Tech Art, University, a Degree and a Little Help

[Wuffles]

Hey hey tech-artists.org,

This is my first post so please be gentle! I know my title is a little ambiguous, but I’m hoping to pick up a little interest! I’m a 4th year student at Abertay University in Scotland, studying my last year in BA(Hons) Computer Arts (degrees are 4 years here!).

As it is my honours year, and I am completing a university degree and not an appreticeship (which is both awesome and a bit annoying at times), I’ve been asked to take on a project, set by myself, to earn my degree and beef up my portfolio. This project is half dissertation and half portfolio - so it’s a struggle to keep my artistic skills and academic skills going equally. Personally, I’m more inclined to learn and DO, rather than study and write - but if I want my degree I will have to comply! Haha!

Right, let’s get to the point. I only discovered that I really enjoyed rigging when I was introduced to it last year, around this time and since then I’ve made it my goal to break into the the creative industries (preferably games but I’ll get to that later) and become a TA. So, to help me get there I decided integrate learning about the wonderful, confusing and often vague world of what it is like to be a Tech Artist through my honours project.

Since then, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of a ride, trying to defend to my uni that tech art IS an artist’s job and therefore my project is justified and able to earn me my degree. I’m actually looking into many things, but it is only recently that I focused my around the question:

“In regards to the field of technical art: what skills can affect the creation of their work and how might these skills be applied to further the development of the discipline?”

Now, it’s a lot more than that and even now I don’t think this matches what I truly want my project to encompass.

However, imagine my surprise when I discovered very little academic papers published on tech art. I listened to the tech-art bootcamp, and have read bit and bobs of books like Beyond Productivity: Information, Technology, Innovation and Creation - but I’ve had a lot of trouble trying to put my finger down on what make a tech artist a good one.

Eventually, I broke it down into three skills. Since you guys out there are the interdisciplinary skill between programming/engineering and art (which is something I’ve straddled myself through my university career), I wanted to judge the art a tech artist creates by judging their artististic creativity (not JUST creativity cause that opens a whole can of worms!), their problem-solving and logic/analytical skills (the programming side) and their comminication and integrative skills (how they comminicate across the disciplines and cater their work to their “users”).

I’ve been working on building my hard skills too, by reading lots of books like Art of Rigging and Body Language: Advanced Character Rigging and by starting to learn Python, but found MELScript to be a lot more accessable and directly applicable to the work for someone who’s never programmed or scripted!

I’ve done some research into all these areas, as it’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve came to these conclusions. However I want to turn to you people out there, the experts - on your opinions!

First of all, do you think this is a valid and worthwhile research project? I know TA is hard to define a lot of the time, but do you think it’s fair to judge it under these criteria? Is there more to the art? Am I missing the mark?

I’ve noticed that even though the terms (technical director, rigging artist, technical animator, etc…) are varied in job adverts and such, they almost always want someone with an art’s background. Most of the talks I’ve heard about tech art is building code, and even a lot of it is scripting! Why do you think this is? A few of the books and sources I’ve read suggest it’s because the arts are more open by their very nature to new ideas and methods of creating their work! What do you think? How many of you out there are artist’s turned TA, and how many are from a programming background?

Do you think that TA should be considered it’s own discipline, away from being defined as “that place between programming and art”? Do you think that TAs need programmer and art to create/solve/aid by the very nature of the role and that opinion while always remain (for a reason)?

What is the divide in tech between games and production (film/tv/advertising)? Is there a divide? I seem to have come to the conclusion that games is a lot more pipeline and tools orientated, while film seems to have a lot more room for character TDS and such. What’s your opinion? Is this wrong?

What do you think the future of tech art is? Will games and production come together? Will it become its own distinct discipline? Will university embrace the role? (I know some unis already do, like Northwestern University). My uni often finds it difficult to justify my project as an art’s project, so I’ve been asked to make it seem like the TA is mainly an artist’s role. Do you think this is wrong?

It’s a little bit difficult to get opinions on tech art out there - or perhaps I’m looking at it in the wrong way and been looking for it in the wrong places. Is there any really obvious things about tech art I might have missed? I’m so worried I’m going about it all wrong as I’ve just started!

As part of my research, I am going to conduct an interview on a technical art and their work, but I’m really unsure what kind of questions I might ask. Is anything I’ve said ringing true or making sense?

