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.