Why 3D modelers get more known in CG world than animators
I would like to ask something. I have seen that , there is more chances for 3D modeler/character artist to get known in CG world than animators.
There get more attention than animators. I am not jealous about this, Just i want to know why?
For example, their work got published in magazines, online forums, sites. There have events or conferences for CG, and i think 3D modelers, Zbrush, Making of characters, have more people, than character animation.
There get more attention than animators. I am not jealous about this, Just i want to know why?
For example, their work got published in magazines, online forums, sites. There have events or conferences for CG, and i think 3D modelers, Zbrush, Making of characters, have more people, than character animation.
Replies
If thats what they want to see then someone needs to host the event...
Why to blame mocap ZacD?
It is also extremely important. And mocap or not, it takes a really good animator to make this medium truly shine. If I were in charge of hiring, I would place considerably more emphasis on acquiring and keeping good animators.
They don't get as much attention as sculptors and painters for the same reason that graphic novel writers don't get as much attention as the artists. It's not that they deserve less, it's just that their contributions can be more difficult to package.
I don't think however this reflects in the talent of either, the fewer animators I do know of are (imo) of higher standard than the average mass that do 3d.
Is 3D scanning data is also automated work for character artists?
That said, when you`re amazing,and you post personal work, shit gets featured. It's all about quality and presentation. My facebook is filled with posts about this. And I would say its due to equal parts of quality and presentation. The animation is flawless, but its also a gif that makes it easily viewable by EVERYONE. You dont need some people to install anything, or hit play or anything like that.
Polycounts very own StephenVyas
But with a lot of games(and CG movies, not necessarily animated ones) the teams are so large its harder to pinpoint what exactly a specific animator did with a lot of the automated stuff in games. Plus with a lot of games, the specific style of an animator is much less apparent. If you know your animation, you can totally tell who animated a specific character in a Disney movie
Personally I still remember when a piece of animation was applied to one of my models during my University days. I was totally blown away as it made the piece come alive with believability. Still brings a smile to my face.
But as a few people have mention on this thread I believe it is in the delivery of the animation, be it gif or embedded video. Its easier for a 3D artist just to post up a picture and people give it a few second glance and move on. Whereas animation requires you spend a bit more time viewing the piece.
Also if the animation is off a tad people instantly notice it. Theyve got a tough gig.
Back in the Q2PMP days, I would download all of the Quake 2 models from this site, and spend hours looking at them in the debug viewer level. It was a lot of fun for me to check out all of the animations people had made for their models, cycling through each one to appreciate the detail of the motion. This was back when bone-based animation was just beginning to catch on, and the majority of animation was still just keyframes of blend shapes. It was also one of the first times we got to see fully interpolated animations running at 60+ frames per second. (on a machine with a decent 3D card)
I've been a huge fan of animation since I was very young, and still am. The current project I'm working on is focused on making animation faster and easier for the end-user.
But I think this is partly because animation is still some complex stuff on the engine side. It'd be very difficult to have something like Stephen made in a game that isn't a cutscene.
Game animations aren't as good as they could be because tech still limits their fluidity. This is why movies prioritize expressive animation whereas games need it at a consistent level of compatibility. This in turn brings the bar lower and very skilled animators aren't able to use their full potential. It brings everyone closer to an average so you never see many standout unless they make an effort to like Stephen has.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/
http://animatorsresource.blogspot.com/
http://www.animatorisland.com/
http://onanimation.com/
http://www.animationmentor.com/
http://framexframe.tumblr.com/
There's just as many if not more for animation as there are for environment/3d artist. There are also just as many bad ones too. I know (as primarily an environment artist) that I can recall just as many if not more great animators and concept artists than I can great 3D artists. A lot of resources are also shared such as CTN and siggraph.
When people are reviewing a game, animation is always counted. "Well animation quality is not as good" is what you hear often. The players care atleast. Interface ? I have yet to hear from some youtube or magazine reviewer to talk about a game interface, no matter how insanely well executed it was.
People just have more relation to solid objects. If you ask a environment artist, they will say that character artist get all the attention, because they do characters, so I guess its not all black and white
I think you will find a lot more animation presence on portals like youtube, which is just another medium. A magazine can simply not feature animation, and a forum like polycount makes it not very convenient I would say. Its not hard to make a gif and embed something, but what we learn from conversion rates is that a couple clicks or seconds can hold the majority off from doing a specific task
animator tend to be easier to associate with actually.
when they ask "what is your job?", then you answer I am animator at pixar, it will became its a straight forward answer. very easy to digest by people who are not from the industry ( animation and game).
at least in my country, some animator got interviewed a lot by locals mainstream media.
the rest probably because we hang around with modelers. in my school back then most scholarship was given to animators, because animation reel usually have more hits in youtube. so they can promote their school effectively.
someone like tech artist, rigging TD, etc is the least known in industry ....
This isn't entirely true. Well, maybe it is on a large scale, but there have definitely been games that stood out to me because of the UI. Dead Space had a killer UI. Splinter Cell: Conviction, the ONLY thing that I remember about that game is how amazing the UI was. Especially with the quest details being projected onto the world.