Re: Fewer Animations?
 

As a mechanical, I use to get on the animators. After winning 3 Safety animations and a couple regional wins, I respect what they do a lot more. As long as they keep bringing home hardware, they are good in my book. I walked into the animation lab on ship day for the first time all season, they showed me what they had come up with and I was like, "how in the world did you do that?!:yikes:" They responded saying, "how do you guys build a robot?" Mutal respect for different talents is a great way to practice GP in house.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

If only more team members had the same epiphany. As a mentor, I don't get many chances to work with the students, but the adults on the team were very supportive. When I was in high school, no one went out of their way to treat us poorly, but I know that the majority of the team considered me and a lot of the other girls to be useless hangers-on. We were only vaguely appreciated even after we won a regional award. I was sad ;_;

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Its too bad some of you have had less than positive experiences at times. Mentors are a great resource, but don't forget you can do anything if you really want to. When I got into graphic design and 3D, it was still very expensive. The company I was at paid $150K :eek: for a basic 3D system. Any access you had to a 3d program was rare. The community college had a few Silicon Graphics workstations that were busy from 7 am till midnight with signups for login time. Today we have free access to a world class 3D app sitting idle for 10 months a year. Reading tutorials and just experimenting with all the tools is a good way to learn.
This isn't a "back in my day..." speech (well ok, maybe it is), but I'm still amazed that all this power is so affordable. :)

Spend some off-season time getting to know 3DSMax - I know easier said than done. I myself don't spend that much off season time with it. I'm a Mac user, so I don't have it installed on any of my own computers.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Its my life. I don't do anything else.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

We're up to 187 now. The first student judging at week 1 regionals is today. I wish everyone good luck in their particular region. The only regional I know of going on this weekend is Kansas City, where our team submitted our animation to.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Gah!!! Midwest Regional is this weekend?!! Catch me there people. I Should be the only one wearing a "Autodesk" sweatshirt. Its either blue or black.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Yes, we know xD I think it was more a hint for people who don't live for animation.

New Jersey is this weekend as well! Let us know who wins at Midwest.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

It's the greater Kansas City Regional, I believe that is different than the Midwest Regional. If we win, it will be our first regional award in animation for our team. I would love to graduate knowing my last animation for Team Driven was a winner. But if we don't win, at least we got the Ted Boardman award for Best Camerawork last year ;)

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

I must say, I was really disappointed at the Midwest regional. Not to many animators showed up. I couldn't find any to give any lessons to. :(

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Hooboyhooboyhooboyhooboyhooboy

I've been looking at all 6 :eek: of the animations for the Seattle regional. I'd say 2046 is right in the middle; 2 of them look very rookie-ish (which is perfectly alright, we gotta start somewhere) and 2 of them look very polished and refined. Ours doesn't scream newbie, but it isn't the prettiest thing. Once again, nothing wrong with being a rookie, everybody's been one, even BuddyB309 (hard to believe :rolleyes: )!

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

we got two different dead lines confused and ended up not submitting.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

If you came to St Louis :cough cough:

Well, Animation is something where teamwork is needed badly. I'm an outgoing senior and I restarted 1094's team with basically no training my freshmen year. Here's what I did to get better on my own.

* Use the program Just use it screw around find out what that thingie does or that button does. It really helps when you're doing tutorials to know what the basic function of the program's UI.

*Find other animators I would have been lost if I hadn't met Pete at IRI, I can always go ask him for help (GP) and I;m sure hes saved the animation quite a few times.

*Do Tutorials

I'm passing on Animation to some juniors and some sophomores with animation becoming a lot better. It's also important to remember that each year you get so much better and better that you learn the skills you need and you can pass it down so they are better.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Ooooh, rough. It's always tough to hear about teams who worked hard for seemingly nothing. On the bright side, you now have experience designing and creating an animation for competition, so it's not all bad.

addictedMax is right in that teamwork is huge, just like in any part of FRC. Hopefully you were all confused as a team! :D Confusion because everyone thinks that everyone else is wrong is no fun at all.

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Theres 3 animations at St Louis. There has been usually 10 or more (like 1625s for example :cough:)

Re: Fewer Animations?
 

Oh blah blah blah.... I couldn't make it. You always can catch me on AIM which is BuddyB309.