Hello again readers!
So, I previously spoke on the subject of rendering and its vital role in the animation process. To kind of give an idea, I presented a slideshow of previous renders from an old animation of mine. However, I feel that I could have covered the subject a bit more thoroughly than I did. I felt this way mainly because text doesn't really seem to do the concept justice. As such, I have prepared this screencast that will go over animation and rendering in a bit more detail. So without further ado, here it is:
So if you have any further questions or thoughts, please feel free to leave them in the comments!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
ProBlogger: Secrets of Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
At this moment I would like to take a break from the animation posts and present a review on what I felt was a fairly informative book.
It is no secret that blogging can be a good source of income for some. Not everyone can make a six-figure income from it, but this book provided a good starting point for learning how to be one of the few who do.
ProBlogger: Secrets of Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income is the combined effort of professional bloggers Darren Rowse and Chis Garret. Both bloggers have high profile blogs and other projects that seemingly qualify them to write about the subject. Released in 2010, the book walks the reader through every step of the way, from setting up a blog, to monetizing, to networking. Each step is fully fleshed out and offers invaluable advice. Any blogger looking to make some money from their blog is sure to find this to be a gold mine of information. I, myself, found it to be extremely helpful.
The book begins by offering a bit of background on the two authors. Darren Rowse is actually the founder of http://www.problogger.net/ which is one of the larger and more popular blogs about blogging for money. He is also the founder of a blogging network, the concept of which is described during the book, called b5media. Chris Garret is a writer, marketing consultant, and blogger, though a bit more freelance than Darren. While he has his own blog, http://www.chrisg.com/, he writes for a number of other popular dogs.
It is at this point that the book establishes the idea that blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is an enterprise that needs lots of time and effort to see any real money being made from it. It took Darren a few years before he started seeing blogging as a serious source of income. For those who understand this and wish to continue, the steps and tips found within this book light the road to success.
After providing background on the authors, the book goes on to establish the concept of niche blogging. For the most part, most successful blogs are niche blogs, that is to say, they cover one subject such as electronics as opposed to a variety of subjects. It also covers the concept of micro-niche blogging, which is blogging about a niche within a niche, for instance: blogging about a specific camera as opposed to photography in general.
That covers the basis of thinking up what to write your blog on, once the idea is established, they walk you through actually setting up. Now this is where I found one of the strengths of the book. For the most part, the authors are pretty neutral as far as tools and services. Most books seem to promote a specific tool or service listing nothing but the positives. However, Darren and Chris offer a good number of options for each step as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the tools, services, or ideas they suggest.
For instance, after helping you set your blog up, they suggest different styles of writing. The authors realize that the methods they use are not the only successful means, thus they list other things that have worked for other successful bloggers. This neutrality also carries over to the following chapter talking about blog income and earning strategies. Each strategy's strength and weaknesses are outlined letting the reader decide what is best for their blog.
The book carries on in a similar manner covering the buying and selling blogs (giving reasons for why people may sell or buy), blog networks, blog promotion and marketing, "secrets" of successful blogs, and tips for creating something worthwhile.
Overall, I did not really find any weaknesses of the books. The authors present examples and evidence to support their claims, provided amazing tips, and everything is written clearly and easy to understand. All the technical jargon such as SEO is explained so that even someone new to subject can approach the book.
For those interested, you can get the book and more reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/ProBlogger-Secrets-Blogging-Six-Figure-Income/dp/0470616342/ref=sr_1_1?
s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304312818&sr=1-1
Have you read the book and want to share your own opinion on it? Feel free to do so in the comments!
It is no secret that blogging can be a good source of income for some. Not everyone can make a six-figure income from it, but this book provided a good starting point for learning how to be one of the few who do.
ProBlogger: Secrets of Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income is the combined effort of professional bloggers Darren Rowse and Chis Garret. Both bloggers have high profile blogs and other projects that seemingly qualify them to write about the subject. Released in 2010, the book walks the reader through every step of the way, from setting up a blog, to monetizing, to networking. Each step is fully fleshed out and offers invaluable advice. Any blogger looking to make some money from their blog is sure to find this to be a gold mine of information. I, myself, found it to be extremely helpful.
