Poser usage in motion gfx (was scorch design)

[Guest igorschmigor]

http://www.scorchdesign.com

 

what can i say, motion graphics and all that, featuring a little 3d and some times some nice effects.

 

EDIT by Firemind: Moved this discussion here because it went beyond the scope of the usual comment is the reels section. Once again wishing for a clone topic function...

[Guest Scorch]

Hi guys, great forum, loads of inspirational stuff.

 

Always good to be talked about I guess, good or bad. I've only been out of college 2 years. Regarding cheap Poser models, all I can say is that you're absolutely right, but I'm no 3D animator, I was asked to do a job that included animated people for Eidos, I wasn't gonna turn it down, so Poser was the quickest thing to learn. It's all about compromise in the commercial arena. I could put loads of my experimental stuff on the site, but it tends to be a turn off for potential clients who can't appreciate it, and I've gotta pay the rent after all. I might create a partner site for this purpose.

 

It would be good if you could let me know specifics on why you thought my site was in the 'chaff' category.

 

cheers

[Guest igorschmigor]

about poser: it isn't that bad, i have seen it on other reels too (just can't remember which ones). The average consumer won't even know what poser is anyway. By the way, poser 3 was free on several magazine CDs and Poser 4 is available for 99 Euros now. Seisaku Kano uses it as a help for creating some great Pin-up illustrations. check this link.

 

About your work: I guess it's hard to compete with some of the sites on this forum. I can't speak for firemind, but what i guess he meant is that on the one hand you might be lacking something individual that gives your work your own fingerprint, you know, that je-ne-sais-quoi and on the other hand some of the 3D stuff just doesn't look that good (yes we're spoilt, a few weeks on cg-talk or cg-chat or whatever make even shrek look like nothing special). I like your lego-figure though, it looks cute how he runs, i also like the fast pace of your reel. When i say you're not among my best links, that's because my best links would have been mk12, unitedbread (currently down) and that kind of stuff. Nothing against you, but those were eye-candy to the fullest. Hard to say what it is exactly that seperates them from you, maybe certain effects, colors, the overall look, i don't know but there sure is a gap. However, i wouldn't have posted your site if i didn't like it.

 

Oh, i almost forgot: hi and welcome

[Guest Scorch]

I guess it's all about experimentation, experience and so on. The thing with my site is that it is for the sole purpose of attracting clients who, very often, are quite design illiterate and would not appreciate stuff for eye candy's sake. Clients need to know a purpose or reason something was designed the way it was. 100% of the work on my site is commercial work, none of it for my own amusement, so compromises will always have to be made.

 

I am often disappointed by the lack of vision that clients display, but they are as ever protective of their brand and what it stands for. With time, I'm sure my confidence to push an idea of which the client is sceptical will become more evident. But right now, I'm trying to carve out a living by giving the clients what they want in the first instance. Eye candy is all well and good, but it doesn't necessarily pay the bills.

 

The 3D stuff on my site wasn't actually done by me, but by a friend of mine from college, a favour really, as he is just getting back into it after a couple of years away. I know some of the stuff looks a bit dated, but there should be some more recent work soon.

 

As is ever the case, your showreel is always one step behind your current work, unless you change it every week!

[Guest igorschmigor]

I haven't made the step into real life yet, currently working on my diploma, but i can imagine what it's like. Of course the clients' needs are the most important thing. Nobody was questioning your talent and i believe you when you say that you got more experimental and more recent stuff. But we were not discussing your skills but wether to post this link or not. Because this is the place to look for eye-candy and people here (me for sure) probably don't care too much about how close you got to the aims that the client formulated in his briefing. Just like the average boring (i'm not saying your work is boring) shampoo commercial might work perfectly by increasing the sales of that product i still wouldn't want to watch it in my spare time. I wish we could all work for music channels.

I sure would like to see what else you're capable of on a noncommercial project. Maybe one day you'll find the time to create some free work and update your site or create a new site for your experimental work. Till then i wish you good luck with your clients.

[Guest firemind]

The thing that irks me about Poser usage is that everyone use the default figures you can spot from a mile away. There are a ton of 3rd party poser models that can be had for little money that would instantly give the project a ton more class. http://www.daz3d.com/

 

I can't get all pretentious about poser usage in general tho, having several friends work in the 3D industry I know the incredible amount of effort and time it costs to model, rig, skin, texture and animate a character, it's just not a viable option for motion graphics artists for most projects.

[Guest Scorch]

Poser is rubbish though, the characters look so static, lifeless. You couldn't create a decent story with them, and even third party models are often unreliable, and not much more lifelike, because the animation system and renderer are stuck in the 1990's.

 

But having said that, clients simply don't know the difference....until they see something better. It always ends up being about budgets in the end, which nearly always compromises what can be done realistically. The ultimate dream for any graphics artist is to be given unlimited time and money and a blank canvas, but until that day, Poser will still be around.

[Guest govinda]

Motion Theory, ESPN surfer-becomes-skateboarder, resolves to tagline saying 'without sports, evolution would just be a theory' (if my swiss-cheese mind remembers right). That's all Poser.

 

At least, so I've been told by a friend-of-a-friend-who-did-it kinda thing.

 

But back to Scorch. Welcome fellow EA E3 salt mine laborer! Nice to hear of a 20th person whose bread is buttered by the knife of the mighty Electronic Arts. What's more, if you keep working on E3 stuff or in-game graphics, you'll find yourself being granted a lot of freedom. They're the best client I've had in maaany years of being a creative of any kind. Okay, the California Fluid Milk Processor Board was pretty open minded (better known as the 'Got Milk' people). Just keep rolling along man, learning from all these links we got here. I've taken to sleeping with my head lying on my upturned monitor as it plays a loop of Blind, MK12, BNS, Starfish, Logan, Lobo, Nakd, Stylewar and V12 reels. It's seeping into my skull like tiny shafts of sunlight into a dank Archangel gulag cell.

[Guest Scorch]

I'm sure EA would be an easy client, but most of the work I've done for them is through a third party production company, who have ideas of their own!

[Guest Scorch]

come to think of it most of the work I've done is through other production company's, so that could explain the rather stilted nature of many of my projects, but that should change over time.

 

Yes the ESPN thing does look pretty cool