donvlatko: I know exactly what you're talking about. But my problem is that I don't have anything in b&w to show to a 3d/vfx employer which I wished to work for. Even worse, I do not have any contacts on the business :(

I believe I have the basics of every area required for at least an entry level position at a 3d/vfx company: But to prove that is a totally different story. What makes my situation even worse is that the 3d/vfx business here in Finland is almost non-existent.

I almost founded my own company with a friend but when the time was actually get the loans and start working, he cancelled the whole thing :(

Now I'm kind of jammed. I have to continue on my current job to get my daily bread and it takes too much of my time to make any real progress on the 3d/vfx side.

I guess my only chance is to do an impressive enough demo-reel and hope the best. I just wish there were 48 hours in a day :)

kbrown: I know exactly how you feel...
Are you interested in game industry? I know that a lot of big guys when they
finish the work on some project go to work on some game....
What you can do is just as you say to made good demo-reel. But, the problem in making
a good demo reel is time, it is so hard to make your self to work on something for 6 months.....
And the 24 hours is so little, and if you have girlfriend:)...forgot on making a demo-reel....
It's the same in Yugoslavia with 3d/vfx!!!!!!!
I know how you feel when you have a job but you would like to make something....I am working on
game, but when ever I have a time I study and read something,it is so hard to keep the step in animation
today!!!

Thing is age isn't quite so bad. I mean when you are my age you have had a lot of time sub consciously watching,observing and recording things in your head, and you know instinctively when something is right. I used to to weight-kifting in my early years and studying allthe muscle groups helps tremendously with anatomy.

I also feel that having the ability to draw and being artistic helps tremendously for modelling, texturing and animating - if don't have this ability then it doesn't help unless you want to do lighting, rendering, scripting and being a technical director. TD's I think are usually both artistic and technical so it's a hard discipline.

Now for the book list that was recomended to me at the DAW: The illusion of life and The animator's survival handbook - these are not computer based. Computer ones are: Digital Character Animation 1&2, Digital Texturing and Painting, Digital Lighting and Rendering these are but a few I could go on.

Anyway, whilst prowling arund Otakar's the other day I discovered a new range of books dedicated to Maya: Inspired 3D Character Animation, Inspired 3D Character Setup, Inspired 3D Modelling and Texture Mapping all published by me... No! not really - but I nearly had ya going - Premiere Press. On first flick through they all seem more suited to intermediates wanting no know a little more but not pure beginners. There you go another useful tip from Mr Mataz.

Everyone's talking about reels well here are two examples of reels that got people jobs in the profession.

Captain Phil McNally's 'Pump Action' which took him 14 months to do using C4D 5.3 (Not the worlds best character animation package). http://www.maxon.de/index_e.html go to the gallery section and click CINEstars, I don't think the movie is available anymore but there are pictures. Or try this: http://www.adobe.co.uk/motion/featur...tion/main.html

'Alien Song' by Victor Navone using Animation Master which took him a few months. http://www.hash.com/users/navone/HTML/Index.htm

So rob a bank and use the money to take time off work to make your reel. When the police catch you you'll be earning so much money you be able to pay it all back... hmmmmm!

Alternatively just win the lottery and start your own studio. Joking aside it should give you and idea of the things that studios look for.

hey im 14 i got maya 2 wks ago and alredy just hangin on dis site everyday i can see wat its going to take i spend most after school time on maya just reading everything i can+ i also got a programming schloarship so im hoping if i can handle mel + all the concepts i might make it
i here what you guys are saying about starting early and im with you i dont think i could've started earlier then it would be just stupid but i can figure out things pretty well so i started early + i hope to crack a job someday

moocow - Are you sure that Pixar made Photoshop? I think that Photoshop was Adobe's original brainchild.

I assume most of you have seen this, but since people are debating it, I thought you might need a refresher.

From:

http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/jobs/faq.html

What animation software do you use and what do you recommend to those hoping to work for a company like Pixar in the future?

Pixar uses its own proprietary software called Marionette, built and maintained in-house.

Here are thoughts about getting into Pixar and what they look for:

"In general, at Pixar we look for broad artistic and technical skills, rather than ability to run one package or another. We concentrate on finding people with breadth, depth, communication skills and the ability to collaborate. If you have those attributes, we can teach you the tools."

Here is a look at what Pixar is hiring for now to give you an idea:

http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/jobs/openings.html

Sorry folks, a little bit o' PS history here:

The original program "Liquify" that we now know as "Photoshop", was originally written by John Knoll (VFX supervisor at ILM) and his brother Thomas Knoll for the 2d "liquid" textures on the Psudopod creature for the movie "The Abyss".

It only had 4 features to start with:
- Polar Coordinates
- Lens Flare (now part of the aptly titled "Knoll Lens Flare" plugin available for most 2d compositing apps.
- Invert
- Twirl

Thomas Knoll is still listed on the Photoshop start-up screen.
He's the first name if you look closely:)

Ironicly, Adobe recently added a "Liquify" feature to PS, that has nothing to do with the first program name. Weird.

John Knoll still writes a LOT of ILM plugins for "CARY", short for Caricature, ILM's proprietary character animation software.
Which, btw, is, in itself, a plugin for Maya and Softimage.

Just thought I would pass that info along.

...end of history lesson for today:)