Hi guys. I've been reading The Animator's Workbook by Tony White (which I highly recommend, by the way), and trying to adapt the exercises in it for Carrara, so I can learn this stuff. Anyway, I was thinking that a lot of the exercises would make for fun "quickie" challenges, as well as being a way to get familiar with some of "The Other Rooms" in Carrara (and I assume Ray Dream Studio as well). Does this sound like an interesting idea to anyone else? --Terri

Well the only still lifes I EVER do are for the 15 min challange. I pretty much animate 90% of everthing I do in carrara. I'll try to participate but its very time consuming...its easy to get things messed up. The other problem of course is how can people see the results? I dont have a web host that will let any amount of data be downloaded off of it. The best way would be to have a small pre built scene that is quick and easy to download and then everyone animate the same scene? Still would have the hosting problem tho. Figure that stuff out and let me know :-)

Well, I was thinking along the line of simple, small animated gifs. I think Carrara can output those. And if they stay small enough (maybe litst could suggest a file size limit), we could just post them here, like any other image. If you have been doing a lot of animating, the kind of challenges I have in mind may be too beginner-level to be interesting to you. Like, for example, the first challenge might be to move a primitive object from point A to point B, using two keyframes and letting Carrara do the rest (this is similar to the first project in the book I'm working from). But the idea is to build on each challenge so that the projects become more interesting as time goes by, so maybe we'll catch up to you. On the otherhand, if you animate 90% of your work, this may mean you are the resident expert, so maybe you'll have to explain everything to us beginners! (See... my evil plan worked... now we all know who to bug when we run into problems with the Carrara animation tools... mwahahahahaha <== evil laughter).

I think it's a good idea, Terri ! It's mine, after all : i could i disagree, i wonder ?... ;) Brenthomer, sure there could be some problems when showing the anims on the forum . But who really needs to show what they do in 15 min challenges ? It's something personnal that's intented to make us learn and practice, at first ( right, Chip ?) . Like Terri said, Carrara has a gif output and animated gifs are allowed in the forums ( don't know for RDS ) . Those who have a file host would be able to put a link to their anim in their message . If we need to start from a pre-built scene, then you catch me by e-mail, and i'll try to upload the file here . Oh yeah, i forgot to tell you, Renderosity gave me a web space on their servers to make an archive of the winners of the Carrara contest . OH, i forgot to tell you too ! There will be other contests ! :) I'm sure i'm forgetting other things, too ... ;) More on that later ! litst litst.@freesbee.fr

I like the idea, too... but I'm strapped for time right now. April/May is busytime at werk... and of course I steal minutes (hours?) at work to muck with RDS for the challenges. I guess my point is, go foorward, I just might be lagging behind the class.

Well, my plan is to do this as I work along with the book, so the first few challenges at least will be easy ones, with the focus being more on getting familiar with the tools, rather than the actual animation. I'll go ahead an post my first "Point A to Point B" challenge, and we'll see how it goes. I'll try and write it up with some Carrara hints on my lunch hour, but if anyone ones to go ahead and start, the challenge will be as I described above: Make an animated GIF of an object (your choice) moving from Point A to Point B, using only two keyframes, and letting the program do the tweening. --Terri

I think it's a great idea. And, yes, RDS does animated GIF's, too.... And, yes, the point of the fifteen minute -- uh, short -- challenges is to learn. I think this will be very cool! - Chip