The book begins by offering a bit of background on the two authors. Darren Rowse is actually the founder of http://www.problogger.net/ which is one of the larger and more popular blogs about blogging for money. He is also the founder of a blogging network, the concept of which is described during the book, called b5media. Chris Garret is a writer, marketing consultant, and blogger, though a bit more freelance than Darren. While he has his own blog, http://www.chrisg.com/, he writes for a number of other popular dogs.
It is at this point that the book establishes the idea that blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is an enterprise that needs lots of time and effort to see any real money being made from it. It took Darren a few years before he started seeing blogging as a serious source of income. For those who understand this and wish to continue, the steps and tips found within this book light the road to success.
After providing background on the authors, the book goes on to establish the concept of niche blogging. For the most part, most successful blogs are niche blogs, that is to say, they cover one subject such as electronics as opposed to a variety of subjects. It also covers the concept of micro-niche blogging, which is blogging about a niche within a niche, for instance: blogging about a specific camera as opposed to photography in general.
That covers the basis of thinking up what to write your blog on, once the idea is established, they walk you through actually setting up. Now this is where I found one of the strengths of the book. For the most part, the authors are pretty neutral as far as tools and services. Most books seem to promote a specific tool or service listing nothing but the positives. However, Darren and Chris offer a good number of options for each step as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the tools, services, or ideas they suggest.
For instance, after helping you set your blog up, they suggest different styles of writing. The authors realize that the methods they use are not the only successful means, thus they list other things that have worked for other successful bloggers. This neutrality also carries over to the following chapter talking about blog income and earning strategies. Each strategy's strength and weaknesses are outlined letting the reader decide what is best for their blog.
The book carries on in a similar manner covering the buying and selling blogs (giving reasons for why people may sell or buy), blog networks, blog promotion and marketing, "secrets" of successful blogs, and tips for creating something worthwhile.
Overall, I did not really find any weaknesses of the books. The authors present examples and evidence to support their claims, provided amazing tips, and everything is written clearly and easy to understand. All the technical jargon such as SEO is explained so that even someone new to subject can approach the book.
For those interested, you can get the book and more reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/ProBlogger-Secrets-Blogging-Six-Figure-Income/dp/0470616342/ref=sr_1_1?
s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304312818&sr=1-1
Have you read the book and want to share your own opinion on it? Feel free to do so in the comments!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Rendering
You may have noticed that when an animated film is being announced, it usually takes quiet a while to finally be released. What you may be surprised to know however, is that the actual animating isn't what takes up most of the time. Instead, the main timesink is a process called "rendering". Basically, when working on an animation, you have your assets and your scene. In most programs you can see how an animation will more or less look by moving a time slider to see how the scene plays out. However, in the program, the fancy textures, lighting, and so on, are not included. Those are all added through the rendering process. An animation itself is nothing but a series of renders put together, much like hand drawn animation.
This slideshow provides an example of what renders may look like. The renders themselves are from a project I did while attending Full Sail University in Florida. The project was a group assignment wherein members were tasked with creating a character, animating them, and putting them into a scene to be rendered. The animation itself was only six seconds long, but the rendering process actually took a few hours. While that may seem a bit ridiculous, if the same animation was rendered with color and texture, the time it would have taken for the rendering to finish would probably have been upwards of a day.
I hope this article and the slideshow have shed a little more light on a vital process in animation!
This slideshow provides an example of what renders may look like. The renders themselves are from a project I did while attending Full Sail University in Florida. The project was a group assignment wherein members were tasked with creating a character, animating them, and putting them into a scene to be rendered. The animation itself was only six seconds long, but the rendering process actually took a few hours. While that may seem a bit ridiculous, if the same animation was rendered with color and texture, the time it would have taken for the rendering to finish would probably have been upwards of a day.
I hope this article and the slideshow have shed a little more light on a vital process in animation!
