3D Underground

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

Hey all…

Had thought about this recently, that in the 3D world, people who take advantage of freeware such as Blender and other freeware tools like Gimp and Virtualdub, are the 3D underground who do not pay out to large corperations for highly expensive tools.

I also thought too, how cool it felt to be part of an “underground”, and quite proudly so. One day its very possible that Blender will be used in more and more professional projects, because we, the talent, will be taking it to newer and greater heights.

Anywayz, i just wanted to say again that Blender really is the most amazing freeware i have EVER seen, and its so GOOOOD!!! :wink:

Matt

Blend on, and blend well!!!

2

Cool, I’ve never been part of an underground before.
And I agree, blender is the greatest thing I have ever found.

3

Yea your right Blender rules.
Its not the program thats underground,
Its half you users living in a basement :wink:
:smiley:

4

I never thought of it that way before…
I’m definitly looking forward to the time when Blender’s capabilities are finally recognized by the pros and it starts getting used in a lot of big projects. That’ll be real cool.

Goo

5

He, he, he…

Seems like, we are the 3D Partizans!!! :wink:

Serious… That’s what attracted me most in Blender…

I was fooling around with lots of free and non free 3d apps, back in the old days, trying to learn my way up… Then I found Blender…

I decided to give it a try…

Then I got the usual, first feel of “dissapointment” (not true ofcourse…) from the GUI… The kind of thing all users get when they first encounter Blender…

By the time I was ready to dump the “stupid” ( :stuck_out_tongue: ) program, the first bad news about NaN’s Bankrupcy came… There was a threat that Blender would cease to exist…

I became angry… I said NO!!! This thing is not going to happen!!! And I decided to stick to it…

You may consider me as crazy, but you see, the way things turned out, has rewarded my “insanity”…

By “freeing” the sources, we made a whole lot of a difference!!! And “they” know it!!!

Yep, I guess we are the 3D underground… And we love it!!!

Spyros.

6

Blender has definatly been mind candy for alot of people, and i think too that the threat of Blender’s death motivated alot of people to take advantage of program while they still could.

And not to mention motivated the community and the rest of the world to raise 100,000euros, which is over $200,000 Canadian dollars, in just a few short months, it litterally blew me away. People realized that this should not be alowed to go along the wayside, but should be brought into the world wide 3D community and be a constantly developed tool for all to use without exception!!!

I really dont think it will be long before Blender really hits the big time. There are always community projects starting up, and it will be only a matter of time until some of this community band together in their strengths and set a strong goal towards a 3D film festival or contest.

I can tell you this, if @ndy, S68, Neo, Landis, blengine, Bapsis (of course ;)) and a host of others who have respective tallents (sorry, cant name everyone), banded together in force to create, say, a 20-30 min mini epic, and peddled it to every festival we could find, i know it would be a huge eye opener to the world on how very capeable this program is.

I swear, if my poor ass were to win the lottery, and say dump $5million in my bank account, the very next day i would be taking steps to start my own 3D studio utalizing Blender as its main tool. I would send job invitations to the comminity who have proven to have exceptional skillz and i would let everyone blend for dollars!!! And then, boy oh boy, how we would suceed!!! And not to mention droping huge bundles of cash to the Blender Foundation to help out in developing the tool so the studio can benifit!!!

So, until a philanthropist millionair Blenderhead wonders our way and gets totally excited about what we are all excited about, it will be the community, out of passion for animation and blender, who will freely build the films and show the world what we hold so dear!!!

Anywayz, it feels good to be part of this community, this “3D Underground”, all through my bones i feel that we are at the begining of something very big!!!

Matt

Blend on, and blend well!!!

7

You don’t need to win the lottery to make your dream come true…

There are also other more cheaper ways to get started…

:wink:

Spyros.

8

My ideas of starting an animation studio using Blender are even more high-expectations than yours.

