Actually, I almost never use AO… I do alot of compositing, but that doesn’t really hurt. What’s really slowing it down, are particle systems with particle counts over 3500… also, subsurf and multires modifiers. Anything requiring memory seriously slows it down… And everything is a chipset or whatever so i cant replace the hardware… I’m getting closer to buying the previously mentioned pc.
I hear you with the low specs. I have an integrated card, lol. Hang in there and sorry to hear to hear of your loss.
EDIT: you can upgrade memory no prob, unless you’re already at capacity with your mobo
Just keep boning up on your skills. If I remember from the last thread where you “lost” you competition. I don’t think you lost because of your computer. More to do with experience and learning what you can do and not do with what you have.
Save your money stop bothering your mom for your cash, save it. Simply work more on your animation and rendering skills with what you have. Work to get so good that your mom does a serious double take and runs to the bank to buy you a new computer.
In general, don’t let money dictate what you do artistically. Just create with what you have first. Let your art skills speak for themselves. In the long run, if you do this with your art endeavors you’ll find you have little trouble getting into a school, getting scholarships, work, money, whatever.
Well… I’m working on several animations, and a laptop is just not cutting it. The screen is pretty big, but it just doesn’t have the kind of power I need. The least little thing, an blender crashes, sometimes renders don’t even start!!! The latest test anim I’ve done for a short called “missile Launch” is only 8 seconds long and took over 3 hours to render. It’s not that complex and nothing is even subsurfed or smoothed.
As for the money, it’s mine. It is mine to spend, and I only buy things i need. I haven’t spent any of it except to buy the laptop i have now, which is running vista. I had a free upgrade to windows 7, but my mom lost the reciete so i coulnt place the order.
My art does speak for itself. Just view some of my other threads to see my work. I’d just like a little better processing power, and the computer I’m tryin to buy has 6 cores, and 8 gb of memory. I make do with what I currentl;y have, but I’d like something better.
This is just a thought, but since Blender can be put on a data stick and run from it, have you tried spending a little time at the library and use theirs till you get a new computer? Do your friends have computers they might be able to let you do some rendering on?
I don’t go to a library, because there isn’t one in my town. I work alot at school, but even still the computers are terrible. My laptop has better hardware than the school pc’s!! My school is dirt poor, and when we get some money, it never goes to the drafting and vocational classes
Look, dude, chill out!
And I have looked at your threads. No, at 15 your art does not speak for itself just yet. Near the end of one of that animation thread, you asked what topology means. You don’t know?
Of course not. Who would expect you to?
And in that thread you are using a prepade character that is for doing animation study and practice. Then you are making some fairly simple props and so on.
And there is nothing wrong with any of this. Especially at your age.
But to claim right now that your art speaks for itself, there is something wrong.
The very first step to learning is knowing you don’t know.
All I am trying to get you to see is that there is so much to learn about this before having to even look at another computer.
I have money, does not mean I spend it if I don’t need to.
My suggestion, is that you concentrate your efforts on learning your craft, the rest will come in time. If you get a new computer, great. That is wonderful. But never never never put equipment before art skill. Equipment is an aid and only that. There is so much for you to learn that does not require spending money.
And this alone is an indicator that there is something wrong with your thinking you need to re-evaluate before moving on as an artist.
That is what I am trying to get you to see, new computer or not.
Now, I hope I can get you to see this information at face value. I should not have to go on and on about the 3 or 4 different skills I have learned to a professional level in my 51 years of life using this philosophy (as well as learning by doing it the wrong way), should I?
Get your new computer. Great. Go for it. Just don’t put it before being an artist. Adjust what you can do with what you have. Not the other way around.
If you do this over the long run, you’ll be 100 times better as an artist. Trust me on that.
Um, who are you to be telling me this? The art posted on these forums isn’t even finished. I haven’t posted any of my really good stuff, and yes my finished projects do speak for themselves. I am not using Pantin, the rigg you mentioned, for the animation. It is for tests only and I am designing and creating a character for it myself. As for topology, no i didn’t know, but I;ve been doing this stuff for a few months only. Still, I know alot about it, and have studied over 1000 different tutorials so far, read Andrew Price’s “The wow factor” (which turns out I already knew most of it) and am improving still.
Youi aren’t getting it about my computer. Sometimes, the renders dont even start, i’ll wait an hour, and it still will be preparing, and that is simple scenes. It isn’t working right at all, and I need a better computer. Do not tell me i dont know what im talking about. I know a lot, more than you think. I don’t need critism about stuff that really doesn’t have anything to do with this thread, and if you don’t like it, then don’t post on this thread. Thank you, goodbye!!
