@Mike:

No prob about the recommendation. I'm keeping score, btw. ;)

@farbtopf:

I think it's good to learn some traditional animation before diving into 3D animation. In fact, every professional animator that I know has had at least a little bit of experience with some form of traditional animation, whether it be hand-drawn or stop-motion. If anything, it gives you a chance to practice those drawing skills that many people seem to neglect nowadays.

Mostly, with traditional animation, you can focus on learning timing, posing, and all those great principles of animation without having to learn the intricacies of 3D animation software at the same time. I know it really helped me. By the time I started to learn 3D animation, I already understood animation, so all I had to learn was the 3D part.

Working in Catia in the Aerospace Industry designing Tooling etc in 3D, but I would rather work with Maya ;)

how do you track down local 3d game companys or any thing gerneraly in the comerical art world?


there dont go to the local job centre - they just want to put you in a factory or supermarket

Papers even posh papers seem to rarely have postions and if they do they want 2-3 years experiance! and several programs which is though when still getting to gripswith one..

so how do you get around these hicups?

do you lie about experiance is 3 years learning at univeristy experiance?

how do you sell your enthusiaum to the subject at an interview and erm.. what makes a great portfoilo

phew lots of questions!


P.s im from manchester uk 2nd year at uni doing animation illustration hugely indept so difficult to leave my deadend job desperatly seeking any experiances for summer!

most studios post job ads at their websites.

www.gamasutra.com
www.gamejobs.com

and other sites like that also have a lot of job ads for the gaming industry.

If your portfolio is good and shows good potential, it'll usually score you an interview if nothing else. But you can be the most enthusiastic person in the world, but you have to show you can do the work they need done.

Working in the aerospace industry as a CATIA v5 instructor.

just started with maya. The more I get to know it, the more I like it.. maybe one day I'll prefer it over CATIA ;)

I'm from the Netherlands btw..

Wow another Catia V5 user :) Who do you work for?

I Work for Boeing.

Cheers
Paul

wow! boeing, nice.. put in a good word for me over there ;)

Im working for a company called GATE Aerospace.

I developed a CATIA v5 design workshop which I am now instructing to all kinds of aerospace designers.

I'm doing a practicel in a 3D companie for the moment...

No Probs man I'll put in a good word for you.

Just checked out your Catia Workshop site, looks good.

As much as I like Catia, I really like the freedom in Maya as specially the rendering and animation! But they are both Great in there own way.

Have you moved models between Maya and Catia before?

Cheers
Paul

Man, I wish one of you aerospace cats could hook me up with a 3D gig at Lockheed in Pensacola...I'd love to move out of NYC and back to FL.

No, I have never tried that. Is it possible without a conversion program?

thanks,
Djon

Well I was under the impression that Maya 7.0 could import Catia Models. I haven't tried it yet, as I'm still on Maya 6.0 (need a few extra $$ before I can upgrade) :)

I am going to the Digital Media Festival here in Melbourne next week. Concentric will be there (Distributor of Maya and Catia in Australia), I will ask them exactly how its done.

Cheers
Paul

I work as a freelance illustrator with 15 years exp in 2d and 5 years in 3d. I own my own company and most of my work comes from old clients built up over the years.
Cheers

What qualifications do u guys have and what colleges/unis ect did u go to get them.

I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon in the US. I focused my work on graphic design, video production, and stop-motion animation. There wasn't much in the way of advanced 3D courses when I was in school, so I had to do nearly all of my 3D learning on my own time. This ended being a good thing for me, because I learned how to read the f-ing manual and look stuff up on the internet. ;)