Outsourcing madness

This week I’ve been working on the new safety video animation I’ve been asked to do. It’s a big project which I can’t say much about because of a confidentiality agreement.

Anyway, there’s a lot to do and I’ve decided to try out the outsourcing thing – that is, contracting out some of the 3d animation work on www.elance.com. Basically, Elance lets you put out an advert for any job, get quotes in (I’ve got 5 in the first day) and have the work done and returned to you online.

It sounds like a great system – we’ll see how it works out, but I’ve put out the rigging of four 3d characters. Character rigging is simply taking a 3d model, giving it bones and making sure the right parts of the model move when you bend the arms and legs.

It’s a straightforward enough job if you’re a character animator, but it’s not much fun for me – and having spent a day on it on Thursday and got some unsatisfactory results (the shoulders don’t look quite right, bits of the body bend out of shape when you move the arms, that sort of thing), I’ve put the task out to tender.


First responses look good, and although all look pretty reputable, there’s one offering a very low quote – maybe I’ll go with them, but I’ll have to check carefully because I know myself how long the job should take and… mind you, different countries, exchange rates, etc… you never know…. I’ll update as it goes along.


prehistory
Somebody who contacted me ages ago expressing an interest in the film I want to make about trilobites has got back to me. He’s working for a museum and might want to create some kind of 3d display. This is something I’d love to work on, but it’s another big project (they want a 10 minute animation featuring all the life from an extinct coral reef!) and I’m not sure they’ve got the budget.

I really want to do it though, so I’m busy thinking up ways they could do the project for less money.


I’ve also got word back about the Trex poster. The company has suddenly seen another poster and wants to change direction. Now, a few months ago, I did another poster for them – on human anatomy and after lots of work went into it and lots of changes were made they finally dropped the idea – so I was left getting nothing for my substantial work on the project.

I suppose I should have insisted on some kind of guarantee this time round. Anyway, I’ve told them if they want this degree of change, I’ll have to charge them more. I’ve also said it’ll take longer. I’ve got enough work on now to get me through till mid September…

Forearmed is half an octopus
I also got a call this week from someone wanting an animation of how to assemble a gun. It’s for a ministry of defence training video. Now, I do think we need an army – even though I disagree with most of the things they’re asked to do right now - and I certainly think that army should be well trained. However, this video isn’t just for training – it’s for sales as well – in other words, it’s an arms dealer and I’ve no idea who their other clients are.

While I’m happy to do work for the British army, I’m not quite so happy about doing an animation that will be used to train random gun buyers all around the globe….

I’ve asked them to send me more info, but if I can’t get more safeguards, I’ll have to turn this one down.