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Old 01-05-2014, 10:54 PM   #1
slang
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3d Animations and Still Images

Here are some examples of what I've been doing with Maya.

My strongest skill with the program is modeling. Skills required to make a good quality video would include, rendering, texturing, lighting, animating, and the actual video creation.

Yes, these examples are simple as shown here.

These first two clips are of the Old Detroit City Hall, which was demolished in 1962.



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Old 01-06-2014, 04:43 PM   #2
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Old 01-07-2014, 02:26 PM   #3
Lola Bunny
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Nice
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Old 01-07-2014, 10:04 PM   #4
slang
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Thank you Lola Bunny.

Everything that I create now seems to have major flaws. That's the learning curve that I'm fighting.

As my skills improve the clips posted here should be much more interesting and entertaining.
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Old 01-08-2014, 07:58 AM   #5
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I haven't heard of Maya.

What made you take interest in Maya and learning how to use it? Do you have a plan for this going somewhere, or is this more of a hobby?

I've fooled around with Sketchup, which is very basic, and it would be tricky and take some significant time to do anything like that Detroit City Hall model.
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Old 01-08-2014, 04:38 PM   #6
slang
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt View Post
I haven't heard of Maya.
This is Autodesk Maya. It's a rather expensive animation software that has been very popular in the past few years as the demand for video and 3d animation product has increased.

It also has a competing software, Blender, which is free and may well be as powerful of a creation tool but with much less instruction and training available.

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Originally Posted by glatt View Post
What made you take interest in Maya and learning how to use it?
My previous life has been that as a contractor of engineering services in the US. Mostly fortune 500 companies. All on contract basis.

I'm not an engineer, I'm a mechanical designer. My role as a designer would be to prepare computer models and assemblies for use in mechanical analysis, use in manufacturing and assembly of the new products that I would design under the direction of a staff engineer.

I do all the technical legwork and the engineer guides the design and approves it. Once approved, the designs are made into prototypes. Once the prototype is tested and approved it moves into mass production.

All products start in the computer as a model. I have previously been responsible for much of that electronic modeling process. Concept to production.

Maya is similar to the engineering software UGNX which I've used for 20+ years in corporate America but is not an engineering software. It's an artistic software. UGNX is used to make cars, planes, computers, medical implants, etc. Maya is used to create 3d animations for demos, training videos, "explainer" type videos, etc.

A seat of UGNX software costs approx $25,000 with some basic additional plug ins. Maya software costs approx $5500 with some basic additional plug ins.

I'm interested in Maya because it's a complex program that I can afford and use on my own to create my own company in the Philippines.

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Do you have a plan for this going somewhere, or is this more of a hobby?
My plan to take this activity to a serious business was stopped when all my seed money to get things started went to my inlaws' medical disasters in 2013.

If not for those medical disasters this business would be much further along. Meaning, it'd look and feel like a legitimate business with all the necessities. We'd have clients and regular work to be done. A business.

I'm in the process now of launching this new venture now with just a fraction of the money originally allocated.

There are 2 main challenges for my new company at the moment. The first is the skill required to create 3d animated videos. My skills are weak in Maya but are growing. The second challenge is that I've been an employee for my whole life and having a job is much different than running a company.

Most of the expenses like the licenses and office furniture, training videos and the like are paid for. We have very little debt for the venture. The difficulty is now attracting customers with marginal skills in video creation and business skills.

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Originally Posted by glatt View Post
I've fooled around with Sketchup, which is very basic, and it would be tricky and take some significant time to do anything like that Detroit City Hall model.
I don't know much about Sketchup. It's a less powerful version of Maya?

It is true that modeling the DCH was time consuming and difficult because of my lack of experience. The things learned while doing that have been a big help. Future projects will most likely be just as or more complicated. It's cheaper to do things here in the Philippines. That's a part of my "advantage" of starting the business here.

Lower labor and office space costs but with other significant challenges.

Our skills now are not great. That's terribly frustrating because I've had complete command of the UGNX program and for many of my contracts in the US was a "go to" guy for tough projects. Going from complete mastery to begginer level isn't fun. In the long run though, it should be more than profitable enough to keep me out of the US long term.

That prospect makes me very happy.

Keep an eye out here on this thread though. As you see the product improving you may know of something we can provide for you as a company. With our low expenses, our services should be very competitively priced with better than native quality.
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Old 01-08-2014, 04:58 PM   #7
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In you "previous life" you were half of a designer/engineer team. Will your new venture require you have an engineer in house? You know, someone to sign off on technical specs and materials, or will that be the clients responsibility?
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Old 01-08-2014, 05:01 PM   #8
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cool!

slang, what would be the usefulness of a 3D printer for this kind of work? it could take the models you're talking about and make a real object from them, for small objects, of course.
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Old 01-08-2014, 06:17 PM   #9
slang
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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce View Post
In your "previous life" you were half of a designer/engineer team.
For all the companies that I've worked for there are two types of structure. Designers that work for engineering as a department and those dedicated to a specific engineer and/or project.

