2002 Animation Software

Vote in my survey about Inventor and autoCAD in the general forum

[Jay Lundy]

Originally posted by D.J. Fluck
I have never seriously sat down and learned Inventor, but it seems like it is a waste of time, colleges dont use inventor in their classes (as far as I know) and most companies use AutoCAD, Unigraphics Solutions, or whatever...but i dont see what people see in Inventor

That is true, but you have to remember that inventor is a fairly new software. It may catch on eventually and it's probably a good idea to have a least a basic knowledge of how to use it.

Also with the speed at which updates are coming out (2 since last year), Autodesk is probably hoping this product will catch on.

[RobDeCotiis]

autocad models have less faces than inventor models do. it's been a proven fact from last year's animation competition. i am not using inventor this year. lol

[Zeinin]

ahhh

here is the software that 449 is gonna use for our photoreal animation this year:

1. lightwave version 7
2. Rhino 3d
3. inventor... only if it impresses us enough....
4. PHOTOCHOP
5. Primere


w00t

[Clark Gilbert]

No 3d Studio Max?????

Wouldnt it be a good idea to use since its the "Autodesk" award......

just wondering?


(even though it doesnt state u have to use it)

[Zeinin]

Originally posted by Clark Gilbert
No 3d Studio Max?????

Wouldnt it be a good idea to use since its the "Autodesk" award......

just wondering?


(even though it doesnt state u have to use it)

well, it doesnt say exspressly that you must use autodesk products, and Lighwave has higher render quaility..... also, my group is not playing to win as much as we are playing to play and to make the Best Looking animation in first history, even better then the professional one done by the Big Machine 3 years ago.. that is our goal..

[Nate Smith]

Originally posted by Zeinin


well, it doesnt say exspressly that you must use autodesk products, and Lighwave has higher render quaility..... also, my group is not playing to win as much as we are playing to play and to make the Best Looking animation in first history, even better then the professional one done by the Big Machine 3 years ago.. that is our goal..

Awards.pdf, Page 12, Section C4.1.3:

...Using graphic imagery and animation developed with 3ds max (as well as other Autodesk products if you wish),...

[Zeinin]

ehhh
wasnt there last year, or the year before for that matter.

well then

still sticking to origonal thesis, lightwave has higher render quality and therfore is the winner... wait, if they let you use pshop, premire, and all that good stuff, they cant just say "no other rendering apps other than MAX"
im gonna have to submit an email about that

[Nate Smith]

Originally posted by Zeinin
wait, if they let you use pshop, premire, and all that good stuff, they cant just say "no other rendering apps other than MAX"
im gonna have to submit an email about that

Two things on this way of thinking...

1. The quote from the Manual that i mentioned specifically said "other AutoDesk products"...as far as I know, Photoshop, Premiere, etc. don't fall under this category...

2. As far as I'm concerned(personally), they can put any restrictions on what you can use for your submission. After all, FIRST says "no nother control systems than the one from Innovation First." It's Autodesk's award to give, so they can put whatever restrictions on it they want...and of course, they're going to choose 3dsmax as the allowed program...they are donating it to all 660+ teams this year, after all...

[Zeinin]

well it really is a moot point. i will put it this way, if we had a animation comp. using ONLY autodesk products, there would be no textures, sloppy video editing, ect. moot because there is no way for them to tell what is done in max and what is not. im not saying i condone minterpitation of directions, i am just stateing fact.

[Clark Gilbert]

I'm guessing some judges will probably also be able to tell if u used AutoDesk programs to make stuff....so that may sway their decision....


Just a thought....

[Zeinin]

agreed

well, i myself dont really care, as i stated, about winning the comp as much as winning to myself, to make someing photoreal, you know,

but the advice here is as follows:

if ya wanna win, i guess use only what they give you.

[anish]

Compilation video of EVERY entry from last year

as far as i know, our team didnt get this. Any teams get this thing?

[Adrian Wong]

Yes. It was on a VHS tape that we received with the software kit. I'm hoping for DVDs next year.

[Dan Hill]

I'm on the same team as Zeinin, and we are planning to use as many different programs as we can to produce the best animation.

We are modelling the robot in inventor in the most extreme of detail (which is enough to crash inventor in seconds). I know how to use both autocad and inventor, and for some reason, I prefer inventor more than autocad (it is probably the easy constraints, graphics display, and the nice cell shading).

We have been using Lightwave to model the scenes that do not feature the robot, because it turns out to make more realistics quality. When we get down to animating the robot, we will probably have to use MAX to import inventor correctly and it will allow us to animate the robot.

I checked the manual and I noticed that it does not say that any other software is not allowed, so they cannot restrict us from using other software.

I do agree with Zeinin on many points:
- the contest is not as open as most of the animators would like to have it. They should not have to make us make the animation have an "appealing aspect to first." We would not be spending as much time as we do if we did not care for first and the animation, and I think that the workers at First should see this.
- the purpose of the animations is not to necessarily to win any awards, it should be so that we can show our friends and family the animation and have say them say "Wow. You guys should be professionals", not "Wow. You guys sure do like to ...animate." Granted, if we do any awards, it would be nice.
-this should be experience with an actual animation software. If you look at any serious animation firm, they will never think about using 3ds max for anything that the general public might see, although they might use it to simulate movements for tests.
-without editing softwares like photoshop and premiere, do not even look toward showing the animation to anyone, because, chances are, it is not going to be pretty. We all suggest rendering the output to single frames and then compiling, editing, and compressing them later.

3ds Max is a good programmer for quick basics, but when you need something that can produce realistic graphics quickly, 3ds Max is not the best place to look for the average animators. Many people think that about 8 weeks is enough time to produce something in Max, but if you are looking to produce quality within the amount of time, make sure you are the greatest max user in the world. I also do not think that the judges can tell what is done in which program, because 3ds Max can produce the same realistic quality as lightwave and other programs, it just takes a whole lot longer to programming in effects in Max than it does to press a button in lightwave.

Everyone who has put down my team for not using programs that we do not think will save us time, should take a look at the true purpose of the animation, not the fact that there is an award that can be won. There was a lot of quality and a lot of corrections that need to be made in last years animations (my team is included) but I think that the judges made a good decision. The animation with the guy in the warehouse was hands down the best of the animations from last year and deserved to win. Hopefully we get more quality like that this year. You all know the point I'm trying to make so I will end it with one more comment. I do not know if my team will be going to nationals, but I hope that when I see the shown animations, I can say "Now that is some quality" not "Wow. They won an award."