Do not leave comments about my work on here. If you just have to, then do so in the appropriate thread.
Just relax. It will all work out.
All I am saying is in the mean time between now and getting a new computer, chill and work on your skills. If you have to scale back what you are doing then do that.
I am telling you these things because you have mentioned about the trouble you have been having getting the money from your mom. This is not just some thread about a guy wanting to get a new computer. There is obviously more to it. I felt I would like to offer you a fresh solution in the mean time.
Who am I to tell you this? Someone who has been through this thought process and major problem many many times in my life.
The thought process is something I have learned from others who were sucessful. I did not dream it up.
If you can get past your ego and listen, take it face value, the ideas I am giving you you can take with you far into the future.
I am talking to you about your art because it is relevant to the thread. Art is relevant to the tools you use in the manner in which I described.
And I do get it about your computer. Of course I do. I have been there.
You will always always run into stops with equipment. Not just with this computer but with others as well in the future. The solution from an artist perspective should always be scale back first and get out what art you can with what you have.
I have been using computers with 3D animation for almost 20 years!
So in effect if I took your philosophy I’d never have gotten anything done. There will always be faster computers. And greedy artists will always throw more at them. But the good ones, the ones who get stuff done, do so with what they have available first.
This is why your art is relevant to this thread.
That is valuable advice for a 15 year old. Sure you know a lot. But I know much more. I have been there.
Be smart. Listen up. The advice is free. Stuff you don’t get in tutorials and books.
In the end if you chill take my advice, and realize that it is people’s opinions about your art that matter, not your own ideas about it, then you can simply work to improve. Post your best stuff here and lets see it. See if people tell you it is great. If not, keep working at it.
And I am telling you , if you do it in this sequence, your problems will vanish. One day your mom will look at what you’ve been doing and as I said in the first post, run to the bank.
And if you keep on in this fashion - very humbly improving your skills - you’ll go far.
That is advice you can take to the bank, and it is free.
As far as this being “your thread” granted, OK. But this is an open forum. You are not the only one to benefit from this. If you do or not it is your choice. But don’t be so closed minded as to tell an old codger like me with good sound advice to buzz off , because, well that is not going to work, and I’ll just restate it again anyway. lol
At least the next guy might get something from it.
hey
may be you don’t have latest laptop with graphics and video card. I was having the same problem, while handling a larger graphics file (greater then 60-70 mb) , It took an hour to open , then many hours to work, and an hour to save that again. I just wonder how could I manage that mess 
Now I have a newer laptop, I am not having any problem now. 
Ok, fine… I’ll post some of my better stuff. As for tutorials and books, I have to use them, as well as advice. I do not have access to formal teaching in the 3d animation field. All my school offers is drafting, which focuses on autocad. I am completly self-taught, and I’m still learning. I don’t want a new computer simply because I’m impatient and want it done now, but I rushed into buying my current laptop, and didnt make sure it was what i needed. I’ve researche this new computer I want, and have really seen how it could help.
I don’t think I’ve been entirely clear. I’m not saying I hate what I have and cannot get anything done. I make do with what I have, and have turned out some good stuff. But I’m working with very limited resources, seeing as I don’t have the money to spend on hardly anything. I have to save every bit I get so I have money for collage. The computer is so I can better my skills, and just add something to my resources. The coputer I had before this one I have now broke, and I couldn’t even use a computer at home for a year. So when I got money to buy a new one, I went out and bought the first one I found.
I’m sorry I was a bit rude… I have a short temper and don’t take critism well. I need to learn the difference between critique and critism.
As for my mom being impressed by what I’ve done, She is. She is very happy with what I’ve done, but she doesn’t think it will last. I go through times where I get to liking something and then I dont stick with it, but 3d modeling is different.
I appreciate your help, and feel free to post whatever you want.
Here’s a link to an album of mine, and also a link to my website. You can see some of my stuff there, and I still have alot of stuff I haven’t posted online.
http://www.3dmd.net/gallery/thumbnails-221.html
I find this one hilarious, because it’s called “light it up” and it’s so dark you can’t see a thing 
and I 100% agree with R. Culver.
the quality of the art depends at least 95% on the artist, not the tools. (unless you’re trying to do photorealism with anim8or or something crappy like that)
very nice forum i like this but i will take part in discussion my next post.
It is funky you don´t even consider your long render times may be due to your lack of experience and technical expertice. If a render takes forever to start there are like a gazillion settings that could be wrong for instance.
Or maybe your system is messed up.
But why understand the underlaying tech, or even try to fix or improve 
Best is to buy a new computer… lol
And if your projects are that complex a faster machine helps you nothing, then you need a renderfarm.