Monday, April 4, 2011
The CGWiki
Hello again readers!
In some of my previous posts, I referred you to a great community of animators known as the CGSociety. As it turns out, the Society also offers a nice wiki. As with most wikis, anyone registered with the site (note: registration is free) is able to make changes to the wiki. The front page actually has a list of articles in need of writing or in need of additional information, as well as articles that need to be categorized, and pages in need of revising.
The wiki also has "portals" leading to specific content such as community events, featured content, and the A-Z index. The index is quite fun to simply browse through and is a good way to read through some articles that will allow you to familiarize yourself a bit more with animation. If browsing through a whole index doesn't catch your fancy, the main page also has categories you can go through to find specific articles. The categories and then further subdivided to help users more easily find what they need. If you are looking for something in specific, there is also a search bar.
Overall, the wiki is well organized and has a lot of great information pertaining to animation. However, some information is a bit dated, but most of the "useful links" found at the end of most articles are kept up to date.
Hopefully this will become another useful tool you can use on your journey to learn animation!
In some of my previous posts, I referred you to a great community of animators known as the CGSociety. As it turns out, the Society also offers a nice wiki. As with most wikis, anyone registered with the site (note: registration is free) is able to make changes to the wiki. The front page actually has a list of articles in need of writing or in need of additional information, as well as articles that need to be categorized, and pages in need of revising.
The wiki also has "portals" leading to specific content such as community events, featured content, and the A-Z index. The index is quite fun to simply browse through and is a good way to read through some articles that will allow you to familiarize yourself a bit more with animation. If browsing through a whole index doesn't catch your fancy, the main page also has categories you can go through to find specific articles. The categories and then further subdivided to help users more easily find what they need. If you are looking for something in specific, there is also a search bar.
Overall, the wiki is well organized and has a lot of great information pertaining to animation. However, some information is a bit dated, but most of the "useful links" found at the end of most articles are kept up to date.
Hopefully this will become another useful tool you can use on your journey to learn animation!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Flash Animation
Hello Dear Readers!
Up until now, we've mainly been focusing on 3D animation and software such as Autodesk Maya. However, there are different types of animation, such as conventional cartoon animation. Keeping with computer generated animation though, we'll be covering 2D computer animation in this post.
Now most people have seen an example of 3D animation, be it in Disney or Dreamworks movies, video games, commercials, etc. Not many people have heard of 2D Flash animation, though they have probably run across it. While 3D animation is quite popular among professionals using it for professional purposes, Flash animation is usually used by amateurs looking to have a little fun or create an artistic project. The following is an example of Flash animation that was created on the basis of a particular commenter's review.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558516
Pretty nifty right? Especially considering a flash animation like that takes a fraction of the time a 3D animation of the same length would take to produce. Not only that, know those games on Facebook so many people seem to enjoy? Those are created through Flash and are actually quite fun and easy to produce with a little know-how, which we will gain as we go along.
So the next logical question is, how do I get started? Most Flash animation is done with Adobe Flash, for which you can find a free trial straight from the site. https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flash
Once you have your free trial of Flash installed, you can proceed to these two great starting points. The first is Adobe's Flash Developer Center, which is like one large launch pad for beginning Flash developers. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash.html
This second site is actually a great place to play some Flash games when you are looking to burn some time. However, that is not why we will be visiting it. Kongregate, aside from providing some quality games, also has an amazing series of tutorials that will help you develop a simple Flash game. The cool part? The tutorials themselves ARE simple games! Not only that, the tutorials are extremely detailed and will walk you through every step of the way. http://www.kongregate.com/labs
With all this newfound information you are now ready to begin your quest to learn Flash animation. Hope to hear from you soon! Have fun!
Up until now, we've mainly been focusing on 3D animation and software such as Autodesk Maya. However, there are different types of animation, such as conventional cartoon animation. Keeping with computer generated animation though, we'll be covering 2D computer animation in this post.
