3d Animations and Still Images

[slang]

[Lola Bunny]

Nice

[slang]

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.

[glatt]

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.

[slang]

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.

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.

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.

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.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

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.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

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.