INTERVIEW: Community Interview of Roland Hess (harkyman) What was the most difficult part in putting this book together? The hardest part of writing this book was deciding what not to include. In a short animation project, every single part of the process is crucial to a successful outcome, so I wanted to include everything, including the kitchen sink. However, I had a pretty strict target size for the book from the publisher, so I couldn't just write the animation tutorial equivalent of War and Peace either. In the end, I think I came up with a good mix of the essential material, some great tricks and some cool ways of working. The one thing that definitely had to go, though, were detailed step-by-step instructions for many of the more basic operations. This book is not for Blender newcomers. However, if you've mastered the material in The Essential Blender, you'll be fine. By the way, if you've watched The Beast, you know that the kitchen sink stayed in! Can one special order an autographed copy?
obviously)! Just include a nice note to them about how you loved their book, and they will usually be more than happy to inscribe the bookplate and return it to you. It only takes them a second. Make sure you include enough return postage on the enclosed envelope. What is the greatest change to your Blender work flow (and creative work flow in general) resulting from completing this project? I will certainly spend more time on my project with rig testing. I mention in the after word of the book that I broke my own rules several times during production, and this was one of them. The rigs for the dogs were pathetically basic, and ended up being more of a hindrance than a help. I was fighting them, and didn't realize their inadequacies until it was way too late. I think that I had just given them a preliminary rig, expecting to come back to it later, but didn't. By the time I understood the damage I had done, I had too many hours into animating them, and too little time left with working on the book and other projects to revisit it. I had to make the best of it.
You can't order one directly from the publisher, but I won't be averse to trying to make it happen through other channels. If you want an actual signed copy, you can contact me directly at So, I work my rigs harder now. I was mostly a bareanimation@harkyman.com. However, one thing bones/get-the-job-done rigger, but I'm starting to that I've seen other authors do is to ask people to appreciate the benefits of more complex setups. send a bookplate along with a self addressed How is animating in blender different from animating in stamped envelope. A bookplate is an adhesiveother packages? backed sheet that usually has some sort of scrollwork or fancy border on it, often with a notice The only other ways I've animated have been stopsuch as “From the library of...” inscribed as well. motion and hand-drawn, so I really can't say. It's Then, the author writes something nice on the certainly more efficient than either of those methbookplate, returns it in the provided envelope, and ods! the book owner affixes it to the inside front cover. Not quite the same thing, but it's easy and very What are the most important things when learning aniinexpensive for everyone involved. If you're intermation? ested, contact me at the above email address, and I'll tell you where to send it. I think that the most important thing, and you'll hear this from anyone involved in teaching the The cool thing about bookplates are that they will arts, is the ability to hone your observational skills. often work for any of your favorite authors (living, Our memories of motion are imperfect – our brain
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Issue 18 | Sep 2008 - Landscapes, Environments & Sets
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