I recently completed a 1 year diploma in 3d animation. The half year was spent learning 3ds max and Z-brush. The second half year was spent working on this animation, alot of time was spent on storyboarding and trying to decide what to do.

It is 45 seconds of footage + credits. I made the music track on an acoustic guitar, and everything was made from scratch(excluding trees and starscape textures). I built the characters from Z-spheres, then retopologised and polypainted them. I built the airship with a mixture of Z-brush and 3ds max, and it has over 500 component pieces. I added the wave splash using realflow, though this was left until the end of the project, with little time to spare before the final render.



This is my first attempt at portraying my video game concept. I learnt a heap whilst making it, and I promise to make something which is a bit longer, and more refined soon. I am eager to receive some feedback, please spread this link.

I am looking for work, experience, and mentors
contact me: bkrupitza@gmail . com

You know for first animation it is really impressive.
I can see that you have to learn a lot about rendering but if you want to find a job in 3d industry you will have to learn deeper the 3d modeling or 3d animation process. You choose. In the present it is quite difficult to be generalist and to do work on the demanded level. The standards have changed and the competition is high.
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Andyba, 3d artist
skills: 3d modeling, texturing, rendering, 3d character animation, compositing
3d software experience: 3ds max, Maya, Softimage XSI, Deep Paint 3d, Body Paint 3D, Wings 3D, Z Brush
2d software experience: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After effects, Macromedia Flash, Freehand

I was committed to completing my storyboard with the above project, in truth I rigged and animated 5 characters in less than a week (and alot of that time was cloth sim). I'm currently deciding on how my next character will look, what he is going to do, and what the background will be.

This time around I can afford a higher polycount, and I will be using Z-applink this time around (didn't have photoshop before). I am thinking about trying the bones system this time around, as I have already done heaps of research. I also want to try more cloth and hair effects. I will be consulting the lighting/rendering tutorials to fill in my knowledge gaps. Another skill I need to work on is morph target facial expressions.

The general plan for my next animation is a character swinging either a staff or sword around, and lots of close ups and camera changes to best show off my modelling/animation. I will try to keep the background simple, maybe rocky ground and clouds.

Please link me to some advanced tutorials, and keep the feedback flowing.

Oh and on the topic of rendering. I lost alot of detail when I rendered for youtube. The original file is 230mb and I put it into premier-pro and converted it.

I would have re-rendered the original targe files, but I had removed them from my USB, as they took up 1.5gb. I could have gotten them from home, but I was in a hurry.

The thing about rendering is not in details and resolution. Details are created through 3d modeling and texturing mostly.

Your animation has problems with lighting and material or shader properties.
The water should reflect and refract. There are no small shadows, there are no occluded shadows.. etc. These are highly intensive tasks for the cpu but they are necessary to show realism.

The environment is really great what i am talking about now is the close up views of the ship.
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Andyba, 3d artist
skills: 3d modeling, texturing, rendering, 3d character animation, compositing
3d software experience: 3ds max, Maya, Softimage XSI, Deep Paint 3d, Body Paint 3D, Wings 3D, Z Brush
2d software experience: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After effects, Macromedia Flash, Freehand

I am now rendering my animations to 1280 x720 mts file I think? Originally I was opening up standard projects on sony vegas and losing loads of quality (aVI) now I render to mts the file size is smaller and the quality is more like the origional.

I Thought the animation was cool I like the movements of figures but definatly could do with a higher quality render.

I am a beginer and will post my two animations on here soon ... I need 14 more posts before this site allows me to do so!

And here is my second animation rendered at these settings

Thanks for the feedback Andy's. I'm getting back into my animation. I plan on entering the CG fightclub, it will take me a few week probably, since I seem determined to start from scratch on some character modelling. I might waste a few minutes on characters posing, looking mean, and establishing the scene.

I definitely need to take more time figuring out lighting and shaders, I know my water isn't up to scratch. I also get what you mean about the ship, my next one will be better

I'll try to keep my scene simple... Its so easy to make big plans which take forever to accomplish... Wish me luck!