341 Needs Animation Help!

[Paranormalfreak]

our team is doing a 3D Studio max entrance, we were wondering if any other teams maybe have parts or any other importable things, that are common, that you could let us use ^_^

ok, well it's worth a shot!


thanks

-Lana
Team 341 Animation Team

[Brandon Martus]

the FIRST Cad Library may have some stuff you can use ..

[Matt Hallock]

When you signed the consent form, assuming that you have, you agreed that everything in the scene would be 100% yours or it came from the program (IE the materials that came with MAX) It's more beneficial for you guys to just try and do it all on your own.

[Paranormalfreak]

Originally Posted by Brandon Martus

the FIRST Cad Library may have some stuff you can use ..

thanks!!!

[Ryan Dognaux]

If you guys got the Max 5 CD, on the 2nd disc there are tons of textures and models that come with it. Hope that helps.

[kcy88]

yea, the third CD that comes with max6 has a huge resource of stuff... very cool.

what consent form are you talking about?
and what does it say?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Matt Hallock

When you signed the consent form, assuming that you have, you agreed that everything in the scene would be 100% yours or it came from the program (IE the materials that came with MAX) It's more beneficial for you guys to just try and do it all on your own.

There's nothing that says you cannot recieve help from outside support. Just give them due credit. In fact I would heavily recommend seeking help if you get stuck. if not here then try CG Talk.

[Matt Hallock]

No, I'm not talking about using outside help, getting help is what this is all about, getting people to learn. What you're not supposed to be doing is actually using someone elses work that isn't on your animation team. Like, those CAD models.

Read the consent form, you can read it in the awards.pdf document on the first website, I quote:

"The entrant represents and warrants that the material is by the entrant free of any liens or claims of any third party."

I don't even know why you would use something not your own to showcase your team's talent.

[matt111]

does this include 3rd party renders...like the one u posted

[Ryan Dognaux]

I seriously don't think it's a problem to use parts from FIRST Cad Library in your animation... if you wanna take the time to make a motor or whatever.. and waste time, then fine, but it's a heck of a lot easier to get on that website and download them.

[Matt Hallock]

3rd party accessory programs are usable, some people I've seen use Cebas|Final Render, Brazil, Mental Ray before it was fully adapted into MAX. People out there use Maya, Blender, etc, and that's fine. However, if you go somewhere, say like 3Dcafe, and take a model and put it in your animation, that is laying claim to a third party, even if it is free. The only option I've used with Brazil is the global illumination and the bucket rendering, both of which can be done in the MAX 6 version with mental ray.

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

I seriously don't think it's a problem to use parts from FIRST Cad Library in your animation... if you wanna take the time to make a motor or whatever.. and waste time, then fine, but it's a heck of a lot easier to get on that website and download them.

What's to stop people from saying that about a car or something? "Well, looks like I can't make this, so I'll just take it and put it in the animation." It screws over people who actually did all the work, like the teams agreed to when they sent in their consent forms.

[kcy88]

Ryan Dognaux-
"if you wanna take the time to make a motor or whatever.. and waste time, then fine, but it's a heck of a lot easier to get on that website and download them. "

umm... sure it would... how bout asking some1 else to do your animation... that'd be alot easier for you...

the whole point of doing an animation as a student is not only to represent your team, but to also learn and overcome the learning curves and challenge yourself. Sharpen up your skills, and to be creative. Downloading free objects is a waste of time and it doesn't benefit you, it only benefits the completion time of your animation. One of the challenging aspects of animating is modeling the objects. I take pride in all the models i create.
However, to be honest, i often do download free obj., but i only use them for test renders and to get a feel of how the scene make look. In the end, i still model the object i need.

personally, i believe using third party renderers is cheating.
lol
its too easy to make a scene look real in Brazil. All you have to do is enable GI, skylight, and add the Brazil plane. It doesnt matter what the mats look like, the object will look real.

and again..
good luck animating!

-kevin

[Matt Hallock]

If it was last year, I would have not used Brazil because Mental Ray was not a part of 3DSMAX yet. However, this year, everyone is afforded the same opportunities rendering wise. Enabling just the global illumination does crap to make your scene look realistic. The GI skylight creates quick lighting, and on this years animation I'm not even using it, I'm using it for bucket rendering speed wise.

I would agree that a 3rd party renderer would be considered cheating if people didn't have Mental Ray, but global illumination is just as good in Mental Ray as it is in Brazil or Final Render. It definately does matter how what materials you have, I'll post an example later.

[OneAngryDaisy]

Originally Posted by Matt Hallock

If it was last year, I would have not used Brazil because Mental Ray was not a part of 3DSMAX yet. However, this year, everyone is afforded the same opportunities rendering wise. Enabling just the global illumination does crap to make your scene look realistic. The GI skylight creates quick lighting, and on this years animation I'm not even using it, I'm using it for bucket rendering speed wise.

I would agree that a 3rd party renderer would be considered cheating if people didn't have Mental Ray, but global illumination is just as good in Mental Ray as it is in Brazil or Final Render. It definately does matter how what materials you have, I'll post an example later.

We used to have an animation team two years ago, but last year our focus shifted on our robot.. thus, we had no animation team, but this year three freshmen have stepped up and shown an interest in learning this.. I really don't see the harm in letting them learn how to use the program, its actually pretty awesome to see animation be reestablished.. It's just like a new rookie team using FIRST's gearboxes to learn how the game works..

[kcy88]

one two three four
five


those images were made using brazil. standard mats. it may not look like "real" or professional work, but its still convincing.
Now, comapre that to just using the scanline renderer, there's a difference.
i'll take my word back about the mats, i mean, if you really screw up on the mats, then of course the object is less convincing, but what i should've said was the use of only standard materials.
---
well, anyway, i think we've gotten way off topic.
lol