Comment on Take Your Pick by quartervirus-archive
I'd go for the plague doctor myself. You've mentioned it's a second year project for a one minute short. This is a major undertaking and simplifying that undertaking to make it more manageable is key. The doctor would be easier to animate than the ferret- He's got a mask vs the ferret having a face which cuts down on the amount of facial animation you'd have to do. The ferret has clothing AND a tail (read: Extra limb to animate) whereas the doc just has clothing. The added limb (tail) and added facial expressions make the ferret more difficult and time consuming and would mean you'd have less opportunity to focus on performance since you'd have to work on facial performance as well. I'd go for the plague doctor.
(I've done animation before with some large companies and this is how we determine what we're going to do. For our animations the large companies usually limited us to non deforming characters, such as robots or toys instead of dogs or people, in order to simplify the animation. This allowed us to be able to complete the project in a short time frame, often a few months for a minute of fully rendered CG.)
(I've done animation before with some large companies and this is how we determine what we're going to do. For our animations the large companies usually limited us to non deforming characters, such as robots or toys instead of dogs or people, in order to simplify the animation. This allowed us to be able to complete the project in a short time frame, often a few months for a minute of fully rendered CG.)
Ironically, my professors didn't seem to bothered about the tail when I mentioned my concerns about it, because overall the ferret gives me more opportunity to show off that "hey, look, I can animate!" portfolio. The doctor mostly just walks or stalks around. However, they preferred his storyline despite the lack of acting ... and because of that are advising me to do the thief one, in order to stretch my ability - or lack thereof - to think of original ideas.
Awesome, sounds like it's going to be fun and interesting to do. Good luck with it!
That is something I agree with. Mostly. But it sounds to limiting. Of course companies want to save time and money and therefore want the animation to be as limited as possible but ... being a student and having the time and possibilities I would rather go for something complicated with lots of facial stuff and movement and secondary action. Just to have made the experience. Surely you have to know yourself and how much you can do in that time (time management is without a question the most important thing in order to succeed, whatever was planned) but even if it is not going to be as good as you wanted it to be... as long as I am student I would rather try different things than to go and do the limited versions from the beginning. Seek the challenge!
I can see where you're coming from, since I am a student myself (working on my masters thesis in film/animation) but I don't agree with your assumtion that "limit your workload" as I was suggesting means that you're taking away the challenge. Funny, I was thinking about this comment I left last night as I was reading a book for my work. I ran across some info in it that described what I was trying to say:
"There is nothing wrong with challenging yourself, just be sure that when you begin the process you have factored in your abilities and the amount of time you have to complete your task." - 3D Character Setup by Michael ford and Alan Lehman pg 56.
A challenge is good and something you want, but you have to be realistic about your time frame and constraints. What is the goal? Is it to create a rough animation? To create a finished animation? To learn facial animation? Action animation? Learn to convey emotion through gestures? Since the goal here seems to be to create a full animation, start to finish, with one bipedal character I assume the main focus is on conveying the character through action. To do this with the ferret would take more time than it would with the doctor and you want to spend more of your time making the animation on the actions strong instead of wasting time animating unneeded extras like face or tail. If part of the goal were to display talent at facial animation or versatility with quadruped to biped characters (it's not, the stipulation was biped- Quadruped is harder and takes twice as long which is why my professors usually vetoed quad or deformable chars when we started animating) then I'd say go for the ferret.
There's a difference between "seeking a challenge" and not being able to asses a job while knowing your limits and being unable to complete the task given. You can limit the character down to the very basics and still get a challenge out of it AND complete the task given- in this case, assuming the doctor, conveying a performance through a character that has no facial expressions, all physical performance and nuance. In actuality this is a far bigger animation challenge than with the ferret!
"There is nothing wrong with challenging yourself, just be sure that when you begin the process you have factored in your abilities and the amount of time you have to complete your task." - 3D Character Setup by Michael ford and Alan Lehman pg 56.
A challenge is good and something you want, but you have to be realistic about your time frame and constraints. What is the goal? Is it to create a rough animation? To create a finished animation? To learn facial animation? Action animation? Learn to convey emotion through gestures? Since the goal here seems to be to create a full animation, start to finish, with one bipedal character I assume the main focus is on conveying the character through action. To do this with the ferret would take more time than it would with the doctor and you want to spend more of your time making the animation on the actions strong instead of wasting time animating unneeded extras like face or tail. If part of the goal were to display talent at facial animation or versatility with quadruped to biped characters (it's not, the stipulation was biped- Quadruped is harder and takes twice as long which is why my professors usually vetoed quad or deformable chars when we started animating) then I'd say go for the ferret.
There's a difference between "seeking a challenge" and not being able to asses a job while knowing your limits and being unable to complete the task given. You can limit the character down to the very basics and still get a challenge out of it AND complete the task given- in this case, assuming the doctor, conveying a performance through a character that has no facial expressions, all physical performance and nuance. In actuality this is a far bigger animation challenge than with the ferret!
You're right. I think I wasn't exact enough and probably haven't even been thinking properly before writing. I totally agree with you now. I am animation student myself and already did a 90 sec short film. Of course eveything totally depends on what you want to focus on, if you want a calm convincing performance or some action scenes, you can always make it a challenge or not. I remember my characters had tails which I left out later while animating because it would have taken to long... it didn't matter for the story or the characters but it was reducing the challenge I had given myself in the beginning.
I think what I wanted to say (or what I want to say now, after I have seen your well written answer) is that... she should make a plan of something she can realistically achieve in that time and then go and add her challenges on top, whatever they may be. I am not sure if I can describe this so well, but I keep trying to push myself to my limits and I see university as a place where I can try things and am allowed to fail to some extent. If that tail I had planned doesn't fit anymore then leave it out and I am back to my original plan, time management failure. I learn more of failing ( a little) something than actually succeeding in it. Of course other people see it different, and maybe have to see it differently. If I had failed or not I still had a first, others might have to be seriously worried about their marks. I don't think Sak has that problem though.
I think what I wanted to say (or what I want to say now, after I have seen your well written answer) is that... she should make a plan of something she can realistically achieve in that time and then go and add her challenges on top, whatever they may be. I am not sure if I can describe this so well, but I keep trying to push myself to my limits and I see university as a place where I can try things and am allowed to fail to some extent. If that tail I had planned doesn't fit anymore then leave it out and I am back to my original plan, time management failure. I learn more of failing ( a little) something than actually succeeding in it. Of course other people see it different, and maybe have to see it differently. If I had failed or not I still had a first, others might have to be seriously worried about their marks. I don't think Sak has that problem though.