hey everyone im wanting to start work on a 3d animation. ive got the basic story written out and the main character designed. im just wondering if the best way for me to work is to finish the script and story boards before i go and start to work on the computer. im thinkong this is going to be the best way to work but i was just wonering if anyone had any advice in going about working on a lone project. Adam

with any project that is gonna take a LOT of work, it's alwaybest to have as much planned as possible. At the very least, when you do a scene with camera switches, have that scene plotted out. That doesn't mean you can't adlib as yer going, but at least you'll be adding to the idea rather than starting from scratch. As for script, that's a must to have done in advance, at least for each scene. For a working aid, I recommend downloading a program called Magpie. When you input the prerecorded voice samples, magpie will analyze it and show you frame by frame what the mouth should look like for the pronounciation. Me thinks the registered or "pro" version also has the ability to autmatically output the mouth animations to Lightwave or something. Either way, its a oggie well worth getting.

Hi Adam, Believe it or not your script is the most important element. Before you start any animating you should finish your first draft, second draft and third draft. Once your script is as good as it can be you can begin story boarding. Story boarding is very important because it will let you see how scenes and elements will fit together. In essence it lets you edit the film before you start "shooting". We have a saying in flim production; "Every hour of pre-production saves you five hours on the set". The same is true for animation, the better prepared you are at the outset, the easier your job will be. A good script writing program is "FinalDraft", it's not cheap but it automatically formats your writing into script form and makes it very easy to write a coherent script. You should work with your actors and record your voices first before animating characters. Afterwards there are a couple of good lip sync programs you can use to match voices to lips. One of them is offered for sale at www.curiouslabs.com, I can't remember the name of it. I hope that helps get you started, remember though "the script is the most important element". Good luck!

All the above is very sound advice. I'd like to add that you're about to start a considerable amount of work so give a little additional thought to how you can cut some corners, for instance: many shots can be reused with different camera angles, lighting etc.; don't burden yourself with huge amounts of animation - I often wonder when people talk in terms of animations in excess of 999 frames, make a note of the length of time scenes last, 8 to 10 seconds 15 tops and many are much less; of course, you'll end up saving loads of scenes so keep track of them with an ordered, sensible sequence; I can think of more but they're specific to Flash and Shockwave.....

Hey thanks for the advice i really appreciate it. at the moment im just trying to get the design for the second charater done and also figure out how to finish this part of the story. im pretty happy with the design of my first character so i have decided to start to model this, just so there is some variety in the work im doing. im hoping to get it finished for the end of april at the latest. anyway, thanks again. Adam