We all need a common direction

I like all of you want to found my own studio, and have so much success it makes Pixar look like child’s play.

But that’s not gonna happen, I mean we all can’t seem to get over ourselves long enough to finish a single collaboration. Let alone create a studio, I get it, everyone has there own dreams. We all believe we will succeed and at the same time we definitely don’t put that same faith into any one else. But in reality there just aren’t enough animators in the world for us all to be Walt Disney.

But I don’t need to have my own studio. Just having a job where I can do what I love, (which is animation and writing) I would be more then happy. Now I think you all know its true when I say there is enough talent and equipment and commitment here to be churning out at least 6 minutes of animation a week. Which is more then enough for profitability. I know we can get there, it won’t be easy but with a common direction and lots of commitment the animation will be made, and if the animation is made, then people will watch, and if people will watch, then advertisers will pay. There is a lot of opportunity in animation and its an incredible art form and it can go way beyond simple children’s cartoons, but it hasn’t, yet.

But this isn’t about money, we need to show we can be organized and utilize our full potential. If we can perform as a respectable studio then we will be treated as a respectable studio. We have more resources here then any small studios.

So here’s my proposal, we all work together. We all can pitch our projects and whoever’s project has the most support is what we all work on. If we can grow into a large network of artists working in a common direction we can truly do the impossible, but honestly I have people to work on my projects, and the ability and equipment to do it all on my own. I want to do this because this really is a huge opportunity to create something truly worthwhile. It will happen if we all have the same dumb faith we have in ourselves and it won’t if we don’t, it really is that simple. “nothing worthwhile would have every been invented if they knew what the hell they were getting in to”

I’m with you, I agree. This is similar to what we were trying to do, get a team of talented artists working together on one project. And as for projects, not all in just one style or for one audience, children’s cartoons are very nice, but I see a whole empty market for adult animations. When I look at the Finished Projects forum (or even the WIP forum), I see a lot of awesome renders. But one image, no matter how awesome, isn’t going anywhere in the world. But if we could combine those all, then there’s a lot more to be achieved.

I’ll see what my friend thinks of this, but I have a script for a short 10-15 minute film ready to go, and I have plenty more ideas.

I have many scripts as well and my plan is to get enough people to be able to have multiple projects of any and all genres going at once.

There are many many incredible renders that would make extraordinary shorts, if they’re was the talent and drive to take that huge step towards it, making it a reality and with a large enough work force we could do what major studios couldn’t as we don’t have to deal with stupid people making decisions about things they don’t know about or appealing to share holders, or going with safe projects.

Captain starting trouble again :). Of course, I have my own project and am purposed towards that, but I am looking for experience. I would enjoy being part of a group with committed artist as long as they are organized and productive.

Yes though i figured my communist manifesto might be more popular , but believe it or not, there are about 7 people involved thus far.

Okay so anyone who is interested in joining here, just needs to put what they do, how long they’ve done it for and how much time their willing to commit.

As for myself, I can do everything besides draw and texturing not my strong point as I prefer rigging and animation but definitely writing the most, I write comedy, like crazy cartoon comedy.(but i hate the cartoony look in cg i only use photoreal). I’ve been learning cg (with maya but i switched to blender three weeks ago) for over two years now and I’ve been writing for four years. And I’m willing to commit every second I’m not sleeping.

I can edit, been doing it for one and a half years on a very regular basis, but have done it for over 10 years. I can do audio, been to filmschool for that.
I can model simple objects, tables, chairs, pencils, coffee cups. Been using Blender for many years.
I can write, haven’t really got much experience, but that’s because I couldn’t do anything with it anyway. Just finished a short script. My style is weird, supernatural, different, more visual than speech.
How much time i have depends on a lot of things, so I can’t tell much about that, but if it looks like we’re getting somewhere, then I can be available a lot.

[edit] Actually, I have been writing for about one and a half year, but it’s been commentary for said videos I edited. So no scripts, but yes writing.

The opening post was like reading my own words. I made a similar speech a few years ago trying to rally people to my side. While they were excited to be a part of the team,they were not equally as driven to put in the time. I would like to see this new team succeed where so many have failed .