One engineer may have 5 designers working on their project. Or they might not have one dedicated at all, in the case of something small.

Designers working out of a pool will have more work to do but less experience doing a given type of work. Dedicated designers have a lot more experience with all the specs of a project but might not be terribly busy all the time.

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Will your new venture require you have an engineer in house? You know, someone to sign off on technical specs and materials, or will that be the clients responsibility?
It would probably be better if the client were to be involved with approving each phase of the creation of the 3d animation. Those would be artwork, modeling/texturing, animation, lighting, and sound. That would apply if the client has a clear vision of what they want. If they are flexible with the content then it wouldn't be necessary for them to approve every step.

The size of the project would also be a big part in the client's involvement.

As for having an engineer in house, as soon as there are more people than just me filling all the positions, yes, someone will have to sign off on everything to ensure that all the content is per the client's vision.

It's just me performing all the roles at the moment. The structure as you mentioned is an important point. I'll think more on the subject.
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Old 01-08-2014, 06:31 PM   #10
slang
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slang, what would be the usefulness of a 3D printer for this kind of work? it could take the models you're talking about and make a real object from them, for small objects, of course.
This is new technology and I'm not too familiar with it yet.

My guess would be that engineering type programs such as AutoCadd would be better to have physical models made from electronic models. They normally use ".stl" ( stereo lithography ) files to product physical models and I've not seen that format available in Maya.

Having physical models from something created in Maya does sound pretty exciting though. Doing that you could create video content and then offer something trinket-y as a real life likeness. That could be very helpful in branding new or smaller businesses. Or local business for that matter. Maybe you don't want to go global. Here's a way to stay at a local scale for much less investment.

Kinda like how the fast food companies advertise movie characters and then offer the gizmos and such in their outlets.

That's something that I'd not thought much about but it's an idea with some interesting possibilities, V. As a promotional campaign on a small scale ( thousands of $s not tens of millions ) that could be very good for a smaller business or project.

Did you have something specific in mind?
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Old 01-09-2014, 06:29 PM   #11
slang
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This clip is of the old Dime Bank in Detroit circa 1912. It's now called the Chrysler House and looks much the same as it's original construction.

I created several buildings in the Campus Maritus area of Detroit for a friend. He's originally from Detroit and wanted a recreation of the campus during it's heyday.

The windows and floor levels are detailed but it's far from complete. The city blocks are seen without buildings.You can hear the same LAME music on this one as the others.

It's an improvement over the Detroit City Hall video posted previously in this thread. Mostly because of the addition of the sun and sky.

Best viewed at 480p quality.

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Old 01-10-2014, 06:14 PM   #12
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Fascinating stuff, Slang...and hi! Longtime no see.

Is SteveDallas still around? He used to be into stereography, and I'm considering purchasing an inexpensive 12mp digital stereographic camera. I'd like to discuss.
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Old 01-10-2014, 11:10 PM   #13
slang
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Fascinating stuff, Slang...and hi! Longtime no see.
Hey Ep! You're too kind, fascinating? Thanks but it's simple.

It's been a while, yes. I'm back posting my vids.

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Is SteveDallas still around?
Last visit: 12-13-2013
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Old 01-11-2014, 06:31 AM   #14
glatt
 
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He doesn't post much.

I'm glad you two are back. I wish Steve Dallas would get back in here too.
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Old 01-29-2014, 08:42 AM   #15
slang
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Here is the "almost complete" version of my new video that promotes the Cellar and the people here.

The complete video will be posted in a few days. It's about 2:30 long.

It's taking much longer than anticipated to complete videos because the process ( as I'm doing it ) is so unforgiving. Make a mistake or need to make an adjustment...it takes a LONG time to re-render or recreate the final video.

Every time consuming mistake is a lesson and I've been learning but it's still taking a lot of time.

On the upside this little video has a theme that we can all relate to, the cellar.

As I learn these lessons and reduce the time required to make BETTER videos quicker, I'd like to continue on the Cellar theme and make more videos that promote it and the people that live here.

One video a week is my target. At this time, it's a very difficult one to meet. With that one video a week, my work can be put to good use for specialized Cellar promos and I can build my library of items, scenes and clips for use on other projects as well.

My work is getting better and quicker but is still far from what I imagine it to be in the coming months.

If you think of a theme or have a script for something Cellar related post it here and we can develop it into something cool.

Thanks in advance.

Almost forgot. The voice is Clodfobble. She's got a great voice and has been very helpful with the scripts for this project.

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