An Animator

**Paige6**

This would be a tough one...most people working in 3D computer graphics aren't a jack of all trades (or if they are, the work they put out is either not fast, or not as good as a team could put out)...they typically specialize in one or two areas: modeling, rigging & kinematics, animating, lighting, textures, matte painting, special effects (particles, fluid dynamics, smoke, fire, etc..), motion capture, and the list goes on.

I suppose what we would need depends on what is wanted in the game, and what fits with SOE's ability to offer it up. If all we want is just some new T-shirts or a new color of some clothing...anyone with The Gimp could probably create that stuff and wrap it around a model. But if we want a whole slew of new animations and abilities to go with them...now your talking an entire team of animators including mo-cap people, coders, testers, etc.. yeah it can get hairy. Way more than a single animator can handle.

**Roukan**

I say we all fund Roukan to move to Seattle to become an intern =P

**Paige6**

9mmfu wrote:

Maya was used to produce almost all base art/animations in MxO.

Nice....I'd love to see some of the models rendered out (static image, no animated stuff) with full textures and lighting in Renderman rather than the in-game engine. I'll bet it would be some of the sweetest looking images of MxO stuff you've ever seen. Fire up the render farm and get Roukan to wrangle it!

CrimsonKiller01

Well I can understand the point of view from the SOE team as far as the difficulties at present to get an animator or two. Financial appropriations not withstanding there is also the legalities involved that make it a stickler for them to allow for this to come about.

Why do i get the feeling that these staff meetings in SOE always have them ending up wringing their hands in frustration? In that I can fully empathize with the staff when they see these very good ideas come out from the players and they know that due to technicalities and legalities that it would an uphill battle for it to come about.

Well thats just one side of the coin and I wouldn't even call it that because it's just me guessing at the scenario...but since I come this far...

On the the other side, the Development team has seen some if not all the films made by the players. They do know that the talent is out there, and more to the point the great consensus is that many would help with the animations for virtually nothing. I mean if all the animator would like to see in exchange is some free game time, certainly SOE can see the profit in paying an animator $180 bucks a year in free game time as opposed to $30-$50K a year.

As far as the legal issue, come on SOE, its not like you have to look for Congressional approval to drum out a definitive contract for the animator your hiring. They can make contract up in five minutes and I am more than positive that any player that approaches the job would have no problem signing his or her name on the dotted line for the chance to enhance the game they care about deeply.

The only thing that I would see as a roadblock would be where the actual work would take place. Did the old animators work from home? Or did they have to work at SOE headquarters?Well I am sure those details could be smoothed out with the unique situation SOE would have. Most of the folks here , with the exception of me I'm sure have some pretty impressive rigs that could handle any programs to create animations.

I sincerely think that Rarebit and the rest of the development staff should take this into consideration and look at the positives in this. It seems like a win-win situation.

**Fractor**

After having some experience in animation on 3D Studio Max (on my computer games course) I now understand how difficult it is making animations with all those variables and controls. So I can understand why an existing dev wouldn't be prepared to learn how to do it. They have enough on their plate as it is.