C4D vs LW in beginner char. rigging, rendering speed & Sfx

[LucentDreams]

have you ever rigged? in either app, I"m not going to get into which app is better for you, because being newer to 3D its all really a matter of learning curve.

My concern lies more with how long it takes to produce,and how much skill. How many motnhs do you have to make this project. Don't be concerned with cel shaders and hypervoxel's, as you said "My main objective is to show off my screenwriting and directing skills, and character animation is the way to go." thus don't worry about such features, worry about how easily you cna move a character, for someone really good, shouldn't matter which app they use, for someone newer, its a concern of which one works beter for you, you have limited time to both learn those tools and do the project. I remember my highschool projects, I planned simialr things, and I have those ideas still writen down, but let me tell you your not going to have the time to do those things.

theres also quality versus quantity. You want toi make an awesome little film, go for a simple a scenario as possible and do it well, rather than a opus magnus that "could have been better IF..." to date one of the best animations in 3D I have seen is a piece cameron myasaki did for his internship at pixar, http://www.cameronmiyasaki.com/Animation/Animation_right/bouncingballs.mov

That blows away half the animations I"ve seen posted on cgtalk. And remember this guy had way more training and experience when he did that ASSIGNMENT, so its not about what and how much, but how well that matters. If you want to do character animation, I'd suggest a single character performing a simple function and something goes wrong, or in the words of george lucas, "AND CHAOS ENSUES"

There are tonnes of simple gags out there, use one influenced by the old warner bros animations, eg "character is trying to open door, really struggles, and then door finally opens, he shows off for a second then steps through and plummets to his doom." May sound corny, buty if done well will get you far more attention then explosions and okay aniamtion.

as the old expression goes, KEEP IT SIMPLE... SILLY''

And do trust me on this, having recently done a school film and not too long out of highschool, I remember what it was like, and now I teach, and rarely if ever do I get totally complete projects in from students because they are over ambitious, I ask for a simple on second action like swinging of a bat, and I get someone who tried doing a weightlifter with camera cuts!!! Only about 6 seconds of animation (if properly timed) when I wanted 1, and he was one of the ones that actually got a fair bit of work done, but nothing worth ever showing in public, we are talking animation on 8's rather than 1's and 2's.

[The Producer]

Kaiskai, thanks for the reply!

Basically I have little under one year to complete the movie.
Actually I have no real deadline, as in this small town I live in, i'm probably the only person capable of doing graphics like this (there is no 3D animation class, I believe I introduced the possibility of creating one)! It's just that several teachers at my school suggested that I do a 3D animation for my senior project, and I can always change my mind as i'm still a junior.

As for rigging, i've done simple tutorials in 3DS MAX demo, like boning a cylinder, and so far, I found and C4D's method the easiest and fastest.

Also, presentation is also a big thing for me, that's why 5.1 sound rendering and cel shading features interest me.
(Heres a 12 min animation I did for the mini-sequel to the hour-long orginal (which took two months to do,while the mini sequel took weeks):
http://edison.ncssm.edu/dlt/swat/misc/gamers_charged_225.wmv(Broadband only)

That was about a year ago, and my skill has gone up considerably. I have a JPEG image attached(super compressed-low quality) showing images from an animation I just finished in 3DS MAX. It's fifteen minutes long, and took me three weeks to do.

You're right, my orginial plan (an 1h 20m animation script) may be completely out of my reach. Maybe for my first attempts at character animation I should try small things, smiliar to cameron myasaki's.
My main inspiration is Jeff Lew's Killer Bean 2.

The Producer

[JIII]

just for your information if you did not know already. the dude who made kiler bean is realeasing some training DVD's on how to animate later this year.

Good luck.

[LucentDreams]

Cool film, you can definitely draw, bu tthere wasn't a lot of motion, which is whats important for animation, even anime which has very little motion in dialogues scenes (thats whenthe good scripts and plots come into play) have extremely well animated high motion action scenes. Which are the parts everyone remembers.

Just to give you an idea, my student film took four months not including main character design and story concept, and that was 14 hour days minimum 5 if not 7 days a week, for a 1 minute 45 second film, and that was at a postsecondary level. Most final film projects have 3 or four months, buts thats after almost a year of extreme trainings, and 10 to 14 hour days (many days I'd go longer, sometimes all nighters) I'd recommend you aim for about 15 to max 30 seconds, and get some motion in there.

[MJV]

Lot's of good advice from kai. Forget about the 50 character movie. Forget about Poser characters. Instead, write a short little script about a dismembered hand. Model it yourself, and animate it convincingly. If you can do a good job of that, you can easily land a job in the industry.

[ThirdEye]

On a side note wait for Siggraph for your final decision. The reason? Maxon and Newtek will show their new toys as usual for sure, so you'll have something more to take your decision on ;)

[flingster]

if you want it do it..........BUT
set realistic goals.......base your goals around more information.
then go for it....

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