Act3animation Studio Profile

[P_T]

Oooh! I didn't know Act3 was the one who made the old Starship Troopers game intro. Great stuff!!

[davezak]

i guess my poor a33 is gonna need to buy a membership!

some intriguing, seemingly informative videos.

[animalunae]

I appreciate the article being written and the hard work putten into this, but I will refrain from openly discussing my opinion if I can't be supportive

[LukaStellwag]

Impressing profile ... wow.

[Briareos]

In my most humble opinion, I think this is hardly worth writing an article about, let alone plugging it. Sorry if that offends anyone, but I just don't see anything good about all of this, concept, direction, modeling, texturing, animation, lighting, compositing, etc. I bet there's plenty more companies like this that do way better work, regardless of how nice they are.

I apologise again, but I just don't get it, lately there's more and more plugs that just don't bring any quality to the front page.

I agree, you would think that the articles and frontpage exposure would be reserved for exceptional and outstanding work. While this not "bad" it certainly isnt exceptional, for the most part it is mediocre.

[jAcK_sAmuRaI_jAcK]

Front page for what?

-A lot of studios are doing much more exciting work in comparision.

P.S- Outsourcing anybody!?! ( :rolleyes: )

[Hoser]

Is the pinata mov working for anyone else? Doesn't seem to be working for me.

[syzygy]

wow, feel the love.

perhaps these comments should have been directed privately to the admins, leaving any constructive crit you had for this company for your actual posts.

I think the work is pretty good though I think the work shown in the article isn't always their strongest pieces. I certainly like the ethos of the company in attempting their own shorts, that is the kind of positive approach to work that is great about a company.

[SheepFactory]

In my most humble opinion, I think this is hardly worth writing an article about, let alone plugging it. Sorry if that offends anyone, but I just don't see anything good about all of this, concept, direction, modeling, texturing, animation, lighting, compositing, etc. I bet there's plenty more companies like this that do way better work, regardless of how nice they are.

I apologise again, but I just don't get it, lately there's more and more plugs that just don't bring any quality to the front page.

oh get off your high horse please :rolleyes:

I think they do pretty decent work for a company of their size. Pinata was a great animated short , one of my favorites from last years siggraph. Congrats to the folks there and keep up the good work.

[Rebeccak]

I personally think that when someone like Paul takes the time to write an article about a studio, conduct interviews, create video, etc., it is worth the front page. There's so much great stuff that CGS does freely and with the best intentions for it's audience and it's saddening to see that go unappreciated.

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[PaulHellard]

All fixed.

Go whack your Pinata!!:buttrock:

[erilaz]

Did any of you stop to think that we need MORE articles of mid-range studios? Places like Act3animation have to be covered so that people can see the range and breadth of the industry. Sure, Act3 aren't Blur or Framestore, but they deliver quality work for their clients.

If you want to see more articles about how "Awesome studio A did blockbuster movie C" then i'm sure you won't be disappointed, but the CG community comprises a lot of studios, from all areas of the industry.

Students and people looking for jobs need to know what's out there and how it's done in it's full scope.

[doodlyD]

Is the pinata mov working for anyone else? Doesn't seem to be working for me.

the source link is http://media.cgnetworks.com/cgfilms/shorts/pinatamov

so u're probably know were to put a dot =)

[syzygy]

If you want to see more articles about how "Awesome studio A did blockbuster movie C"

hehe yeh, how many times as I student I went to talks (AEAF) by the big studios saying "our 500 animators then did this, then we used our proprietary software to do this, then we integrated all of this into our miniture model setup etcetc"

And i'm sitting there thinking how in the hell is any of this relevant to me? sure it's amazing and wow but I couldn't even begin to start doing any of this stuff.

from what i understand of Act3, they are striving to get a name on par (or better!) than the likes of blur. They're one to watch.

[RobertoOrtiz]

Guys get off the high horses. Paul Did a good Job with his article, and honestly smaller medium level studios deserve to be spotlighted.

-R

[harshdesign]

Great shorts...and inspirational works for how big the team is! Neverwinter Night2 is nice and Pinata is cute!!
Surely paul knows to recognise talent and present it in the best way.

Way to go ACT3! :)

[jAcK_sAmuRaI_jAcK]

Actually, it's a good thing if you continue articles like this on the studios doing outsourcing work around the globe and there are a LOT of them.

[Ego]

Every good talent needs exposure, more so the 'little guys'. Paul does a good job spotting these things. Its great to know the extraordinary talents and the soon to be extraordinary talents. Thanks for the article.

[joshcxa]

Cool

Good to see some local exposure. Might have to look into these guys some more

Thanks Paul

[Icarus]

fantastic article,

i remember the group from ACT3 at the AEAF a few years ago, and you guys really showed off the goods, was fantastic to see a melbourne / aussie company putting out high quality stuff :) thanks paul for the article :)

[living_for_cg]

thanks so much Paul. i always appreaciate your being active in CG industry.That was a really intresting article.

