#Beginner needs help!
5 messages in this thread
TO anybody who can help!!
I am looking to create some animation intros for some windows programs we are
developing for a LARGE corporation. Here is what we would like to do:
1. Using the companies LOGO, we would like to display this logo rotating
along its axis.
2. We would also like to display the "System Name" in a star wars type
fashion. I.E. it starts small and then comes flying out at you as it gets
largers.
3. We would like to be able to compile it into an EXE file OR be able to
run a program that will run the animation for us.
4. The easiest way for us to do this is by using a BMP (we have the logo
already as a BMP). Or at least be able to convert a BMP into the softwares
native format.
Am I asking too much? Will this take a $3000 dollar package to accomplish?
I am not familiar with "GRAPHICS" concepts such as AVI, FLI, etc… so any help
would GREATLY be appreciated.
Thanks,
Steven…
Under Windows, the most likely generic format to deploy an embedded
animation in would be AVI (Video for Windows) since you can ship a
free runtime engine along with your app. MS makes such available and
you can be fairly certain that it will work on current and future
versions of Windows. Are you developing the software so that you can
easily do the integration of the animation or is this an add-on to a
3rd party system? You could contract out the generation of the
animation so that you don't have to invest in the software and more
important the learning curve. <throat clearing…> Someone like…
well um like myself… could turn around a few seconds of flying logo
stuff like that in a couple of days if it is as straight-forward as
you say. The system I most commonly use for 3D animation is
Animation Master from Hash Inc. of Vancouver WA. You can get it for
something just over $700.00 I think. There is the POVRay system much
in evidence up here which can be had for probably the download cost.
I got it in a book. Hmm, it looks like my 12yr old son must have run
off with it. Also there is POLYRAY, another shareware level system.
Overall, I think you will find that your greatest cost is time
invested in learning such systems – even commercial systems which will
cost you more and are easier to learn. Best of luck. Sounds fun.
Sincerely,
Breanna Anderson
Thanks for the response,
What I have is an application that I want to "spruce" up with a nice
little introduction. Thus I want to be able to call it from my
application (Call an exe file perhaps) and let it fly. The AVI file
format sounds interesting (since it comes with a distributable
runtime). What other fairly "cheap" packages use/create this format?
And what would something like this cost if it was to be contracted
out to say…Uhmmm someone like yourself. <G>
Thanks,
Steven…
My per-hour consulting/contracting rates are typically $85/hr.
Rendering time on my Pentium machine is $8.00 per hour. I charge my
consulting rate for active hands on work (modeling, composition,
etc.) and rendering rate for the computer time. Depending on the
complexity of the logo, I would guess no more than 8 hours of
modeling and composition work. Depending on how many seconds of
animation you want and the complexity of the scene, it could take from
a few minutes to over an hour to render each frame at 30 frames per
second of finished animation. I would guess the time would be on the
low side with a simple flying logo. Then there would be a little
time spent informat conversion getting it into a good AVI package.
(I'd probably render to Targa frames and then convert). Rough
estimate: $1000-$1500. Time: 2-4 days.
Sincerely, Breanna Anderson
Please fax me a copy of your logo, I am already working on it. The whole thing
will cost you $500 and will turn it around overnight (if you stick with the
plan you mentioned).
Kouros Moghaddam
TCI Cable
(909) 466-4539
or call me at (909) 466-4545 ext 256