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.Arriving one day before the show, we staged a preview screening for boththe Japanese and American managers.The Americans were effusine withpraise, laughing and slapping Jack and I on the backs with joy.The Japan-ese, a bit more reserved, bowed in unison (we bowed back, of course, a little11It should be noted, that show reels are currently preferred on videotape.The higher thequality, the better, if practical. 02_200505_Avg_ch02 9/5/03 11:27 AM Page 106Chapter 2106deeper to show respect).Both forms of appreciation were equally pleasing,but when the tough NAB audiences occasionally applauded our work,Jack s and my hearts soared like hawks.You ve now had an in-depth view behind the scenes of an animation exe-cuted by a small production company not much different from one youmight one day own or manage.The next chapter examines the kinds of com-puters and peripheral equipment you will need to get started in animationand how your facility will grow as your needs increase. 03_200505_Avg_ch03 9/5/03 11:28 AM Page 107CHAPTER33Investing inthe NecessaryEquipmentCopyright 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Click Here for Terms of Use. 03_200505_Avg_ch03 9/5/03 11:28 AM Page 108Chapter 3108This chapter will show you how to assemble the basic tools of computer ani-mation and how you can increase that toolset as your income grows.Equipment and SoftwareObsolescenceIn the past, animation equipment was too expensive for a beginner to own.It wasn t like today, where you buy a computer for as little as $500 alongwith some software for a few thousand dollars and, whammo, you re in busi-ness.Back in the 1970s when all this got started, you had to buy a whole animation system. Computers like the PC and Mac weren t on the market yet.People didn teven know what computers did! The smart guys, who did know, tooled upsome computers, put some proprietary software on them, and sold them as systems. These systems, such as the Bosch FGS4000 and the DubnerCGB-2, sold for upwards of $250,000! That s a lot of money even today.Just to impress you with how primitive things were back then, it wasconsidered cool if your animation system could handle 256 colors onscreenat one time.Of course, today, you can buy a video card for $50 that throwsmillions of colors on the screen without even trying.Aren t you glad you rean animator today? Actually, in 10 years you ll be old like me and talkingabout how long it took to.Okay, how little equipment can you own to get started as an animator?That s a good way to start off, isn t it? Why spend gazillions on a studio ifyou can start making day-one dollars with no money down.It s possible.Infact, you don t need to own any computers to get started as an animator.Instead you can be a briefcase producer.Rather than having an officefilled with expensive equipment, a briefcase producer has nothing morethan a briefcase.You arrive at a client s office, show your reel, get the job,and then hire subcontractors and rental facilities to do the job.You get thereel, of course, from your internship and entry-level work, done on youremployers computers.You don t think this can work for you?I did it.And I didn t even have to do an internship or work entry level toget my first reel.All I did was convince a few animators that I would getwork for them.They gladly lent me their reels and I simply edited themonto a reel of my own, under my company name, with the appropriate ani-mator s name preceding each batch of borrowed clips.In client presenta-tions, I simply said that I represented a group of talented animators (I did) 03_200505_Avg_ch03 9/5/03 11:28 AM Page 109Investing in the Necessary Equipment109and that I would design the storyboards and make the soundtracks whilethe animators did the pictures.In the first year of being a briefcase animation producer, I grossed about$80,000.Not a huge amount of money, but enough to buy some equipment.As my business grew, I continued to hire the same animators whose workwas on my original reel, but soon I started replacing their clips with my owndesigns.Eventually, I had a reel completely composed of my own creations,and some of it I had actually animated myself.Here I m promoting the same message from Chapter 1, Your First Dayon the Job, selling your own work is the secret to your success.If you can tsell, you will always get a little less for your work than the guy who can sell.Frankly, you may get a lot less.Is that fair? Ask the animators I repre-sented.Without me, they had a lot less work, and some had none.When Ibrought them work they were happy.Without these talented animators, Iwould have found some other talented animators.I hate to tell you this, butit s true: More talent is available out there than jobs.The person who getsthe jobs is king.And it s good to be king.But let s get back to the equipment,because it s all about the toys, right?The only problem with recommending equipment is that by the time thebook gets published, the equipment or the software might be two or threerevisions beyond what I wrote about.I ll quote you brands and even modelshere, and include some pictures too, but only as illustrations of specific con-cepts of design and application [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]