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spielberg- eat your heart out!

Getting started is always the biggest part of becoming a freelance animator or starting a business. Brian discusses that first job, yes, the logo from hell!

A bit of functional advice from Brian Drescher

So, you purchased a computer yesterday, installed the software this morning, and by this afternoon you are an animation expert. The computer isn't a problem...you have a super dual processor system with 300 megamutha's clock speed, 128 kajilion bytes of memory, and 20 kabillion bytes of storage space. You have your first client, and he wants the animation on tape in London by next Friday. No problem! You've read the manuals, it's only a "flying logo from hell", so the deadline shouldn't be a problem.

This is a typical profile of a new "expert" entering the wonderful world of animation and special effects. The only problem at this point is that you have to carry through all of those lovely stories about how it could be better in the media world with your own work. Is the iceberg heading for the Titanic, or the other way around? Lets try to break down those little problems that can get very large in the process of trying to deliver THE PRODUCT.

So, lets use the case of the flying logo from hell. The first step of course is to give the client a reasonable estimate of the costs for the as yet non-existent animation. You have a low overhead with equipment and personnel (you'll make it yourself), so you have to calculate how long it will take you to make the geometry, light it, render it, and get it onto tape. The logo for our fictitious client will be delivered as a PostScript file so you don't have to rebuild or rotoscope it. The art director has provided a simple story-board, so you have line to follow. You think that you can produce the geometry in a day (not counting the animation). The lighting and attributes should take a half day, and another full day to animate and fine tune the animation. The rendering you can do at night as you dream of vodka martinis on the beach of Cannes.

The client has accepted your proposal, and gives the big GO! You have received the PostScript file of the logo per courier, and you try to "import" it into your software. And what happens? Some bozo at the design studio created an unreadable file (or so you think). You aren't sure if you are making the mistake, or if the file is truly corrupt. With shaking hands you pick up the telephone and call the studio. After an hour on the telephone with the technical specialist you realise that they made the mistake (a student made the disc) and they will get of the new version as soon as possible. This means that you have lost a valuable work day, plus an hour on the telephone with London (you live in Borneo).

The next day at 12:00 you receive the new logo file...It works! After a sleepless night you are so happy that you stop and have a nice pastry and a cup of coffee to make it up. You dig into the process of generating the artwork in 3D. With only a few peeks into the manuals you have the geometry of the logo on your screen! You make a deadly animation, and you work long into the night to get the colour, lighting, and the "fine-tuning" just right. You start the computer on it's night long render job (aren't computer's great) and you go to bed dreaming of the Oscar for the best animation for a flying log from hell.

When you wake up you rush to the computer to check the animation. Damn! there was a memory error after the first ten frames. You re-configure your memory manager, and give a great bull story to the producer at the agency that since the digital "artwork" arrived late, so you needed more time to produce the animation. You restart the rendering and go back to bed dreaming of your new job at Industrial Light and Magic. When you wake up, you realise it is 11:00 at night, but the animation rendering is done! You leave a message on the answering machine of the agency that the animation is done. Your biological clock is now so screwed up that you forget to set the end point for the rendering...Your hard disc is full and your system hangs. When you reset the computer the last few frames are corrupt. You elect to throw them out and make a creative "hold" at the end of the animation (no one will notice).

Now that the beautiful animation is ready and you have to get it onto tape. You have 400 megabytes of imagery, and no way to get it out. So you go to the computer store and buy a removable hard disc system of 1 gigabyte. You dump off the files, but then you have to get them onto tape. You call every video company within 100 kilometres, and you finally find one that can accept your disc type...at 50 cents per frame! No problem...it's a big client, you can eat the expenses.

You send the tape off to the agency with a fast courier. You've made the deadline!...But the art director calls back to say the colour blue you used for the sky has the wrong "feel". After another hour on the phone to London you change the colour and re-render your animation. The director wants to show both versions, so you have to buy another 1 gigabyte disc and pay the couriers. The animation is done but it cost you money!

What is the moral of this story?...PLANNING!!

Think about this...most beginning animators and production people forget the "Murphy's law" factor. Here is a "check list":

The Bottom line is...if your animation qualities and experience is very high, then the above elements will never be a problem. If that is not the case, then protect yourself!

What it ALL comes down to is...know your own level of incompetence!

We have the stuff! So...Look out Steven Spielberg! Here we come!


Brian K. Drescher
bkdresch@xs4all.nl
http://www.xs4all.nl/~bkdresch