About me: My name is James Kiker,35 from Alabama. I have written several short stories and scripts as well…telling interesting stories is my passion. In terms of video,compositing and editing is my favorite part of the process. Currently working on some live action/CGI shorts of my own and will share with you all as it comes together.

I would like to bring a few things to this team. One is voice work,love creating new voices and bringing characters to life. Two is stories,that is my favorite thing in the world to do. Lastly is directing…as my goal is to become a film director for both animations as well as live action.

The weekends are my most productive time…but I will do what I can during the week too. Would like to meet you all,feel free to inbox me.

Let’s work together and create a studio that we can all be proud of.

What I’m good at remains to be seen, however I want to learn each part of the entire process, at least the basics. With that in mind I love to (WRITE, SKETCH, MODEL). I’ve been sketching and writing for more than 12 years (nothing professional) I’ve been using blender for about 3 years. I’ve done some acting (in plays) but I don’t like to act. Check out my home page for samples www.nqstudios.com

Okay so the balls already rolling on “monkey pooker” as bastion so titled it, so for our first project i say we go with it, I’m not very proud of it, but the first project here is so we can all learn the pitfalls of this (as working with people from god knows wheres, is not an easy thing to do), as well as show what we can all do and whose willing to work and who won’t stick around.
Okay so lets dole out some jobs here.
James and Nemo I would say audio and post rendering for you guys.
Bastion and I are working on the script and Bastion can draw us a storyboard.
My modelers yet to be seen will be modeling, if they come around (only been 5 minutes though so I believe they will)
I will handle rigging and scripting
I have a dedicated render machine(and I’m working on getting another one i7 3820 processor so a bad ass machine) so we have somewhere to render.
I can handle fur and special effects if no one chooses to usurp either duty from me.
James and I will do voices if no other interested takers out there.
We should all try our hand at animation, and see where that goes, I have some experience, but only using my rigs which only lately have been up to snuff and now using blender has thrown my rigging back a bit but that’s what this project is about learning and growing.

Personally I don’t know about you guys but I’m in this for the long run, I mean in many ways were all beginners here but if we stick it out for just a year we will have a YEAR of production experience under our belts (we won’t be beginners anymore at that point) as well projects to show for all our work and a team of people we know have the commitment and talent to help create our stories. Individually I doubt any of us will get to far, mostly because we would be right back here looking for someone to help with those few aspects we just can’t do well enough. But here we have everything covered as you can see.

I"m very excited for this project and I hope you guys are too and don’t worry I’ll knock off my rhetoric kick soon enough.

Sounds good.

If you need more voice actors, I suggest asking on the freesound.org forums, there’s a good amount of people always willing to help out.

Just something corny. I had two fortune cookies with lunch today: “The time is right to make new friends.” & “Don’t be surprised by the emergence of undiscovered talent.” Let’s hope.

We might have another new friend too if you check my other thread you can see his monkey. But we did suffer slight oversight, we really do need a dedicated texture artist I mean we can handle it but it’s a big job and someone who enjoys texturing would be a great asset. And a music guy but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

We really do have something here guys, and honestly I know exactly where we need to go with this, but for now we just need to concentrate on our product and making the best animation we can.

Hey so i have the rig here. It’s a test rig as i didn’t put the final controls in, because after seeing Andres work I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure were using one his characters, so I’ll be building a new rig any way.

I really just want your thoughts on the rig and if someone knows how to improve the rig. The arms are a little funky to control as i put nine bones in the arms to get the best possible deformation (this is how i rigged in Maya, the forearm and upper arm always have mutiple joints that’s standard, the elbow was to prevent it from collapsing in on itself when bent to its limit). But the math all adds up its should work but there’s something I’m probably missing here. But it has breathing controls, ass controls, a low res bone based facial setup that would compliment shape keys. ik/fk switch, ear iks, foot roll, toe controls. If there’s more stuff we want in our rigs let me know.

Its somewhat like a puppet but for animating it will force you to get creative and make the arms always move with purpose because there gonna move whether you like it or not, but seriously how often are your arms completely still while your whole body moves. I’m happy with most of the deformation but it would need to be re done to get it perfect. The arms aren’t too bad but this is my first blender rig and its very different then what I’m used to so there should be much improvement in the next rig.

