CompuServe Messages

James, I have been following the discourse on the perils and frustrations of learning to use the keyframer. If you have ever used competitor's keyframers, the situation becomes even worse. It seems to be the weakest part of the entire software package. In rel. 3, tremendous improvements were made in any number of areas, but the general crankiness of the keyframer still exists. I say this not as someone who is still wet behind the ears. This is the fifth software (3d-animation) I have worked on, and all the others run circles around 3-d studio. As the author's would remind you, you paid a great deal less money for this software than the competitor's. The only way all of us will have any impact on continuing improvements is to be honest and straight with the powers that be. The Yost Group has indicated that a considerable amount of work is being done to specifically make the keyframer a lot better and I say, the more power to them. Since it is difficult, if not impossible to directly access anyone at Autodesk, this forum does provide any user with the opportunity to express himself on any related subject without fear of reprisal. If you are willing to accept what's given to you and never question authority, what will become of this effort? We certainly don't want to become another Cubicomp do we? A lot of good people got screwed because they were afraid to demand the very best. I do agree with most of the letters insofar as the degree of difficulty in learning to "hurl weird objects through space in an elegant manner". It takes lots of practice and losing your animation, or parts of the model are unfor- tunately part of the deal. Everyone probably needs to inadvertently hit the del *.* key just one time to effectively learn. Swearing at the machine will most likely be seen one day as a very therapeutic release. I try to remind myself, at LEAST once a day…IT'S JUST TELEVISION! I'm not finding world peace or feeding starving children or clothing the homeless. So enjoy it. Michael