Now most people have seen an example of 3D animation, be it in Disney or Dreamworks movies, video games, commercials, etc. Not many people have heard of 2D Flash animation, though they have probably run across it. While 3D animation is quite popular among professionals using it for professional purposes, Flash animation is usually used by amateurs looking to have a little fun or create an artistic project. The following is an example of Flash animation that was created on the basis of a particular commenter's review.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558516
Pretty nifty right? Especially considering a flash animation like that takes a fraction of the time a 3D animation of the same length would take to produce. Not only that, know those games on Facebook so many people seem to enjoy? Those are created through Flash and are actually quite fun and easy to produce with a little know-how, which we will gain as we go along.
So the next logical question is, how do I get started? Most Flash animation is done with Adobe Flash, for which you can find a free trial straight from the site. https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flash
Once you have your free trial of Flash installed, you can proceed to these two great starting points. The first is Adobe's Flash Developer Center, which is like one large launch pad for beginning Flash developers. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash.html
This second site is actually a great place to play some Flash games when you are looking to burn some time. However, that is not why we will be visiting it. Kongregate, aside from providing some quality games, also has an amazing series of tutorials that will help you develop a simple Flash game. The cool part? The tutorials themselves ARE simple games! Not only that, the tutorials are extremely detailed and will walk you through every step of the way. http://www.kongregate.com/labs
With all this newfound information you are now ready to begin your quest to learn Flash animation. Hope to hear from you soon! Have fun!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Getting Started Part I
Before making a big leap into purchasing software, the first thing to determine is how much you may enjoy animating, and if you have any aptitude for it. So we will now being going into finding those answers!
First thing is first, finding software. To be honest, other than Xtranormal, I can not think of many quality, free applications for animation. However, most animation products come with a free trial so you can try before you buy. Autodesk's Maya is no different. The following is a link to a free trial of Maya 2011.
Once downloaded and installed, you will have 30 days to tinker around with an industry leading program. Now I know the interface will seem daunting at first, but after a few hours of tinkering and some tutorials, you should start feeling quite comfortable with the program. Speaking of tutorials, the great thing about the Internet is the access to free information, and that includes Maya tutorials!
You can use this site to view some tutorials and familiarize yourself with Maya.
The site offers links to a number of tutorials covering all sorts of subjects. For instance, some tutorials cover something general, such as the fundamentals of Maya, while others are very specific, like modeling a sword or car.
Alternatively, you can also find a multitude of tutorials on sites such as YouTube. In fact, thanks to the content of YouTube being user generated and the some people's willingness to share their knowledge, you can find tutorials for just about anything. The other great thing is that most of the content keeps up with recent releases. So while most freely available tutorials will be for older versions of Maya (though they still work), YouTube is able to offer tutorials specifically made for Maya 2011.
Here's a link to some of those tutorials!
Hopefully you can start to get a real feel for creating and animating something from scratch.
Note: While this post may be newer, it makes for a much better starting off point than my previous post.
Note: While this post may be newer, it makes for a much better starting off point than my previous post.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Getting Started Part II
Say you've decided to really get into computer animation, but you don't know how to start. Well, look no further, for this post will cover some of the basics.
First off, you are going to need some software. There are a number of different animation programs to choose from and you can see a full list here: http://www.animationprograms.biz/top-animation-programs/ . However, one of the more popular ones as well as the one I used and studied was Autodesk's Maya, so we'll be going with that for the most part. Normally running close to a thousand dollars, students can get Maya for a fraction of the cost.
The link provided leads to a place to purchase a student software bundle including Maya and another popular program named 3DSMax. Note the hardware
http://www.studica.com/us/en/Autodesk/autodesk_education_suite_for_entertainment_creation_2011.html
Both are heavily used by the film and gaming industry respectively. A few years back when I was attending a school in Florida, Maya was the standard and I quickly learned why. It boasts a large number of helpful tools and is completely customizable so you can use it how you want to use it. Not only that, the rendered animation looks great! I had an old video file of my final project from an Animation Fundamentals class, but I can't seem to find it anymore. However, if you want to know more about Maya before making the jump, here is the product page from Autodesk's website: http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/ . It even includes a customer showcase which shows where and how Maya has been used. You may be surprised by some of the projects it helped create!