But anywho, check it out and let me know what you think. Yeah so blenderartists disagrees with me and says I’m not putting the rig up it just will not load no error just not there after i upload it, so whatever I’ll email it to interested takers.

Oh and I set up a website so we can have a FTP. crazystickstudios.com

I’m so out it right now, but still very excited, if we hear back from andre and get a definite yes from him then we have all our bases covered and we can really start kissing ass and taking censuses

Hello Im interested in joining. I can add the IK rig and do the animating. Also if needed i can borrow voice for some characters but with possible problems in talking. Im willing to spend 2-6 hours on animating per day. So give me textured models and script ill output the animation.

I’m newer than some to blender but I am definitely down. Qualifications = Animation, some study of cinematography, voice acting :wink: Music production/sound production, some 3d modeling ability. Now just one question… Is everyone’s heart set on a movie or a game? Because I would much rather work on a game :slight_smile: But, im open minded just wondering what everyone else thinks.

Oh and thow I mainly have rap beat’s here, this is some of my work.

While I primarily want to learn the process of animating and modeling (which happens in both games and film.) I would prefer to do a short.

That’s really why I was interested in this thread. There seems to be post for games every day, but few for shorts that really seem commited and organized.

With all these people I am gonna lose my mind… in a good way … maybe

Okay demvako can you show me a rig or some animation?

Ryfer The music well need for this is well the scene opens up in a smoking hut in the middle of the jungle so i have something in mind but i can’t really put my finger on it and me guessing at something would only make your job harder so just go for sounds right for a smoky hut in the jungle for you

No games right now later yes but not for a while

Okay so we need a solid plan here.

Bastion is on storyboard so that’s taken care of
Script is ready to be recorded but i still haven’t heard voice samples from jkiker and Ryfer needs to send my some to if you want to do voice work
My rig(that no one wanted to see) would be done but now we probably are using a different model so I gotta start over I don’t care about that but the problem is I have yet to hear anything from andre so I can’t start yet
God only knows what going on with the scenery and the dung beetle model

Okay so now we all see the problem, we need to lay down some ground rules.

  1. Everyone must check in every morning or at least once a day, or just give us a schedule of the days you will be able to get in touch. But communication IS VITAL which leads me to…

2.If somethings supposed to be done on Thursday I expect it done Thursday, if Thursday comes along and your no where to be found, I’m doing whatever it is you were supposed to be doing. I don’t care how long things take within reason, but if your not here to tell me why it’s not done, then I’m doing it myself

3.I hate being held up and not able to work, that’s what really drives me nuts. I need people to tell me what’s going on with there stuff so I can manage an ever growing team of people.

4.COMMUNICATION IS VITAL. Just tell me how things are going email me ( [email protected] ) 40 times a day if you want, I don’t care, I need to know what I can expect from you and when, I need to stay updated. There are a lot people here and we need to be willing to accept anyone who is willing to work. But that means that we are going to have to accept a constantly shifting environment, we can handle it if people communicate but otherwise we fall apart.

  1. We are going to create the highest possible quality we can, we do love to have any beginners willing to work and learn involved but don’t get upset if all your work doesn’t go in to the final product. We’re here to teach you, not to coddle you.

6.This is a real (non-profit for now) studio. We are willing to accept anyone willing to work no matter there skill level or time available. And as any studio we require professionalism and communication. This isn’t going to be easy, in fact this is going to be hard work. Each of us is relying on each other and we all need to take that responsibility with the utmost seriousness.

The next few weeks are going to rough and won’t be the most productive time, but we need to establish our communication pipeline first. We need to establish a comfortable norm for everyone involved if we want this collaboration to bear fruit.

So I’m giving everyone who hasn’t shown up here yet til Tuesday to get back to us and then I’m assessing our team and by Wednesday we’ll all be back in commission.

Thanks to all of you who have stayed in contact, I really do appreciate it.

I mean I get it if you only come here once a week or whatever but tell me that, that’s all I ask, cause if you don’t your breaking the first four rules and if you break four out of five rules your out. I can’t have everyone waiting around for you.