Getting Started in Animation

[Jon Lawton]

Our team has been looking at the animations from last year, and the software from this year oggle-eyed. We'd love to be able to enter somthing for an animation this year, but no one on the team has *any* knowledge about *any* of this software. I'm sure there are other teams out there in a similar position, or that have been in a similar position. So my question is: "What is the best way for a group of people who know next-to-nothing about animation to start learning?"

We've looked at some of the tutorials in the documentation, and we wound up with people who were even more scared of the programs... Help!

[Ydnar]

I'll be honested when i read the books it looked very imtimitating then i came to the fact it has to be done, so i did the tutorials which came with the software and in a week (might take longer or shorter it matters on the person) i was able to simple tasks, then eventually with the basics start to mess around and once you hit a point on where you need help with an advance part of a project then refer to the book or else ask someone that knows the software well and learn from what you need to know to build stuff rather then try to over whelm your self with reading and learning every thing if you don't plan on useing it all... that's my best way to help you...

[Suneet]

Agreeing with Ydnar, if you're looking at tutorials, make sure you look at the first page of the first one, first. If you try to overview a few of them, not step by step with the first one, they ARE

If there's any specific things in the interface that make you lost, look in the introduction, or you can ask on a board.

Good luck.

[Wayne Doenges]

Don't let the animation scare you.
We had a student learn CAD and animation and produced and 30 second animation. He did all this in three weeks on a 133MHz computer. We had a local college render it for us. It took 10 hours to render. It was a pretty good animation
So like the commercial says...Just Do It

Wayne Doenges

[Dima]

How many people do u have on ur team and how many of them are willing to sacrifice building the robot for your animation because this is the ONLY way you can get a good robot and a good animation and good grades. My sugestion to you is to get Rhino its a modelling program that is very good for beginners and you can import things to 3DStudio Max.

[Kyle Fenton]

Following up on Dima's Comment,
The more people, the better. However, 3D Studio Max is an extremely complex program, and no one person can do it all. The best way for animators is splitting the animation team up into a few categories. Modeling, animating, textures/video, characters (if you choose to make one), and a guy who is an expert (or somewhat) to add sound and put it on a VHS tape. If you have a structure like that, and make people that specific part on the tutorial, than I think you maybe will do all right.

[Jon Lawton]

Originally posted by Dima
How many people do u have on ur team and how many of them are willing to sacrifice building the robot for your animation because this is the ONLY way you can get a good robot and a good animation and good grades. My sugestion to you is to get Rhino its a modelling program that is very good for beginners and you can import things to 3DStudio Max.

Well, we went from a small team of about 15 last year, to a much larger team of about 30 this year. I'm not sure how many would be willing to sit and do animation, but I know we can't have 30 people working the robot 8). I think some five or six people showed intrested in animation. How many people does it usually take? Also, I've heard of people talking about buidling the modles in some CAD program (Inventor?) and importing them to 3D Studio Max. This seems like a good idea to me, as we intend to draw everything on the CAD this year (apperently we have a parent voulenteer who knows AutoCAD)... has anyone had experence with this?

Thank you all for your supportive and informitive comments!

[wes16zeus]

Well, my say so is the same as everybody else. Last year I was introduced to 3d studio max and well, at first i felt like the program was my worst enemy and there was nothing i could do about it. well, i found out my problem was i was trying to start with all the cool looking stuff first and wasnt paying much attention to details and the little things that made everything work how it was suppossed to. on from there i found myself wondering........"what does this mean?"........then, i got a little smarter and started looking things up and then i got really smart.........i learned the very basics, then the intermediate, then the advanced. im not going to lie, sometimes it will get boring mut man its worth it. youll see after you start learning great special effects and things you can do after you get your model done. 3d studio max is not just a designing program and animation program. the special effects allow you to open your imagination to as far as it can go and further. THAT IS NO LIE! you do know that if there are any problems you are having then you can post a thread about your problem and i guarantee you that somebody can answer it for you. im on this page everyday looking to see if any help is needed. when i have problems, they are answered within one day from when i posted it. so if you need any help just ask for it. if you want to talk to me personally then my aim is wes16zeus. take care of yourselfs everybody and.........

**************************************************
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
**************************************************

[Dima]

Something important i forgot FIRST ships you ONLY one copy of the 3d studio max there fore if you need more copies you are supposed to buy your own. So what i would do is look arond the net for a crack (i am supposed to say here that i go to Fry's any buy another copy but i don't have 3k lying around, do you?) Or just ask other teams at the kick off i am she someone can hook you up

See teams that have done robotics for a few years also have multiple copies (you get one each year) It REALLY HELPS if you can have more than one person working on the animation

[Clark Gilbert]

Suggesting that someone look for a "crack" on these forums, to obtain more copies of 3DSM may not be such a good idea..(i think someone else did this just a week ago or something)....and it was brought up that people that work for AutoDesk probably read these forums...so i might suggest also "deleting" that part out....

[David Kelly]

to add to what clark said... a little while ago. some people were talking about/ telling how to pirot software and they got in some big trouble. brandon was even threatening to ban them. this is not the place to discuss illegal activity

[wes16zeus]

great remembering david kelly. i know for a fact that people from discreet do come in and check to see if there are any advanced questions they can help with. i will stress that this is no place for information of that nature. it could cost every team their free software. great to see that people are watching out for robotics!
(Clark Gilbert and David Kelly)