Attached Link: http://www.alsirois.com

I posted this over in 2D/3D Animation but got no replies. Which means a) it's sheer unadulterated idiocy, or 2) no one spends much time over there. So I'll repeat it here.

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I'll try to make this as brief and as comprehensive as I can.

To begin with, I am new to Renderosity, but I've got pro graphics and art experience dating back to the 1970s. My computer background begins in 1984. I'm a former member of SFWA, with several books published, and a bunch of short stories -- mostly science fiction. All of this is just to say that I've been at this for a while -- I'm not a kid.

I make my living as a user interface designer. For fun I am webmaster for Far Sector, a web-based sf/fantasy/horror ezine. That and a buck can buy me a cup of coffee, but I enjoy it.

The current design of the Far Sector site has a front page with "banner" art on it. The banner, which is not an ad but says FAR SECTOR and has a science-fictiony piece of art in it, is currently set to appear in an image space measuring 985 pixels by 121 pixels high. Using trueSpace3 and Poser4 and Photoshop5 I've been devising images that fit into the space, but anyone can see that that's not a great size to work in. I propose to increase image height to 230 pixels as of the May issue. (The March issue goes live in a day or two of this entry. Far Sector updates monthly.)

Part of my job at Far Sector is helping to drive more site usage. Well, having an attractive site with dynamic content is part of the answer. We knew this. I know this. But making it happen is a challenge.

The other day, I thought as I have thought at intervals during the past weeks, that it would be good if I could invite other artists to contribute art. Well, of course I could -- but I'd like to be able to offer an honorarium. I could do that, too. Young artists in particular will be my target group.

I don't have a lot of money to offer, but I can probably swing $50. This is a purely out-of-pocket expense.

I had an idea for the introductory graphic, in its current size of 985 pixels by 121. I hacked that out in Photoshop and Poser over the course of a couple of days, and it came out pretty well.

Then I started thinking -- it would be fun to animate the image. The background is a passageway of pipes, wires, cables. In the middle of this, behind a pipe, right of center, a small green-haired humanoid is poised in flight from -- we know not what. The name FAR SECTOR appears in a monitor screen to the left of center. This is all completed, layered in Photoshop. (Lots of layers, oh yeah.)

I knew it would be fun to animate the little alien guy actually on the run. He'd run onstage from the right, obviously in distress, panting and looking back and forth, and then run off to the left. Two-three second pause, and the sequence repeats. It's a little story. The sequence, I believe, would time out to about ten seconds. There would be background sound, not music per se. It would repeat two or three times. By then it will have worn out its welcome, and the user will, one hopes, proceed into the magazine and perhaps pony up a credit or two for a piece of fiction.

I could do it, myself. But I haven't animated much in Poser and the task would take time, more than I could devote to its proper execution. I'm moving at the end of March, and I have plenty of other things to think about aside from Far Sector, which is my hobby. Sometimes, once you get going with a seemingly simple project, it ends up taking frikkin' forever anyway.

Some of the work of building the original image, which I did in Photoshop, might be translated over to Flash, which is what I'd use to make the animation available on the web. The resulting file size wouldn't be terribly large. I can import some things from Photoshop, and use Flash to build other things I need. Flash deals a lot easier with its own images than it does with imported material.

I haven't seen a magazine with a Flash opening like this, so the idea has the virtue of being fairly fresh. (Then again, I don't get out on the web much, so for all I know, this is being done all over the place.)

Be that as it may. I have an idea, the design, and even a character. I don't think I have the time. Then I started thinking that it would be cool if I could have someone animate this for me. There must be a ton of people out there who could handle Flash and Photoshop even better than I can. Why not offer these folks -- young people, no doubt -- a chance to show off their chops? It ain't the big time, but Far Sector is far from shabby.

It would be fun to see this on the front page of a science fiction ezine. Might draw a few folks in. The artist would certainly have a nice forum for his work. And as I said, I could toss a few bucks his/her way.

Now a day or so later, I am still thinking this is a decent idea. I think I can make this project happen within a month, but I'm not sure. After all, if someone else is working on it, I can't exert much control on his/her time. This is pretty much a voluntary situation.

Of course, all this does not have to happen as of the first week in April, which is when the static version was going to debut.

Larger issues remain. Do I do this again? Do I try to do it every month? How much art direction can I effectively do? Can I overcome a almost total lack of budget?

So I have posted this long message here. Please respond with any comments you may have. Am I nuts to think I can recruit someone to help me with this? There's very little money involved for the time and effort, I am well aware of this. Still, it might be fun and it would certainly be a challenge. I would supply the sound track as a WAV or MP3 file. I'd story-board the sucker, and you'd animate it. There would be no lip synching, nothing sophisticated like that. I believe the job would be fairly simple to execute for someone, say, in school who has more spare time than I do.