First, I make a couple of successful movies, and taking about $25 million, I go and build a huge, tall animation studio. It also produces games for the gamer Blenderheads out there. Then I invite everyone who’s talented to come to my animation studio and live there (in the 3-room-two-story apartments), and everybody lives happily every after.

There’s more, but it sounds crazier, such as computer games already being installed, climbing your way up the corporate ladder, and such crazy things. I’m embarassed already, thanks a lot.

9

I do not think it is necessary for great minds or even lesser ones to band together on one or two projects. Everyone just needs to keep learning and producing with this great program :smiley: . Coders keep coding, Artists keep creating, and Dreamers keep dreaming. Eventually the “underground” will make its presents known.

10

True, yes. But when having to rent a work ranch, buy heaps of super-powerfull computers, office furnature and supplies, and as well pay people wages, that lottery would make it that much easier to start up.

Nessisary, well… It would be the best way to achive a really high quality short film, and in alot less time. If people with respective tallents combined their neiches, modeling, textureing, character animation. Im pretty decent with modeling, but i suck at texturing. So i know that if i model and animate a really cool sceen and character, and pass it over to BuddyX who is a brilliant texturer, my short would no longer have a poor texture quality and would highten the overall quality to the project. And that is something we want to show to the world, something very cool which has no flaws.

Of course everyone should “just keep learning and producing”. But how long would it take “Bob” to animate a half hour mini-epic all by himself. Pixar or Mainframe or any other animation studio dont consist of people working on their own projects, taking years and years because your the only one doing it. They have huge teams of people in order to do this, and to do it to a level of quality.

Now, for capturing the worlds attention by winning contests and wowing a film festival, we would need this type of quality which could only come from a well organized team. Especailly if your competing agains other team’s animations, which you would be…

So ofcourse, keep blending and making completly solo blender animations, thats what we should do yes. But to combine tallents and skills would only improve the product and the chances of success!!! :wink:

Matt

Blend on, and blend well!!!

11

Well, all these work ranches, super-powerfull computers, offices, office furniture, supplies… etc. can be bought later, after you’ll have hit your big time!!!

In the mean while, you can work from home, get a nice web page of yours to advertise your work, get help from some other “stupid” guys sharing the same dream…

If you wait till you win the lottery, well I’m afraid your dream won’t come true…

If you want it bad, I say go for it… Don’t waste time, waiting for the impossible to happen…

Spyros.

12

Good point :expressionless: .

13

I mean Bapsis has a good point. It would be great to have an awesome Blender film at SIGGRAPH or another CG festival. Maybe there could be a Blender demo reel made up of community submissions. Only the best of course.

14

By no means am i waiting around for the lottery, i dont even buy tickets. I just mentioned that i WOULD do this if i suddenly had the finances to do it with. My point was originally to be, that i would endevour to help Blender succeed before i bough all the frivilous things that most would after winning so much.
And that does not mean i would not try other avenues, of course, im working towards my goals daily with hard work and no money. I will contunue to blend regardless of my financial situation. It was just a comment that IF i had the money, i would do this. And we all KNOW its alot easier to do things if you have the $$$ to back you up.

Thats all i was trying to say, trust me, i dont have my head in the clouds and think winning the lottery would solve all problems, i just know it would make it easier!!! But if my comments like, “what i would do to help the community if…”, are going to get spit on and im told im “unrealistic and dreaming”, then i’ll just keep them to myself.

Matt

Blend on, and blend well!!!

15

OOOPS! :frowning: I did not mean to spit on your dream. I like the “3d Underground” concept. :slight_smile:

16

Bapsis, my apologies if you feel I have missunderstood you… :frowning:

But I wasn’t making any comments on your intention to help the community…

I respect that and if I disagreed with it, I wouldn’t be here in the first place… Cause I feel the same way as you do…

I only wanted to point out that some times, people are not making their move because they think that they need a lot of things, including money, to get started… Well, actually a friend of mine, started as a media designer, the same way I described you and allthough he’s not a millionaire, he’s doing very well right now…

My intention wasn’t to say that you are somekind of a “fool dreamer”… On the contrary, my intention was and is, to encourage you to make the first move… You don’t need much money to start your own business… All you need is a couple of good ideas… The success will come later, depending on your talent and (ofcourse) luck!!! But even if you don’t succeed… Well, it’s not the end of the world!!! You can allways try a second and a third (and a fourth, and a fifth…etc.) time!!! :wink:

Never give up hope…

sinceerely…

Spyros.