It’s taken me quite a while to build up the courage and talk about my ideas here, as I wanted to get it as right as I could before I really asked you guys some questions. Wouldn’t want to be seen as ignorant! If anyone would like to see my draft proposal I’d be happy to oblige! I’m really just coming out here for a little bit of direction and help as I’ve feel I’ve looked into it a lot - but haven’t had the chance to ask someone who really knows their job about whether I’m going about this in the right way!

Thanks all who have read this far! I hope my project interests you enough to write me a response! I’ll of course be visiting this site frequently anyway (it’s in my toolbar- hard to avoid, haha!), but if anyone DOES want to contact me privately about anything I’ve said here they can do so at my email address: contactATsophiebrennan.com

Any help you guys contribute will be greatly appreciated! I really respect what TAs do and I hope that once I finish my degree, I’ll be able to get a job out there doing what you guys do, as I feel like I’ve finally found a niche I can really relate to and love.

Thanks again,

Sophie.

[ankitgajjar456]

I was doing BCA (Bachelor Of Computer Application) from some open university but the university was not so good and with BCA i was also doing Rigging And Animation.
So as my university mentor were not so good in there job, i decided to left BCA and focus in Rigging.
In India there are lost of institute for 3D artists like ( Modelers, Rigger,Animators ) but No one knows what does it takes to be a Rigging Artist, they think one rigging a character with some ik/fk ctrl is rigging and writing script for ik/fk is all that a rigger needs.
but Rigging is much more as animation
there are lost of Animator who do lost of research for making a good animation and Rigger help them by doing there work.
I really want to be a good rigger and i am trying to learn Mel,Python, and C lag.
I also dont know much about tech artist but i really have intrust in scripting and rigging.
An because i love studying scripts, it feels that rigging is some i can do more better then anything.
and best of luck for your interview on a technical artist.

[QUOTE=Wuffles;13390]Hey hey tech-artists.org,

This is my first post so please be gentle! I know my title is a little ambiguous, but I’m hoping to pick up a little interest! I’m a 4th year student at Abertay University in Scotland, studying my last year in BA(Hons) Computer Arts (degrees are 4 years here!).

As it is my honours year, and I am completing a university degree and not an appreticeship (which is both awesome and a bit annoying at times), I’ve been asked to take on a project, set by myself, to earn my degree and beef up my portfolio. This project is half dissertation and half portfolio - so it’s a struggle to keep my artistic skills and academic skills going equally. Personally, I’m more inclined to learn and DO, rather than study and write - but if I want my degree I will have to comply! Haha!

Right, let’s get to the point. I only discovered that I really enjoyed rigging when I was introduced to it last year, around this time and since then I’ve made it my goal to break into the the creative industries (preferably games but I’ll get to that later) and become a TA. So, to help me get there I decided integrate learning about the wonderful, confusing and often vague world of what it is like to be a Tech Artist through my honours project.

Since then, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of a ride, trying to defend to my uni that tech art IS an artist’s job and therefore my project is justified and able to earn me my degree. I’m actually looking into many things, but it is only recently that I focused my around the question:

“In regards to the field of technical art: what skills can affect the creation of their work and how might these skills be applied to further the development of the discipline?”

Now, it’s a lot more than that and even now I don’t think this matches what I truly want my project to encompass.

However, imagine my surprise when I discovered very little academic papers published on tech art. I listened to the tech-art bootcamp, and have read bit and bobs of books like Beyond Productivity: Information, Technology, Innovation and Creation - but I’ve had a lot of trouble trying to put my finger down on what make a tech artist a good one.

Eventually, I broke it down into three skills. Since you guys out there are the interdisciplinary skill between programming/engineering and art (which is something I’ve straddled myself through my university career), I wanted to judge the art a tech artist creates by judging their artististic creativity (not JUST creativity cause that opens a whole can of worms!), their problem-solving and logic/analytical skills (the programming side) and their comminication and integrative skills (how they comminicate across the disciplines and cater their work to their “users”).

I’ve been working on building my hard skills too, by reading lots of books like Art of Rigging and Body Language: Advanced Character Rigging and by starting to learn Python, but found MELScript to be a lot more accessable and directly applicable to the work for someone who’s never programmed or scripted!

I’ve done some research into all these areas, as it’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve came to these conclusions. However I want to turn to you people out there, the experts - on your opinions!