You can email me privately, but I'd prefer an open forum here so that a bunch of ideas can get exchanged as quickly as possible. If you want to know more about me, feel free to visit my web site. I have a small one here, but there isn't much on it yet (I joined this community this past weekend), so go to my personal site at www.alsirois.com. If you think I look like I know what I'm doing, maybe we can get something going and have some fun. If not, hey, it was a cool idea anyway.

am currently working on training cd that incorporates movement, talking, equipment training; using P4 for posing, P5 firefly for rendering Production and pumped into flash by using png files cropped by jasc animation program. So it is possible and files can be made very small in flash if you make sure you get rid of non necessary movements and non moving parts are static and not included in every frame of animation. Would volunteer to help but unfortunately, my timeline for this project ends at the same time yours does and already working way 2 many hours! Good luck and it can be done!

Thanks, cruzan, I appreciate the input -- it's all grist for the mill. My little alien guy would probably only need to be visible from the waist upward -- cutting down the amount of on-screen info needing to be compressed. The SOUND of runnning feet would carry the idea adequately, I think. He'd still have to be fully animated in Poser, against a green or blue background, I am thinking. That way I could composite him into Photoshop bgs brought into Flash. I love doing this sort of thing, but again -- my time is so limited. As I say, though, it doesn't NEED to happen before April. I can shelve the project and collect information on how best to get it done. Best of all, I will learn a lot -- and that's always good.

Hi Artworker Is this a decent summation of your intentions? Little alien guy animated in Poser, running from left to right with a pause in the middle to look around panic-stricken...export that animation as a set of images, then use Photoshop batch processing to cut out the background of these images and save them as .pngs with transparency. Import them into Flash, synchronise sound effects and add whatever background and foreground that youve created in Photoshop. The only major complications I can envisage would be if your Poser model had inadequate morph targets to simulate a realistic run and look of panic, and ultimately the download time for the banner (a Flash preloader might distract vistor attention for a short time, but in all likliehood your looking at least at a 50k .swf). If Ive got a grasp of your idea then Id be happy to give it a go, although itd help clarify things if you could post up a sketch or two of your storyboard, and also, you might be surprised how easy it is to animate figures, certainly in Poser 5, and may wish to undertake this yourself afterall. Cheers Duncan

Hi, Duncan -- yes, that's about right. Take a look at the "static" version here. Obviously it would need to be tweaked a bit for animation, but basically the green geek runs on from behind the ball on the right, pauses to the right of the FS banner, looks back and forth, then runs off BEHIND the banner, and offstage to the left. We might not even see his feet -- let the sound carry the idea of running. Besides, the image space is probably not tall enough to see the full figure, which is pretty small anyway.

I am off to work now, but will reply later in the day with some more details.

Al

A little more -- I'm thinking that the green dude is small enough that there will be little need to have a really GOOD look of panic on his face -- that can probably be dialled in without much hassle. And if his run isn't 100% realistic, I don't mind. This is really an experiment on several levels, as I said in my initial post. If it works out I will look at making the next one more sophisticated. I want this one to be as simple as possible for all concerned. A 50K swf is okay. I wouldn't want to go much over that for obvious reasons. I will try to do up a storyboard this week, but I'm slightly hampered by the fact that my scanner is down, so I can't scan sketches. If I can key the moves in Poser I will do that. And again, this does not have to happen for the April issue. I have a static image I can use. The animated file can debut in May. Al

Al Thanks for the info. Ive saved your banner and roughly cut it into foreground and background layers and messed about with a very sketchy animation. Works ok, but file size needs some attention. April deadline shouldnt be a problem. Do you have the Poser .obj/textures of the green dude, as well as a .psd of your banner which contains the original layering, ideally the background/foreground object layering? If its ok with you, Im happy enough to carry on if you can get this stuff to me. I wouldnt bother too much about the storyboard just now...I can throw an experimental .swf or two at you and take it from there. Dont worry about "out of pocket expenses". What do you reckon? Cheers Duncan

Duncan, Sounds like a plan. I'll email the Photoshop and Poser files to you. I have been messing around the the pzr file and the Photoshopped background and having some fun, but I really can't devote much time to it because my life has become a hell of BOXES as I get ready to move. I will send an edited PSD with most of the layers collapsed into three or four. No point in dealing with all of 'em; the PSD is too big and you don't care about all the truckle making up the pipes and whatnot. I am also going to animate the fuse-like thing on the left, wit ha glow and a crackle of electricity as our man passes it, but I can do that myself when I do the Flash compositing. I'll take the money discussion offline if you don't mind. Al