I’m working on The Two Crowns vision animation first before i tackle the full-length book movie. The storyboard i completed 2 days ago, and the material/prop list i completed yesterday. Now what? The audio? I’m still not sure what software i should use for the main working of the movie. The software i learned (Bryce) is mostly for terrains or space shots. I’m trying to learn Daz Studio, and hoping soon to get my book with the free Hexagon and Carrara 6 software included. Hopefully Carrara will do the job.

The reason i came here there has very little to do with hardware, and mostly to do with finding people who will work the software. India is famous in the computer world for having 3d animators, and i know that there are many SDA young people who have a hard time finding a job, so thot it would be relatively easy to find some to start a little training school, then do this project, then they could support themselves with this skill, or they could start their own training center to spread these skills, especially using this skill to spread the Three Angels’ Messages.

While a couple of people have shown a bit of interest, no one has shown a lot of interest. Two months have gone by. Just today i realized that i am past the “disappointed” stage now, and am in the “acceptance” stage. In a way that is good, and in a way bad. I’m happy in every situation, which God says to do, but then i’m losing interest in this animation too, and just living day to day. I enjoy very much homeschooling 2 children, but there must be a greater good i can do for the cause of Jesus Christ….isn’t there?

India is more difficult on the psyche than i had imagined. My memories of the horrid time i had here in 1998 have mostly faded, and i had an interesting time in 2006. I even gained weight that time! But this time the water doesn’t like my intestinal microbes, and i’ve gotten ill twice, and have churning nearly always, and the knowledge of the police killing some people just to get rewards for killing “terrorists”, and the fact that the lady in the building i’m staying in got hit by a motorbike and died just a 1/2 mile from here, and another man got hit by a motorbike and got his leg broken recently, and the open idol worshipping with the story of the angry young men among them last year who came to my friend’s apt building intending to kill someone last year and the constant noise and smell and filth, it is all enough for me to say “You win India, i lose. Let me out”. But again, not my will, but yours be done Lord.

So my thinking now is — to maybe go somewhere where i can find 2-4 young SDA people who are interested in learning 3d software to use for the glory of God, and who would be willing to work for around 200usd/month at first, until they get producing material, when i could probably pay up to 300/month. I haven’t had any income except for a few donations for 1 1/2 years now, but am very willing to use up my remaining savings to realize this movie. While i’m working to make this movie, i would be very happy to be of service to the surrounding people - by working at an English language school 3 or 4 hours a day for example, and being of help to the church. I really believe this idea could work in SE Asia, and in fact, what made me think of this, is that a friend in the country of Georgia has expressed an interest in doing this very thing.

I had read enough to be absolutely convinced that if done in a proper manner, to give glory to God, that making a movie of this book could be a great way to spread the words in it, thus giving God glory. So i had already decided to try and find friends in India, where there are many animators and who will work for less than astronomical rates, to help, and i would go physically and work on it myself.

Well, i came to India 4 weeks ago, and the main man whose family i am staying with, and who was a bit reluctant about helping very much in this project over the 3 years that i have known him, opened up Child Guidance, and read the following quote which greatly strengthened my conviction that this movie idea is definitely from God:

God commanded the Hebrews to teach their children His requirements, and to make them acquainted with all His dealings with their people. The home and the school were one. In the place of stranger lips, the loving hearts of the father and mother were to give instruction to their children. Thoughts of God were associated with all the events of daily life in the home dwelling. The mighty works of God in the deliverance of His people were recounted with eloquence and reverential awe. The great truths of God’s providence and of the future life were impressed on the young mind. It became acquainted with the true, the good, the beautiful.

By the use of figures and symbols the lessons given were illustrated, and thus more firmly fixed in the memory. Through this
animated imagery
the child was, almost from infancy, initiated into the mysteries, the wisdom, and the hopes of his fathers, and guided in a way of thinking and feeling and anticipating, that reached beyond things seen and transitory, to the unseen and eternal.

Main pics of work i made is here: http://tinyurl.com/legvov

Here are a couple of examples:

first artwork i ever did

intermediate lesson #5 ship on water

First of all: I’m well-versed in computers, and absolutely zero in graphical ability. I have used Paint Shop Pro for a few years, but am not good in using it. I can follow directions very well, but am not so good at grasping things i have never thot of before.

To me, this Robinwood tutorial is very well-done, but made for someone who is already well-versed in graphical terms and concepts. For someone used to painting with some computer program, the points, especially about drawing, would probably not be a problem.

Questions:

1. The hardest things i’ve found to do easily is to get the right camera scene i want, to point lights and cameras, and to select objects. These are very basic, and i wonder if anyone else has problems with these? To be more specific, often i want to have the camera a little bit above the object looking down at about a 45 angle, but often cannot get the camera to that position. Sometimes only “freehand” is available for use, and if i make a quick move, i’ve lost my scene forever. And to select objects, sometimes i find it impossible, even with using the “select all of type” controls at the bottom of the screen. Isn’t there some way to see a list of all objects available for selection, and just select what you want easily? In doing these lessons, many times i selected all, then get royally confused as the perspective camera got selected and materiallized etc. etc. - ha! Lights aren’t quite as bad as handling cameras, but how to point them exactly at what you want, like just the stern of a boat? Use nulls? And to perfectly line up something, it takes a long time of flipping thru all the camera views to get it done (if you don’t want to align).

2. The preset lighting is not very good. I want to see the colors (normally) on new objects i put into a scene, but because of poor preset lighting, sometimes the whole thing is in the shadow, and thus, black. So now i spend quite some time setting the sun’s angle just right in the SKY&FOG palette to make the colors come alive, but still it is not too good. (Note, after completing tut, i set my defaults quite differently than what the originals were. Why set the factory default so everything is mostly black?)

3. I have a terrible time getting the night sky to display showing stars. I’ve followed instructions from several tutorials, and have managed to get it once, but it should be very easy to do.
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In animation:
1. In doing the butterfly animation in intermediate lesson 1, my butterfly gets attached to the path heading backwards. It seems like it should be easy to disattach him from the path, orient correctly, and then attach him again, but even in doing that, it reverts right back to starting off heading backwards.

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