OK...so I'm totally out of the loop...

[Markfuscius]

I've heard of a coupla things about animation that I'm totally unclear on.
First off, someone said something about them having to be about "what FIRST means to us" or some such thing. Are they really gonna do that?!
Now, I can do a nice job pretending that FIRST has made a huge difference in my life, but, seeing as this is our first year, and I'm the lead animator (who has NEVER used 3ds b4, and has only been using Blender (phun free program. goto www.blender.nl) for about 2 months, so I know just about nothing about 3d modeling/animation, yet I still know more than the rest of the animation team combined (I had to cut 2 ppl cuz we needed them on other things...and they were annoying)...where wuz I? oh yea)
I really have no major positive feelings towards FIRST. Sure, the program r0xx0rz, and I've never learned more in such a short time, but that just doesn't fit for me for the topic of an animation (that and a required topic REALLY inhibits creativity, which angers the little libertarian in me to no end).

Ok...Second question. I heard from a moderately unreliable source that the animations had to be not much longer than 30 seconds. I'll skip the outrage here, cuz its too obvious.

Thanks for any help u guys can provide.

oh, and sry if I ofended ne1.

[Daishichimaru]

Uh, did you even bother to read the documentation? Must be not more than 30 seconds, most of the scoring is on portrying an aspect of FIRST.

[Zeinin]

agreed

the whole first bit is quite lame

but my teams is skipping a good deal of that, and shooting for technical execution. hey, when you dont play to win, you can do a whole lot more!!:D

[Markfuscius]

Well, some *ehrrrm* hid the documentation from my knowledge...and I even offered to make burns of the cd for every1...
Gee...now that I know that we're being judged on some aspect of FIRST...oh! I know! Pure symbolism! That'll drive the judges screaming from the seats they're in! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA *smack*
Sry.
I bet I can still tie in FIRST using the animation I alrdy planned (and even modify it for some more creativity...hmmm...but then I'll have to scrap that field model I made...)
Just a quick question (since I lack the documentation here at the community access tv station I work @...or the knowledge of where it is on the site) does the 30 second limit include credits. If so, I'm scrappin the credits. And what sort of penalty is there for going over? (i.e. I've got a great audio clip thats approx. 35 seconds, and really don't want to loose a single part of it)
Thanks much, guys!
(btw...2 responses in like 5 minutes...u guys r0xx0r)

[Zeinin]

umm

credits not includede in time

also, you get DQed if you go over the 3 0

just trim the sound

yeah, dont make a lame standard robot-on-the-feild animation.. those are well, lame for one! ;)

[Markfuscius]

ow...well, at least I can give all the little people that added a texture or a cylider in somewhere credit for the pathetic amount of work they did.
If you see our animation, now you'll understand what I mean by "Generally Useless People". j/k
Newho, thanks much! ^_^
Oh, and yeah, standard anim ideas are lame...thats why I'm *smack* hmm...guess I'm not supposed to say yet...
thx again, and cya!

[Markfuscius]

oh, btw, the sound clip is about 3 seconds over at the line of speech I REALLY wanna end on.
Thx again!

[Robby O]

Lets start with the 30 seconds - it's average commercial time, and this year the animation is identified as a "commercial". 30 seconds is a VERY long time. Sit still for that long and watch the second hand tic by, it's a good excercise that every team should try. Much can be told in 30 seconds and you realize that after doing the above exercise.

As far as what FIRST means to your team, there is soooo much that can be done with it. Just think outside of the box. How many ways are there of showing teamwork? Or winning? Or helping someone? Or building something? Or learning? Since kickoff I've spit out 8 stories, all original, between two teams. One of the two is going to even attempt all 3 as they have 3 schools.

And lastly, dude, gracious professionalism, please. Thats all I think I need to say.

-Robby O
oshortwan@hotmail.com

[anish]

just remember, you dont want to tell a story. You dont want to offer too much in too small a package. Keep things short, keep them simple and keep them sweet.

30 seconds isnt a lot, dont try to do a lot. Look at some commercials, they are brief, and only touch on the surface. Stick to that and you'll do fine.