Planning for next year yet?

[MConte05]

Well, now since our jobs are done, I am wondering, are any of you planning on what you want to do next year for your animation?

I know that if the requirements are the same, that my potential theme will be "we are here to stay" or something like that. Showing people coming into a "bunker" like building by a chopper. And then going down the stairs where our robots are from previous years, perhaps have a voice-over....

Or maybe something similar to a shortened version of this Black Hawk Down trailer. About not "leaving a student behind", teamwork, comradeship, helping others, and achieving our goals....

http://www.apple.com/trailers/columb...down/high.html

So what are your plans?

[White_Orpheus]

What are the rules regarding using content made/planned before the kickoff? I understand that there is no way to enforce such rules, but it just seems dishonorable to go out and start working this far in advance. I know this year my team didn't even start to plan the animation until kickoff, and we did fine in competition. How early do you guys start work?

[rowe]

Its always best to start brainstorming during the summer. But more importantly, use the summer to learn, and to see whats possible and realistic. If people really want to work over the summer, I say let em. It not gonna make that much of a difference, I wasted 2 weeks cause it was my first year on the team, and then cracked down the last four, and we did fine. Until Autodesk changes the prompt, there will always be teams workin ahead, it really doesnt bother me that much.

[kcy88]

it's hard getting away from the animation aspect of FIRST, so much fun doing it.. this year, i think our animation team did try to raise the bar by focusing on lighting and character animation. I had fun waiting for those long renders... Next year.. hmm... i was thinking of trying out Mental Ray, but it seems complicated. I havent found one simple tutorial for max yet on the basic setup for a realistic render. Maybe i'll try using HDRI...

I definitely agree with Rowe about how teams should brainstorm over the summer and try out new techniques and tools. It really wouldn't be a challenge if teams started their final animation before the season. I dont care, but i just dont think its as fun as it is during the six weeks. Summer is all about learning new stuff and improving your skill.

One thing i hope for next year is that Autodesk changes the theme and adds some flavor to the competition.

[Zzyzx]

For next year, our team is planning on using MX Flash to create a sort of rough and cartoon-looking animation, with rough lines and very baisic shapes representing objects (i.e. solid circles represent weels, sticks w/hook represents an arm) Hopefully this will put our team in a distinctive catagory. And after a disscussion between me and next years animator, he is thinking of adding some Japanese-style action to the animation.

[opnickc]

Our team is considering not only working, but doing as much of the animation as possible over the summer. Why? Because we want to be able to work on the robot in the build season. Some may call it cheating, but I call it an innovative schedule that allows students to get the full experience of FIRST.

And I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who spends half his summer brainstorming and working with 3dsmax.

[kcy88]

well. what if new members join the team and they want to do animation? what's there to do when majority of it is already done?
i guess there's just an equal amount of negative and positives in doing animation over the summer..

[rowe]

Originally Posted by opnickc

And I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who spends half his summer brainstorming and working with 3dsmax.

HAHA, no you are not. and...

Originally Posted by kcy88

well. what if new members join the team and they want to do animation? what's there to do when majority of it is already done?

No offense to newbees, but atleast on my team, there wasnt much new animators could do until they gained a basic understanding of the program. By doing the animation over the summer, the lead animators would actually have more time to devote to teaching. Im just playing devils advocate here, i only plan to experiment over the summer, maybe put together some possible storyboards, but thats it.

[opnickc]

Originally Posted by rowe

HAHA, no you are not. and...

No offense to newbees, but atleast on my team, there wasnt much new animators could do until they gained a basic understanding of the program. By doing the animation over the summer, the lead animators would actually have more time to devote to teaching. Im just playing devils advocate here, i only plan to experiment over the summer, maybe put together some possible storyboards, but thats it.

Plus, since my team is comprised of two schools, we are allowed to submit two animations if we really want to. So the "veteren" animation could be done over the summer and the "begginers" could be done in the build season.

[Zzyzx]

Originally Posted by opnickc

Plus, since my team is comprised of two schools, we are allowed to submit two animations if we really want to. So the "veteren" animation could be done over the summer and the "begginers" could be done in the build season.

I think that is an exellent Idea, Maybe our team can try somthing like that as well.

[team384_pat]

I am currently the only animator on my team and its looking like i'll be doing most of the work this upcoming year as we will have only a few members on our team.. so i'm really trying to get some tests done of the summer, build models, work on lighting and then start working on some concepts by september.. So i'm starting in June and ending in Feb

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by MConte05

Well, now since our jobs are done, I am wondering, are any of you planning on what you want to do next year for your animation?

I know that if the requirements are the same, that my potential theme will be "we are here to stay" or something like that. Showing people coming into a "bunker" like building by a chopper. And then going down the stairs where our robots are from previous years, perhaps have a voice-over....

Or maybe something similar to a shortened version of this Black Hawk Down trailer. About not "leaving a student behind", teamwork, comradeship, helping others, and achieving our goals....

http://www.apple.com/trailers/columb...down/high.html

So what are your plans?

I can practice but every year I end up with a new animation team every year and I won't find out who they are til January.
We really insist the kids do as much of the animation as possible. We insist they have thier hands in every aspect of the robot, website and Chairman's Award submission as much as humanly possible no matter what their level of skill is.
It's just the way we do things.

[Joshua May]

I plan on just training my animators in various modeling types and animating. All of the modeling and animating should be done during the build season, but I have already been brainstorming ideas. I definitely do not plan to finish (or even get more than 5 seconds) of the animation done before build.

[OwenCarson]

Yeah I am a bit embarassed to have not only storyboards and script, but actual final models and animated scenes done for next year's. It features a photogrammetry shot of the Georgia Dome fast forwarding into a city populated by robots helping humans. (the first part is actually done.)

Though most of it will probably be trashed, as the script is too complicated and it will suffer from the same pacing problems as this year's. Also I have a tv miniseries to work on.

[White_Orpheus]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I can practice but every year I end up with a new animation team every year and I won't find out who they are til January.
We really insist the kids do as much of the animation as possible. We insist they have thier hands in every aspect of the robot, website and Chairman's Award submission as much as humanly possible no matter what their level of skill is.
It's just the way we do things.

The kids do as much of the animation as possible? Big deal. Shouldn't they be doing the entire animation? It seems ridiculous to me that other teams are getting help from adults on their animations. Our "advisors" basically babysit us to make sure we're not breaking any school rules. Our robot and animation are entirely student planned and executed. Maybe our robot has never won, and our animation has only one once in 7 years, but at least we have some integrity.