Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
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.