If I where you at first I´d post one of your blends that isn´t suspected to work or renders forever and let someone with more experience look at it, or post comparison times on the render.
You really want to spend a grand or so without ony hard facts?
Oh, and 100% agree with Richard =)
Although his 20 years of experice get nullified with gnomes age, so it takes appr. 5 more years for him to see valuable advice where given… adolescense is a b***h… we´ve all been there at one point.
Um… I understand how everything works. I’m quite capable of making things that are both good, and simple. Not many of my scenes are complex at all, but they just don’t render correctly. Even when I’m not doing any 3d modeling, the computer still runs slow. I’d like to play a videogame once in awhile, but my computer lags like crazy. I’m able to render some things just fine, and sometimes it doesn’t work at all. Many times, Blender either freezes up, or just doesn’t work. I’m not saying that I’m going to blow a lot of money on stuff I don’t need. If I buy a computer, I won’t be buying anything for a long time. And I’ll keep the laptop, and use it for less memory consuming tasks. I think I only have like less than 4 gb of memory. The laptop itself only has a little over 200 gb of hardrive space.
I admit that I dont know half of what Richard knows. He has many many years of experiance, and I already posted and said I’m sorry for snapping at him like that. But I don’t think people take me seriously when I say I know what I’m doing. I know that I can’t do everything, but I have no access to any sort of teaching, seeing as my school doesn’t teach 3d modeling and animation. I get work done in drafting, but I’m having to teach my teacher about animation.
I cannot post hardly any of my blend files, because there are too many. In just one folder, which contains about a third of my belnder files, thereare 130 items. I have many more randomly placed in different folders.
PLEASE, CAN WE JUST GET BACK TO WAYS TO CUT DOWN ON MY RENDER TIMES!!! Constantly telling me that I’m not experianced. This will get me nowhere and will not help me improve.
After you stated that my scene contradicted the films name, I went back and rerendered it, adding more lights and fixing it up a bit. This time, however, I decided I’d render it in Blender 2.5 and was pleasantly surprised. Instead of taking several hours to render, it didn’t even take 5 minutes. This is a very complex scene in which almost everything is subsurfed 3 times, yet it still only took about 2 minutes to render.
I still will be buying a new computer, but for competition purposes only. I was not remotly compared for the competition that made me realize I needed better hardware. I was using 2 laptops where as one team had 2 six core decked out alienware computers, and were done in less than an hour. We had 4 hours to complete the competition and I produced a really bad scene after just barely finishing.
I’m going to wait a bit on buying a new pc, seeing as I don’t need it as much. But I still need a better computer at some point.
Well, OK apology accepted by the way. Yeah, I can see you are coming along. It can be frustrating at this stage. But I think all people are saying is post one blend file you are having trouble with, and they can help sort it out. And knowing a lot is good. I am sure you do. Just remember that there are always things to learn and shortening render times may be one area you need work on. I never stop learning and am completely humbled often here by things I never thought of - even in areas I had researched and thought I new well in Blender.
One example when I was your age about 16, I was. I started drum lessons and the first day the teacher was telling me his ideas about what our goal was going to be and where we would start and how much better I’d be in the end. I had been playing self-taught for 2 years before that and I thought I was pretty good. I was. I felt the need to show him all of the things I could do already. I did. He was patient with me.
Then we started in on the lessons. I studied with him for about 3 years. In the beginning we were doing things so seemingly assinine compared to what I was able to do already. But I was also learning to read, and I trusted him. In the time I studied he basically eventually untought most of what I taught myself, and replaced it with good solid technique. It took a long time and many many dedicated hours on my part to implement the various things including a brand new way to hold the sticks and the motion of my arm and wrist through the strokes.
In the end I came out a professional. In the beginning I was but a cocky amateur with potential talent. But thankfully I did suck it up, even though I thought I new so much, and trust him and learn.
It can be hard. But that is what you have to do even though you do know a lot. You do. Give yourself a pat on the back. But now you are at the stage where good practical advice may replace things you learned on your own. Some of the things you learned may be right and correct. Others may just be assumptions.
This is the place to get the help you can’t get at school. Many people willing to help you, if you open up to the idea yo still have a lot to learn.
Good luck.
Come on!!! Why’d you mention drum lessons?! I couldn’t stand someone teaching me that either!! Ha… I play drums eh sorta… But i get what your saying. Any help will be appreceated. Right now ive taken a break, so i can hav some fun…, mostly random video chatting, and me being weird to flip out strangers. In a few days im going on vacation with my family, so i wont get much done…
By the way Richard… Wat is your profile picture? I cant figure it out…
