rootdown
04-02-2005, 04:26 AM
Okay guys, so here's my problem: I went to school to learn how to be a 3d animator and because I went to a community college and now go to a state university, in four years of school I've had only two (2) semesters of 3d and but have been up to my eyeballs in writing, humanities, argumentative reasoning, folklore, social psychology, humanities, ethnic studies, world history, politics, acting, sign language, and so many freaking humanities classes. So I've gotten pretty good at writing research papers and citing my sources and making powerpoint presentations but I still know approximately nothing about 3d.
Factor into that problem the fact that school I currently attend doesn't really have anybody teaching maya that knows maya comprehensively so students are more or less self-directed in their learning. I got the BRILLIANT idea for my second semester maya class that after having had one introductory course in the program I could teach myself the rest of everything there was to know about maya by making an animated short. Nevermind that I knew nothing about UVs, rigging, the graph editor, lighting, or really anything that you'd have to know to be able to make an animated short, nobody told me it couldn't be done.
Don't read further if you don't want me to tell you how this story ends, there are
***SPOILERS AHEAD!!***
As you might have guessed, I didn't get anywhere remotely close to finishing my movie before the class ended. My instructor, being the kind fellow that he is, did not fail me but instead gave me an incomplete, predicated on the notion that I would finish this animation soon afterward.
Which is why I thought it would be a fantastic idea to start a thread about it! Because if I can't get helpful feedback on campus I can at least submit my progress to the CGtalkers who might be able to help me when they're not giggling behind their hands in schadenfreude at my ineptitude. I've got to get this bastard done, because next year I have to do a capstone project, which no doubt is going to be an even more stupidly ambitious animated short.
My animation is called: Three Blind Mice, which coincidentally is also the name of this thread. It is very loosely based on the nursery rhyme of the same name and also Hickory Dickory Dock.
So here's the story reel in 14mb quicktime format (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/movies/tbm1_smaller.mov-link.mov). I am going to rewrite the script to eliminate all but the most necessary details to the story and try to let the animation carry it as much as possible with a minimum of narration and I've got somebody lined up to be the narrator who doesn't sound like a whiny nasal 20 year old kid. The music is also a placeholder to set the mood, I have a musician friend who is working on something more appropriate for the final version.
Here are some images:
Base mouse model (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/mouse_model_2.jpg)
Speck the spider (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/speckmodel.jpg)
Workbench environment 1 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/workbench.jpg) 2 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/workbench2.jpg) 3 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/workbench3.jpg)
Birdcage 1 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/birdcage1.jpg) 2 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/birdcage2.jpg)
Lamps (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/4_lamps.jpg)
Factor into that problem the fact that school I currently attend doesn't really have anybody teaching maya that knows maya comprehensively so students are more or less self-directed in their learning. I got the BRILLIANT idea for my second semester maya class that after having had one introductory course in the program I could teach myself the rest of everything there was to know about maya by making an animated short. Nevermind that I knew nothing about UVs, rigging, the graph editor, lighting, or really anything that you'd have to know to be able to make an animated short, nobody told me it couldn't be done.
Don't read further if you don't want me to tell you how this story ends, there are
***SPOILERS AHEAD!!***
As you might have guessed, I didn't get anywhere remotely close to finishing my movie before the class ended. My instructor, being the kind fellow that he is, did not fail me but instead gave me an incomplete, predicated on the notion that I would finish this animation soon afterward.
Which is why I thought it would be a fantastic idea to start a thread about it! Because if I can't get helpful feedback on campus I can at least submit my progress to the CGtalkers who might be able to help me when they're not giggling behind their hands in schadenfreude at my ineptitude. I've got to get this bastard done, because next year I have to do a capstone project, which no doubt is going to be an even more stupidly ambitious animated short.
My animation is called: Three Blind Mice, which coincidentally is also the name of this thread. It is very loosely based on the nursery rhyme of the same name and also Hickory Dickory Dock.
So here's the story reel in 14mb quicktime format (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/movies/tbm1_smaller.mov-link.mov). I am going to rewrite the script to eliminate all but the most necessary details to the story and try to let the animation carry it as much as possible with a minimum of narration and I've got somebody lined up to be the narrator who doesn't sound like a whiny nasal 20 year old kid. The music is also a placeholder to set the mood, I have a musician friend who is working on something more appropriate for the final version.
Here are some images:
Base mouse model (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/mouse_model_2.jpg)
Speck the spider (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/speckmodel.jpg)
Workbench environment 1 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/workbench.jpg) 2 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/workbench2.jpg) 3 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/workbench3.jpg)
Birdcage 1 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/birdcage1.jpg) 2 (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/birdcage2.jpg)
Lamps (http://www.stupidhappy.com/images/3d_work/three_blind_mice/renders/4_lamps.jpg)