[Jed]

I think it's GREAT that you guys would take the time to feature studios like ACT3. People in the industry need to know that there are places that will go for cool exciting projects over the big buck commercial/FX work. This sounds like a really cool place to work at, because they have fun projects, and it sounds like everybody can bring something creative to the table, regardless of what their level is in the company. I would personally much rather work for a company like that than a big VFX studio where I'd just be a cog in the big machine.
I don't know what the budget for NW2 was, but for working in that industry I'm sure it wasn't much. Projects like these force you to be creative, and these guys are probably looking at it now thinking "Wow with what we learned doing it we could do it twice as fast and it would look 3 times better".

I must say I don't quite understand that recent thread of CG haters asking only for ILM quality type of work. ILM probably had 10 times the amount of time and money to do a single shot of Pirates of the Caribbeans that ACT3 got to do the whole cinematic. You just can't compare the two on the sole basis of the final product. To me it sounds like animators at ACT3 are having fun everyday and are glad to get out of bed to go to work. Nothing will ever beat that in my book. Believe me it's places like these that are the most fun to work at.

Thanks for the cool article, Paul.

[Briareos]

I think it's GREAT that you guys would take the time to feature studios like ACT3. People in the industry need to know that there are places that will go for cool exciting projects over the big buck commercial/FX work. This sounds like a really cool place to work at, because they have fun projects, and it sounds like everybody can bring something creative to the table, regardless of what their level is in the company. I would personally much rather work for a company like that than a big VFX studio where I'd just be a cog in the big machine.
I don't know what the budget for NW2 was, but for working in that industry I'm sure it wasn't much. Projects like these force you to be creative, and these guys are probably looking at it now thinking "Wow with what we learned doing it we could do it twice as fast and it would look 3 times better".

I must say I don't quite understand that recent thread of CG haters asking only for ILM quality type of work. ILM probably had 10 times the amount of time and money to do a single shot of Pirates of the Caribbeans that ACT3 got to do the whole cinematic. You just can't compare the two on the sole basis of the final product. To me it sounds like animators at ACT3 are having fun everyday and are glad to get out of bed to go to work. Nothing will ever beat that in my book. Believe me it's places like these that are the most fun to work at.

Thanks for the cool article, Paul.

Whats your take on their body of work?

[amckay]

Hey Jed, I did about 14 hours work on the neverwinter nights 2 project haha. I think the budget was pretty tight as they could only afford me for like a day and a half for the gig. I just came down to consult on expanding their pipeline and setting up some of their effects, compositing etc. at the very beginning of the project. But it does sound like the budget was extremely tight. In my experience Australian studios will always go severely underbid a job so that they can use it to get the next job (which is 'usually' a bad idea) although if they market it right it can do wonders for their name.

There aren't really many places in Aus who do game cinematics, as most of it gets piped through LA, and to do it for cheaper you really need a lot of experienced people and a plan - I've gotten to see a few game cinematics recently that kind of didn't have that and went pearshaped. From what I hear Act 3 did a pretty good job and it didn't get very messy which is great to hear!

There are literally less than 10 people in 3D if even that so it's a pretty tight team of mids maily there, which is good to see a more solid bunch doing pretty good work. And in comparison to studios that have 400+ on a project where you're in charge of a small piece of the puzzle, the smaller the place the more variety you usually get.

However I've been back at Blur for just over a week and I'm already feeling more complete to be working with a solid pipeline again ahahha


-Allan

[Naseem]

yes i agree with SheepFactory, its a gr8 work not a bad short movie for a game title :thumbsup:

[heathenPagan]

I'm just happy to see some local talent getting a look in....
Nice one..
=P

[meanlebh]

To me it sounds like animators at ACT3 are having fun everyday and are glad to get out of bed to go to work. Nothing will ever beat that in my book. Believe me it's places like these that are the most fun to work at.

Thanks for the cool article, Paul.

Agreed. While big budget stuff is nice to see and hear about, I find it much more interesting to see how some of these smaller studios work, as I too come from a simiarly sized studio.

Great article, interesting read, and very well written. I personally would love to see more articles like this one, it helps us to remember that you don't have to work at ILM or the likes to do quality (and more importantly, fun) animation.

Thanks again!

-Brian

[astroboii]

Good to see local talent on here, keep up the good work

[Abaddon]

That NW2 cinematic is pure awesome, I'd say on par with the super hero clips recently released from blur, and many blizzard game cinematics. The main difference is the length and scope of the clip, and that always comes down to budget.

Loved it, and cinematics in general. Good to know their aussie, now I know where ill be sending my showreel next.

I suppose there were people complaining in the blur super hero thread to, whining that everything wasnt their idea of 'perfect'. Weird.

[baby]

is too cool !

me fan !!

[Remi]

Pinata is great!!! I personally love to read the articles like this. There's alot of small companies out there, why not do articles on them and the work they do? I think it's a brilliant idea. And i'm sure most out there would find them interesting and entertaining.

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