Hey, my team has never done anything involving animation ever berfore, so i decided to change that by convincing a small group of people to start an animation committee with me. We do not expect to win any awards(although that would be a plus) we just want to explore another aspect of the “FIRST Experience.” we have some experience with the software, although not that much, but we could easily learn it. We also have some ideas for a storyboard. My question is this, does anybody with prior experience in this field have any ideas how we should approach this problem… We pretty much have very little idea of what we are doing. I do not want my team to become discouraged, as my hope in starting this committee was that it would evolve and grow into something great in the years to come… Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. 
That’s great that your team wants to get started on animation. I’d say the first thing to do is to decide on a rough storyboard, and sketch it out on paper. Don’t worry too much about your skill level at this point. It’s just the brainstorming stage.
Then make sure you know the basics of the software (basic modeling, materialing, lighting, cameras, and rendering). Once you’ve done that, go through your plan and decide who is going to model key components (things like buildings, robots, vehicles, furniture, etc). If you come across something that you feel is too complex, try assigning parts of it to multiple people or modify your storyboard to not include it. Once you’ve got the main models done, work on the lesser models (scenery, etc) and materialing.
I’d say the general rule of thumb for lighting and materialing is to use what looks good and not what’s supposed to look good (i.e. if you run through a tutorial and it’s not quite what you want, don’t be afraid to tweak it). When it comes to setting up cameras in the scene, keep in mind that often times, a stationary camera is far better than a moving camera since it’s easier for the viewer to focus on the content. Using two or three cameras at different angles in a scene can also help if you feel a stationary camera is too dull.
Also, leave at least a week for the final render. You’ll want time to render it, make modifications, re-render, modify some more, re-render, etc. And if your scene takes 3 hours to render… well you get the idea. Other tips are to use the Make Preview feature and try doing test-renders where you render every 3rd frame and play back the scene at 10 fps, for example.
Most importantly, keep it simple. Simple animations have won in the past since they can get their message across without distractions like cluttered scenes and eye-straining camera movements. Setting deadlines/goals for model/scene completion also helps keep work on track.
Hope that helps a bit.
thanks… yeah i hope we can get this to work, so far things are looking good, we are getting together tomorrow to write a stroyboard.
I would elect a real leader of your committee. This gives authority, so that if no one can come to an agreement, the problem is solved by force.
Set deadlines ahead of their actual due date, you don’t want to not have a submission because something delayed you.
Delegate duties to certain members. Make one person in charge of texturing, one person in charge of lighting, etc. You team as a whole will be able to learn more in less time. It also causes people to become very proficient in one area, instead of rather experienced in all the areas (but certainly, everyone should have an understanding of each step).
Get an idea of your computer resources (meaning CPU power) and your animation. My team usually sets aside a week and a half for rendering/compilation. Always preview a frame beforehand, what’s shows up in the viewport isn’t always what it looks like when it’s finalized.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing whatever you guys create.
what I’ve found that really works is that you have to become obsessed with 3d studio max. It all you think about. Whenever you look at something you find yourself automatically comming up with a plan to make that object in 3ds max. That is how you become good and really learn the program.
The thing is, you cant force this thing onto people. If they dont want to animate, then they wont animate. People have to fall in love with animation and then thats when the obsession comes.
That sums me up in a simple paragraph. I still got this year and next year to learn as well, but right now I’m messing around in Garry’s Mod learning logic circuitry and basic electronics. I’ve already made a rudimentary mouse bot that solves mazes! (Though not very efficiently). If you don’t know about Garry’s Mod, it’s a mod for Half Life 2 where you can mess around with any objects with its physics technology (same as the one in reactor ;)) and you can just build ANYTHING, let’s put it at that.
For the creative process, my team has a very streamlined system; I recommend it. Set aside a few hours for this, and tell them to focus and get it done in one quick run through. First, make a big list of everything anyone on the team has ever liked. It sounds very vague, yes, but it gets the creative juices flowing. We end up with stuff like “flashy lights” and “sunsets.” Have someone take notes. Then, from there, list the theme and the ideals of FIRST, and start making scenes. Not necessarily full animations, but just create some themes or some cool locations. End the process by compiling these into full blown animations, complete with time lines and a general message to convey. We usually end up with 2 or 3. Vote on which one you want to do, based on ease of creation, the message, how it sticks to the theme, etc. And, there you are, you have your animation!
Easier said than done, of course. We spend the next 3-4 weeks modeling all the parts, and then the 4-5 week is spent animating and adding effects. The last week is saved for rendering and emergencies.
I also recommend having a deadset leader. Also, remind people of three things: a) they won’t be any good if they don’t practice b) you can’t pull a realistic model out of nowhere…always uses references! and c) no one is forcing them to be there, so if they aren’t going to animate, they should leave. That last one does a good job of keeping discipline on my team; it instills a sense of responsibility. Anyways, this post is long enough. Good luck!