reel! Very nice work -- looks like you've been studying some character animation concepts! I think I liked the little green guy the best -- very nice job on his movements. Very good job on the horse, too (that's gotta be tough -- I haven't tried any 4-legged critters yet!). The ninja / fighting scenes were good, too. All in all, you've got some very nice pieces strung together there. Thanks again, very much, for sharing them. You didn't ask for crits, so I won't offer any, but I will make one small suggestion ... ... consider putting some background music on your reel. Anything. It's just a personal preference of my own, but for me, video or animation without sound somehow just seems ... incomplete. I find that a music track helps "glue together" all those bits and pieces in a project like this. But, that is only my own personal opinion -- you've got some great stuff going there, so, above all ... think for yourself, and do what YOU think works best! Again, great job, man -- very, very nice work! And keep us posted as you make more!

Hiya fellas, ... ... and thank you! You're very generous in your comments, and I certainly appreciate it! Steve -- I'll check out that soundtrack. I've been meaning (forever) to re-capture the "Santa's Gold" and "Giant Leap" animations from the master videotapes (all were originally rendered for NTSC playback). These old MPEGS are years old, and, if I could FIND my original masters, I think I'd re-cap them and convert to Windows Streaming format. Thanks for your feedback! BrainMuffin -- no need to apologize for the Jetson's reference. With a name like "Roy", I've had more nicknames over the years than you wanna know about! I spent months on the Santa animation, and I don't know anything about ice skating! For reference, I videotaped a number of olympic skaters from the T.V., and cut-and-pasted parts of several routines together to get the basic timing and speed references for Santa's moves. And yeah, the Space Elevator piece is essentially a corporate product promo piece, and the "retro" look stems from ... trying to make a very futuristic concept look ... "simple", and basic (the "climber" really will be light-weight and almost "spindly" in nature). By the way, I also wrote the script, recorded the voice talent, and mixed the audio track on that piece (and the others). The audio track is really what drives the pace of the animation. After the anchor-station fly-around, the rest was done primarily with After Effects -- I had run out of time, and so I had to alter my planned ending, and ended up with what you see. I'm working on a follow-up piece for the upcoming Space Elevator Conference in Washington D.C. this summer, and when I get that done, I'll be sure to make a mention of it here on this board somewhere. Thanks again, for taking the time to look, and for all your comments and suggestions -- I appreciates ya all! --Roy

Hiya, That sounds like you imported each render separately. You want to import them as a sequence of numbered stills. Your renders should have a number suffix on the file name, like "render001.tif, render002.tif, render003.tif", etc. When you choose "File / Import / File ..." in Premiere, select just the FIRST file in your sequence, and then check the little check-box labeled "Numbered Stills" at the bottom of the import file dialog box (it'll be greyed-out until you select your first file). Premiere then imports the whole sequence as one chunk of video. If your renders are NOT sequentially numbered ... It might be just as easy to rename the renders so that they ARE sequentially numbered, and then re-import them. But, if you've already imported them separately and placed them on your timeline in Premiere, then you can control the duration by creating a "virtual clip" ... Use the "Block Select Tool" in Premiere to select the whole sequence on the timeline, then "click-and-drag" the sequence to another location on the timeline -- this will create your "virtual clip". Then, just adjust the "duration" of your virtual clip to the correct value (30 stills equaling 1 second). Hope that helps!

Hiya ajvelez, I'm not familiar with Poser or Metaform, but if you can export your animation as a series of numbered still images, you can import that sequence directly into Premiere (File / Import / File ... then choose the first still in the sequence, and be sure the little check-box labeled "Numbered Stills" is checked). My general "rules of thumb" are: render your stills as TIF or TARGA (TGA) files (to eliminate compression artifacts like you'll get with JPG files), and ... ... avoid using files previously compressed with other codecs -- only use captured Digital Video, or imported still sequences in your project, to keep your video quality as high as possible. I hope that helps!

Thank you, Stacey, and thanks again Bobasaur. You guys are GREAT! I've been lurkin' around here for a month or so, and this is just a great site, and community. I've learned a lot, and seen some absolutely fantastic work! I don't wanna "throw a wrench" into things since I'm new around here, but yeah ... animations frequently represent an ENORMOUS amount of work and effort. Helping folks who work in that medium to display and share their efforts ... would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure! Thanks again to both of you! -- Roy

Cool! -- Thanks again! I took a look at a few yesterday. Oh dude, you've done some cool stuff! I'm impressed! VERY impressed! I've got several I think I'm gonna add to the fray, but I'm gonna revisit them and see if I want to get them into DivX format. Right now they are in Windows Streaming Media format, and I'm not sure, but that may pose a problem for Mac users. I'll see if I can sneak in a little time to convert them today. Thanks again, for all your help. The way to have a strong and interesting on-line community is to ... let people know about it. Being new, I can't really play a very big role in that, but ... you can -- and I sure appreciate that you ARE! Thanx again, -- Roy

Thank you, Bobasaur ... I really appreciate it! Lemme check out a few of the local anims (now that I know where they are), and maybe take a stab at putting one in there myself. Thanks again, man ... I'd have never found them without your help (I'm still kinda new around here)! -- Roy

I'll say that I enjoyed watching this challenge. I was hoping to get a chance to enter, but time just hasn't been on my side lately. It was very interesting to see the various techniques, and the details apparent in the meshes. I use Cinema4D, so I saw a lot of stuff that looked pretty new to me. I thought the concept of the challenge -- a cross-application effort -- was great. I hope you do more in the future. (And I hope I have the time to participate next time!) And, yeah ... I always stop off at the Cinema4D forum first, but ... this forum, and a few of the others, are also becoming very interesting to me. Don't give up hope, fellas ... be patient, and this type of thing just might catch-on big-time!