Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

Is there no animation prompt this year :confused: My animation team and I have been looking for hours and there's been no indication of any prompt being released.

The prompt was supposed to be unveiled on sunday but then it was supposedly postoned to today and yet still no prompt

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

I have had the same feeling from time to time but Autodesk normally takes their time in posting the animation prompt.

If you look in section 6.5 of the manual there is an award listed for the animation. Hopefully we get the prompt on tuesday(today).

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

Chomping at the bit...

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

Thats exactly what I thought! Maybe they dont remember....

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

Does anyone else have a terrible time trying to navigate te educational community? Just logging on always seems to be a problem. Then they told me they changed me username?!?! Just always seems too complicated.

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

No. So far I haven't had a problem, Elizabeth. Our challenge today is that Charlotte NC is covered in snow and ice. We look like beautiful South Portland Maine in the wintertime, or Kintnersville PA did much of last winter. While we are waiting, perhaps any of you could give a rookie animation team some advice. What are the top two mistakes that we should avoid and how? Also, can you list which animation software package(s) you plan to use this year?

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

As by time crunch experience, DO NOT wait till the last couple days to render. Based on how complicated your animation is, it has even taken me a day or two of nonstop rendering. Plan to have everything rendered at least two days before the deadline.

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

top mistakes that our team has run into and now we plan for are, expect problems wether those problems are weather, computers malfunctioning, render time or things taking longer to model and texture.

Also, watch when you are modeling if you have scenes that have 100k+ faces it can take a while to render.

along with what evilyn said, Give yourself time to render and get everything together, at least 4 days is what my team goes by and then a day to put everything together.

I'm not sure how your work situation is but don't be afraid to leave computers rendering over night, if you can, that way you don't have to waste time just sitting around to wait for renders to finish when you could be working on something else.

On a side note the comment under award at(firstbase.autodesk.com) changed to "COMING SOON - Information on the 2011 Award!" Maybe we will have a prompt by noon

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

"Team Spork" - What a great name!

I know you asked for 2, but here are the top 3 rookie mistakes, in my opinion:

1. Not using the available free help & training resources (this site, other 3ds Max forums, YouTube tutorials and http://students.autodesk.com).

2. Not reading the rules thoroughly. There are very specific requirements for file type, video length, titling, copyrighted music, etc. It's heartbreaking to hear about a rookie team that put hundreds of hours into their animation only to have it disqualified because they misunderstood a rule.

3. Trying to model & animate humans. This is very difficult and without a lot of experience they end up looking & walking like zombies.

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

Thanks so far. We've been working on the rendering capability, knowing that is an issue. I'd like to start that process a week ahead of the deadline because we have never done this before. By all means, don't limit yourself to only two suggestions if you have more! Is anyone else using Maya besides us? Most animation teams seem to have two to seven students on them. How many hours, approximately, does it take your teams to do these animations (an estimated range)?

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

I honestly don't mean to brag at all, but I've been working with 3ds max for 2 years and won the Florida regional last year. I worked alone because there wasn't anyone else who wanted to do it. I just want to affirm that it's do-able but it takes a lot of "Oooo what does this do!?!" kinda thinking. Don't be afraid to explore, even during build season. You'll probably find yourself making things once, and starting over several times. Don't get discouraged.

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

1. Read read read all the requirements
2. Understand the deadline for submission. This is a 2 part award (either/or/and) and the submission deadlines are not the same day
3. Give yourself a day for uploading the file for submission. Took us hours to do last year.
4. Build a render farm and get very familiar with it

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

We are using Maya on Macs for artwork and are building a Maya/Mental Ray Server Farm on Windows.

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

hmmmmm...

I keep going to FIRSTbase for the award announcement. Now the web page can not even be accessed. Maybe this is good sign and they are updating the site as we speak.

Re: 2011 Animation Contest
 

Well, at least they changed the message when you go to the Awards tab of http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=first_home

Now (1:00pm eastern time) I see "COMING SOON - Information on the 2011 Award!"