CompuServe Messages

Working at a place like Amblin is probably the most fun you can possibly have. The hours are long, the schedules demanding, the workload seamingly impossible, and I love every minute of it. The best part is the freedom given to the artists to develope new and better imagry. Having access to the kind of equipment there is reason enough to want to work. It's unlike anything else I've ever done. I am primarly an animator. The animators job is to convert the storyboard into a finished animation, including setting up the scene, getting the right lighting, camera and vehicle motions, and limited model building. I originally started as a model builder using 3DS, but later switched to another platform to get into the animation end of things. All of our production equipment is desktop based, from 3DS to LightWave, but we're starting to experiment with high-end systems now, although we won't be using them in the foreseable future, as it's still too expensive. It's because of software like 3DS and LightWave that have made seaQuest CG possible. The only drawback to desktop software is that it runs on slow hardware, and lacks some of the more sophisticated features of the higer-end stuff, but for a show like seaQuest, that's generally not a problem. We are not in any way connected with ILM, though. We are strictly an in house facility for Amblin and Universal Television. I wish we had ILM's resources and experience though. It's a great field to get into, and now is a good time to do it. It's very competitive though, and demo reels sent in have to be very well done. Artistic talent is the most important facet of the business though. I saw a picture here on this forum of a Humpback whale, called Whale1.jpg. Very well done, and an excellent example of what can be accomplished when one has talent and knows how to use the tools. If that person reads this I'd like to see some more of that stuff. It's stuff like that that gets people work in this type of industry. Anyway, I hope I've answered your questions here, but if you have more feel free to ask. GT