Character Sheet for Barb, used to create "The Journey Begins" Challenge Entry (in this render her eyes are a bit screwed up because I forgot to unhide her irises...hope that doesn't detract too much.)
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Nearly everyone on this board -- if only by virtue of having the wherewithal and initiative to participate in this challenge -- could strive to have a lasting meaningful impact -- spiritually, financially, aesthetically, and so on -- upon the commercial CG community. One important component to such participation would seem to include a firm understanding of the market for our work. There are not many books about the business-side of computer graphics but a lot can be learned by simply listening to earnings report conference calls for Disney and similarly influential companies.
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The cool thing is, we can do this while working...and then really start dreaming: big. Why the heck dream little?? Participants in this challenge are from all over the world -- literally reading through their posts is a journey in itself. At least two participants are from Azerbaijan -- there are only seven million people in Azerbaijan, two of them participate in this Challenge. It would be pretty cool if the next Pixar or Disney feature were to draw upon the idioms, traditions, and perspectives of Azerbaijan rather than Southern California, again and again.
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Also, business persons who may not necessarily even use the tools we rely upon as artists are making decisions about them which dramatically affect our lives. The world can only be better if artists are aware of the decision-making processes behind the production of our tools and the marketing of our work.
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Here are a few links which may be interesting:
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http://investors.autodesk.com/phoen...l-audioArchives
http://corporate.pixar.com/
http://www.marvel.com/company/index...sts_current.php
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/ir/...nference_calls/
http://corporate.disney.go.com/inve...sentations.html
http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/earnings.html
http://www.leapfroginvestor.com/pho...p=irol-calendar
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Hope that is helpfull to everyone stopping by...if you can suggest similar links we can keep a running update.
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