P.S.: Ofcourse some money would help a lot… Because, allthough money can’t buy you happiness, you can still rent enough happiness with them… :wink:

17

Well, maybe spit on was a bit of a dramatic exageration!!! :wink:

But, erich you are right as well, for people to be good enough to make a decent contrubution to a team they have to spend many many hours by yourself working hard to learn Blender.

Skontar, the lottery statment was just a side thought, when infact the true focus was on Underground teams binding together, without money of course, and just by doing!!!

It’s all cool guyz, we are all right and there are no “wrongs” when it comes to oppinions, am i right??? :wink:

We all have a strong common interest, and i think everyone should do anything possable to better themselves in this feild and achive the success in 3D they desire through Blender. And in return, that success will also help ensure Blenders success as well!!!

So, everyone, blend as hard as you can by your self and become awesome with Blender. Dont be afraid to work on a small group project if you have the time and determination, after all as many who have tried will tell you, its not an easy thing to do. And most importantly, belive in what you think is possible for you to do with this awesome tool we were given gratus!!!

Everything and anything is possible, and we are ultamatly responsable for what those possibilities will be!!! :wink:

Matt

Blend on, and blend well!!!

18

COUGH COUGH COUGH SUNDANCE COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH CANNES COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH INDIE THEATERS COUGH COUGH

Seriously. We shouldn’t limit it to what we think the limits are. Indie film fans have only seen CG in either it’s roughest form or in the incredible “Waking Life,” made up totally of 2D-over-live-action. If we really want someone to notice it, why not go for those who expect quality in a film rather than cheap thrills or something? We should go for the indie filmgoers, since they probably don’t expect it. Hey, Kevin Smith started out on “Clerks,” and eventually made “Dogma,” a script he wrote before “Clerks” but shelved due to special effects. Richard Linklater started on the apparently-low-budget “Slacker” before making “Waking Life,” as mentioned before. Even George Lucas had trouble getting “Star Wars” released, because nobody thought sci-fi was in.

My point is, well, I don’t really have one. But we need to start somewhere realistic, and the “gutters” of indie-film-world getting a low-quality-CG-but-still-good-film would be better and more “gutsy” than going to Siggraph and showing below-normal-quality CG to people who want high-quality CG.

The more story we want in our films, the more we SHOULDN’T aim for Siggraph. Better to not hype too much and blow everybody’s socks off than to go too far and have everyone disappointed.

19

MY GOD, he is right!

A really good movie, one that makes its mark and gets respect, has nothing to do with technology at all.

Take David Fincher (f’rinstance, just an example) give him an old VHS camera and two microphones that hardly work, throw him in a basement somewhere with a couple of actors, and after a few months he would crawl back out with a great new movie.

To get attention - write a really, really good script, make a storyboard that’s good enough to blow your socks off, and then, as the very last step, make the decision that “well, Blender will be the best tool to make this movie”. And one year later - voila!

And think about this: “Ice Age” - really good movie, happens to be CG, but it could just as well have been an ordinary cel animation - it would still have been a good movie. It’s got a story, well thought-out characters and that squirrel chasing that… um… nut-thingy…
On the other hand you’ve got “Final Fantasy” - incredibly lousy movie, is CG because that was the main purpose of it. I’m sure that a lot of typical Siggraph goers were pretty turned on by it, but those were probably the only ones. Technical excellence - yes, good movie - no, not by any standards.

20

Finding great ideas, talent, motivation is not hard to find around here among Blenderheads. What is hard to find are believers on the outside.
Personally, I live in a basement in many senses of the word. I am sick of being underground.