The following is a look to Maya's system requirements: http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/system-requirements/ . These are important to note because the requirements listed will decide whether you are good to go, need to upgrade your computer, or need a new computer entirely. In the event that you need a few upgrade parts or a new computer, two very good sites are http://www.newegg.com/ and http://www.tigerdirect.com/. I personally use Newegg for most, if not all of my computer hardware needs due to it's speedy delivery and low prices. Occasionally, http://www.amazon.com/ and Wal-Mart will offer competitive prices on some parts. Wal-Mart also happens to feature some pretty great deals at times when buying an actual desktop or laptop. Browsing around there and other places such as Fry's Electronics which will also help you get started on meeting and exceeding the software requirements. It may seem like a pretty big investment, and to a certain degree, it really is, but I personally feel that once you get to seeing your creations come to life, it is all worth it. Not only that, if you plan to get into other graphic intensive activities such as graphic design, upgrading makes the transition much smoother.
Once you have the software you may be wondering if you have to sign up for classes to learn how to use it or how to go about learning on your own. Given that I left the university in Florida not too long after I enrolled, I would personally opt to learn on my own. Learning on your own may sound hard, but I actually came across a great service for that as well. Digital Tutors is a great service that offers tutorials on a large number of entertainment programs from Adobe Photoshop to Maya. I've used it quite a bit and I actually think I learned more in a week of following the tutorials than I did from a semester in class. The only downside is that Digital Tutors does come at a cost.
http://www.digitaltutors.com/09/index.php
For the price of tuition for class, you can subscribe to a yearlong membership and receive unlimited access to all their tutorials. Students even get an extra 10% off, which really sweetens the deal. However, Digital Tutors is not the only solution for self learning, though it is my preferred method. There are plenty of free tutorials around the web which can teach you any number of things. For animation fledglings, there are also great community sites such as http://www.cgsociety.org/ which are dedicated to animation and have forums with really helpful people.
I had to learn a lot of this the hard way, so I hope the information I have shared with today will help someone start off their animation career or hobby on the right track.
Hope to hear from you guys soon!
SOFTWARE:
First off, you are going to need some software. There are a number of different animation programs to choose from and you can see a full list here: http://www.animationprograms.biz/top-animation-programs/ . However, one of the more popular ones as well as the one I used and studied was Autodesk's Maya, so we'll be going with that for the most part. Normally running close to a thousand dollars, students can get Maya for a fraction of the cost.
The link provided leads to a place to purchase a student software bundle including Maya and another popular program named 3DSMax. Note the hardware
http://www.studica.com/us/en/Autodesk/autodesk_education_suite_for_entertainment_creation_2011.html
Both are heavily used by the film and gaming industry respectively. A few years back when I was attending a school in Florida, Maya was the standard and I quickly learned why. It boasts a large number of helpful tools and is completely customizable so you can use it how you want to use it. Not only that, the rendered animation looks great! I had an old video file of my final project from an Animation Fundamentals class, but I can't seem to find it anymore. However, if you want to know more about Maya before making the jump, here is the product page from Autodesk's website: http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/ . It even includes a customer showcase which shows where and how Maya has been used. You may be surprised by some of the projects it helped create!
HARDWARE:
LEARNING:
Once you have the software you may be wondering if you have to sign up for classes to learn how to use it or how to go about learning on your own. Given that I left the university in Florida not too long after I enrolled, I would personally opt to learn on my own. Learning on your own may sound hard, but I actually came across a great service for that as well. Digital Tutors is a great service that offers tutorials on a large number of entertainment programs from Adobe Photoshop to Maya. I've used it quite a bit and I actually think I learned more in a week of following the tutorials than I did from a semester in class. The only downside is that Digital Tutors does come at a cost.
http://www.digitaltutors.com/09/index.php
For the price of tuition for class, you can subscribe to a yearlong membership and receive unlimited access to all their tutorials. Students even get an extra 10% off, which really sweetens the deal. However, Digital Tutors is not the only solution for self learning, though it is my preferred method. There are plenty of free tutorials around the web which can teach you any number of things. For animation fledglings, there are also great community sites such as http://www.cgsociety.org/ which are dedicated to animation and have forums with really helpful people.
