Some Work from this Semester

TC

TC

Resident Agitator
You may have noticed that I have been uncharacteristically absent around here for the past few months. I was deeply entrenched in school, and still am at this point. However I did just have my last formal class meeting today, and now all that's left is finals.

I thought this would be a good moment to share a few of the things that I did in my animation classes. I had a lot of theory/ general ed classes as well, so I didn't get to concentrate on this stuff too heavily, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Tennis Ball
Cartoony Ball
Biped Jump

Sack Jump

Spaceship

Enjoy.
 
Cool, TC. Thanks for sharing. I just finished an animation term as well, so a lot of that looks familiar!

I'm curious - is animation your major? Traditional or CG? And where are you studying?
 
This was actually my first semster in my new major- multimediea. The head of the department was able to get me a combination of film and animation classes to form something of a custom program for me.

I've got one more year at CSU Northridge, and I'm focusing mostly on CG.
 
Kholi said:
That Sack Jump looks like Flash with a paintbrush!
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Indeed it was, yet over this semester I've come to hate Flash more than any other program I've ever run.

Kholi said:
What CG/3D program are you using?
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Maya 7.
 
Aww but Flash is sooo great. How are you liking Maya? I recently chose Cinema 4D over Maya after using both programs. Of course, I'm not in class or I probably would've gone to Maya.
 
I can't stand flash, it is the buggiest, least intuitive, biggest piece of crap I've ever had the displeasure of using.

But I'm in the minority with that thought- so take the previous statement with a grain of salt.

I love Maya- I've been tinkering with it for a while, but I'm starting to get deeper into it.

What made you choose Cinema 4D? How are you liking it?
 
TC said:
I can't stand flash, it is the buggiest, least intuitive, biggest piece of crap I've ever had the displeasure of using.

But I'm in the minority with that thought- so take the previous statement with a grain of salt.

I love Maya- I've been tinkering with it for a while, but I'm starting to get deeper into it.

What made you choose Cinema 4D? How are you liking it?
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I'm loving Cinema 4D to death. I chose it because the interface seemed to be a lot more user-friendly than Maya 8's. I've been using it daily for the past two weeks. I've only done modelling and a bit of animation. I'm hoping to get into animating with Joints and IK Chains and such. One downside to C4D for beginners like me is having to really dig around online to find out what stuff does.

After using both for a short period of time, I can see why some people say Maya is over-complicated. But, if you're looking for a solid career in CG, Maya is the way to go because you could potentially use any other program after that. That MIGHT be why Cinema 4D was so freaking easy because I got the hang of Maya pretty quick as far as the basics went, but I could do the same things in Cinema 4D even faster. I think Mental Ray is a better renderer, but then I don't have the Advanced Render for Cinema 4D.

I'm going to look into Renderman soon and a few others. Also, I just got Zbrush and Softimage XSI, so looking forward to trying those both out.

Have you tried C4D or Softimage?
 
That's one of the great things about Maya, there's so much documentation and a huge knowledge base out there.

I haven't done too much in Cinema 4D and only poked around in XSI. I really want to try out Zbrush- people get some amazing stuff coming out of that program.

Renderman is beautiful but EXPENSIVE, and from what I hear you need a hell of a lot of hardware for it to be a viable solution.
 
TC said:
That's one of the great things about Maya, there's so much documentation and a huge knowledge base out there.

I haven't done too much in Cinema 4D and only poked around in XSI. I really want to try out Zbrush- people get some amazing stuff coming out of that program.

Renderman is beautiful but EXPENSIVE, and from what I hear you need a hell of a lot of hardware for it to be a viable solution.
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It's kinda like being a DVX owner: There's a massive community and knowledge base for it already. Just have to stick it out, though. C4D is totally worth it.

Zbrush is crazy. I can't wait to dig around in it. Especiallly since I'm not extremely good at modelling just yet. It seems to be much more forward for defining facial features and such. Along with other minor details like applying textures.

Maybe Advanced Render for C4D is just going to have to do when I decide to get it.

How long did it take you to do the Spaceship animation?
 
Well, that's sort of a loaded question- I'm in the begining Maya class, though I have used it before. Comparing that to some students who had never even opened Photoshop before this class, so we were working VEEEEERY SLOOOOOWLY to say the least.

The class was stuck on that assignment for at least 6 weeks (honestly, I don't know how) but it probably took me less than 6 hours of actual work to do it from start to finish.
 
Wow. 6 weeks is a chunk of time. Guess the next question is: is this to help out your film career or are you looking into CG as your career?
 
More and more it seems like I'm leaning towards CG as a career- something in character animation or compositing probably.

Then again, I've been thinking about joining the Under Water Grips Assosiation- so who the hell knows. I'm just trying to learn all that I can and see where it takes me.

In any event, filmmaking will always be a passion, and something that I do for my own satisfaction- and an effects background can only serve to help that.
 
Good luck either way you swing it! Right now, my own work is aimed toward filmmaking. But who knows!
 
Knowledge of effects really expands your filmmaking potential- I'm shocked at how few film students have even touched a compositing program.

Good luck!
 
TC said:
I can't stand flash, it is the buggiest, least intuitive, biggest piece of crap I've ever had the displeasure of using.

But I'm in the minority with that thought- so take the previous statement with a grain of salt.
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No, you're not.

I've installed and uninstalled the whole MX studio thing about 10 times so far. I keep thinking I must be stupid or doing something wrong, but no...Macromedia is crap.

Computers are supposed to make things easier. All the Macromedia stuff feels like it was written by the programmers for the programmers, and to hell with anyone else who comes along and wants to use it.
 
TC said:
Well, that's sort of a loaded question- I'm in the begining Maya class, though I have used it before. Comparing that to some students who had never even opened Photoshop before this class, so we were working VEEEEERY SLOOOOOWLY to say the least.

The class was stuck on that assignment for at least 6 weeks (honestly, I don't know how) but it probably took me less than 6 hours of actual work to do it from start to finish.
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I don't have QT here at work, is this the extrude poly's spaceship lesson from the Learning Maya book?
 
Almost, we did use poly extruding to make the ship. But we also made an environment for it to fly around in.
 
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