I may seem a newcomer here but I’ve kept my eye on this forum since the days of elysiun… well before it changed to BlenderArtists. So hello everyone.
This is something I’ve thought about for awhile now. I hope it’s not too long to read it through.
When I discovered Blender all I wanted to do was animate with it. But I struggled to make it that far because I felt the need to master every aspect of Blender. Needless to say – I gave up then. Only recently I noticed what went wrong. I spread myself too wide and too thin. There are people who can master everything and produce beautifully rendered animations all by themselves. I’m not one of them…
As I’ve followed people’s pojects and threads on this forums I’ve come to think about the potential beneath the surface (especially in the light of the open projects like Orange and Peach). We all see what Blender can do when we put in the right people in the right place.
The only difference with Blender and other 3d softwares is ultimately the ”user”. Most people using commercial softwares know that they just need to master few aspect of the software (wether they are keen on rendering, textures, modeling or animating etcetc). In comparison to the other softwares Blender is doing well. It’s becoming a seriously taken rival but it would need a nudge forward. It would need people starting to work on bigger projects together in groups – not alone.
It’s great to have Open Movie Projects.:yes: But Ton doesn’t have to be the only person to drive the community forward in that sense. And he can’t – he can only show the way but it’s up to the Blenderheads to push "their own boulder” over the edge.
I think it is a good Idea. I have been thinking about it myself.
Right now I’m contemplating to give my friends a short film that I’ve made for Christmas.
(Yep. I’m thinking about it as early as now because I know even a one minute film takes a long time to create. )
I was playing with a thought of starting a Christmas thread where I would put some models that I made. And then they would be free for others to use.
Meanwhile the other members of the community could contribute their own models. Or take the existing models and texture them then give back the textures so others can use it also.
Others could rig the characters then give the rigs back for others to use.
And everyone could make their own versions of short films.
Cresk… well you make some sense, but I don’t think you’re suggesting anything?
BTW, there are projects outside the institute happening as well, quite a few actually, there’s no reason to wait for something new to start if you want to join a group of people working on something cool.
Well… I’m not actually suggesting anything yet macouno. Although I do have some ideas but I’m not sure if they are realistic.:eyebrowlift: I just put here some of my thoughts.
As for projects outside the institute - they are very hard to find although I’m aware there may be a lot of them. People don’t generally look for other people from internet - they do the projects with friends or someone they aleady know.
I was talking about the gap between wanting to do and the actual doing part. There’s a lot of learning in Blender if you want to do everything on your own. Before you get to animation part - you’re exhausted. Of course there are ready made rigs - so you can practise animation in Blender. But what happens when you are ready to do a project? If you are on your own and don’t have Blender-user-friends - you will have to start learning the other stuff too. Usually - the projects wither and die before the poor Blenderhead get’s to do what he/she wants. I’ve seen great looking projects that would have been awesome to see… but most of those projects have not gotten as far as making the environment for the animaton and perhaps model one or two characters.
Making an animation is a great task. Perhaps I am actually suggesting something. Put in a project central for Blender-users or a forum in BlenderArtists where one can look for other blender-users to do projects with or help with an excisting one. :yes: Kind of looking for group channel…