I had to learn a lot of this the hard way, so I hope the information I have shared with today will help someone start off their animation career or hobby on the right track.
Hope to hear from you guys soon!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Testing the Waters
Bears, a sexy grandpa, and superheroes.
What do these seemingly random ideas all have in common? These were the basis for animated commercials from the insurance company known as Geico.
Geico may best be remembered for the animated Gecko which made their commercials popular, so it's no surprise they cranked out a few more humorous animations for commercials. However, these latest animations were not made using absurdly expensive animation software. Instead, they were created using tools offered by the website, Xtranormal.
Xtranormal is actually a very good site that anyone interested in animation can use to test the waters. The steps to creating an animation is outlined and characters, sets, voices, and sounds are all available for use in creating short movies. All that's left is to use a bit of imagination and creativity to put together a short movie. Xtranormal then handles the rest, such as rendering the animation.
How easy is it to use? Well, right before making this post I actually created this short clip.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11258745
Now you may be thinking, what's the catch? The catch is that Xtranormal is not exactly free. Instead, the site opts to use a point system to purchase sets, characters, and publish videos. Upon signing up for an account you are awarded 300 Xtranormal Points which is all I needed to create that animation. Once purchased, the characters and sets can be used as many times as one would like, though publishing still costs 100 XP.
Overall, this is a great way to have a bit of fun animating without shelling out several hundred (if not thousand) dollars for professional animation software.
So have a little fun, and feel free to share the link to your creations in the comments! I would love to see what others can accomplish using this tool!
What do these seemingly random ideas all have in common? These were the basis for animated commercials from the insurance company known as Geico.
Geico may best be remembered for the animated Gecko which made their commercials popular, so it's no surprise they cranked out a few more humorous animations for commercials. However, these latest animations were not made using absurdly expensive animation software. Instead, they were created using tools offered by the website, Xtranormal.
Xtranormal is actually a very good site that anyone interested in animation can use to test the waters. The steps to creating an animation is outlined and characters, sets, voices, and sounds are all available for use in creating short movies. All that's left is to use a bit of imagination and creativity to put together a short movie. Xtranormal then handles the rest, such as rendering the animation.
How easy is it to use? Well, right before making this post I actually created this short clip.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11258745
Now you may be thinking, what's the catch? The catch is that Xtranormal is not exactly free. Instead, the site opts to use a point system to purchase sets, characters, and publish videos. Upon signing up for an account you are awarded 300 Xtranormal Points which is all I needed to create that animation. Once purchased, the characters and sets can be used as many times as one would like, though publishing still costs 100 XP.
Overall, this is a great way to have a bit of fun animating without shelling out several hundred (if not thousand) dollars for professional animation software.
So have a little fun, and feel free to share the link to your creations in the comments! I would love to see what others can accomplish using this tool!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog!
This is the first time I have really gotten into making a blog, so bear with me.I am a fledgling computer animator hoping to eventually create some great stuff. As such, computer generated animation will be the main focus of the blog, with my own personal stories as well as tips, tricks, and techniques I have found or learned being the meat and potatoes of the content.Feel free to share your own stories of journeying into animation as well as anything else you feel would help. I am always open to suggestion.
I am eager to hear what different people have to say about this subject, so let's have fun!
This is the first time I have really gotten into making a blog, so bear with me.I am a fledgling computer animator hoping to eventually create some great stuff. As such, computer generated animation will be the main focus of the blog, with my own personal stories as well as tips, tricks, and techniques I have found or learned being the meat and potatoes of the content.Feel free to share your own stories of journeying into animation as well as anything else you feel would help. I am always open to suggestion.
I am eager to hear what different people have to say about this subject, so let's have fun!
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