While I typically am unhappy with the work I do, this one suffered mostly from technical implosions. So without bemoaning months of trying to re-animate things and start from scratch, I pulled the plug on where I left it.
The issues begin and end with Maya’s handling of the rigs. It was crashing since I started it. Toward the end, I couldn’t even get in to adjust the hand motions, tighten up the general animation splining and the lip-syncing is way off. At this time, every time I open any of the same files, keyframes get ‘referenced’ and greyed out. Can’t access them. Then, out of nowhere, they unfreeze randomly. It’s a mess. So, accepted my losses and wrapped it up.
Now, the version I’ve uploaded is pretty much a behind-the-scenes segmented video to kind of distract from the glaring flaws.
Let me say this with absolute honesty. This is why I do NOT pay for software. From what I understand, ‘Maya crashing’ is par for the course. So, imagine me shelling out $2k or $300-a-month in some subscription only to have it consistently crash. What’s happening, more than likely, is the user is paying that kind of money for technical support and/or the ability to just re-download a fresh copy with the ongoing patches that are endless. When you’re a big studio using Maya, if you shit isn’t customized, you’re paying millions in licenses and, once again, quick access to technical support. I feel Maya’s revenue flow is built around failure you’re paying to fix.
So, no. I can’t hate on people getting bootleg copies to just play around with or build a resume. Not at all.
This leads me back to Blender. Now that I’ve shot my shot trying to hammer through Maya, and watching it crash even as we speak, I’ll spend the rest of the holiday season working through Blender.