First of all, do you think this is a valid and worthwhile research project? I know TA is hard to define a lot of the time, but do you think it’s fair to judge it under these criteria? Is there more to the art? Am I missing the mark?

I’ve noticed that even though the terms (technical director, rigging artist, technical animator, etc…) are varied in job adverts and such, they almost always want someone with an art’s background. Most of the talks I’ve heard about tech art is building code, and even a lot of it is scripting! Why do you think this is? A few of the books and sources I’ve read suggest it’s because the arts are more open by their very nature to new ideas and methods of creating their work! What do you think? How many of you out there are artist’s turned TA, and how many are from a programming background?

Do you think that TA should be considered it’s own discipline, away from being defined as “that place between programming and art”? Do you think that TAs need programmer and art to create/solve/aid by the very nature of the role and that opinion while always remain (for a reason)?

What is the divide in tech between games and production (film/tv/advertising)? Is there a divide? I seem to have come to the conclusion that games is a lot more pipeline and tools orientated, while film seems to have a lot more room for character TDS and such. What’s your opinion? Is this wrong?

What do you think the future of tech art is? Will games and production come together? Will it become its own distinct discipline? Will university embrace the role? (I know some unis already do, like Northwestern University). My uni often finds it difficult to justify my project as an art’s project, so I’ve been asked to make it seem like the TA is mainly an artist’s role. Do you think this is wrong?

It’s a little bit difficult to get opinions on tech art out there - or perhaps I’m looking at it in the wrong way and been looking for it in the wrong places. Is there any really obvious things about tech art I might have missed? I’m so worried I’m going about it all wrong as I’ve just started!

As part of my research, I am going to conduct an interview on a technical art and their work, but I’m really unsure what kind of questions I might ask. Is anything I’ve said ringing true or making sense?

It’s taken me quite a while to build up the courage and talk about my ideas here, as I wanted to get it as right as I could before I really asked you guys some questions. Wouldn’t want to be seen as ignorant! If anyone would like to see my draft proposal I’d be happy to oblige! I’m really just coming out here for a little bit of direction and help as I’ve feel I’ve looked into it a lot - but haven’t had the chance to ask someone who really knows their job about whether I’m going about this in the right way!

Thanks all who have read this far! I hope my project interests you enough to write me a response! I’ll of course be visiting this site frequently anyway (it’s in my toolbar- hard to avoid, haha!), but if anyone DOES want to contact me privately about anything I’ve said here they can do so at my email address: contactATsophiebrennan.com

Any help you guys contribute will be greatly appreciated! I really respect what TAs do and I hope that once I finish my degree, I’ll be able to get a job out there doing what you guys do, as I feel like I’ve finally found a niche I can really relate to and love.

Thanks again,

Sophie. :)[/QUOTE]

[ScottHarber]

First of all, do you think this is a valid and worthwhile research project? I know TA is hard to define a lot of the time, but do you think it’s fair to judge it under these criteria? Is there more to the art? Am I missing the mark?

I think it’s a worthwhile research project, because it’s going to be nails-hard to define what it is we do!

For example, the scope of hard skills that a TA has can vary wildly between each individual. As you say/write, there are character riggers, but TAs can also be scripters, support staff, shader writers, tools programmers, R&D, or some mixture of the above, and still be considered TAs.

Similarly, the three soft skills you call out (creativity, problem solving, and communication) are all correct, but there are even variables within that scope. For example, there are TAs who are masters at problem-solving but are not particularly artistic, or who are creative but not necessarily effective at communicating between disciplines.

I’ve noticed that even though the terms (technical director, rigging artist, technical animator, etc…) are varied in job adverts and such, they almost always want someone with an art’s background. Most of the talks I’ve heard about tech art is building code, and even a lot of it is scripting! Why do you think this is? A few of the books and sources I’ve read suggest it’s because the arts are more open by their very nature to new ideas and methods of creating their work! What do you think? How many of you out there are artist’s turned TA, and how many are from a programming background?

TAs from an art background are often favoured because they have experience as artists. In what is fundamentally a support role, they know the problems that artists always face, because they have been through it themselves. And since they are former artists, they often retain the unique perspective that allows them to consider the options that programmers may not even think of.

As a result, most Tech Art talks are about code because that is the bit we need to learn. Computer programming has existed in some form or another since the late 19th century. Technical art has existed for 7 years at most. As our sophistication grows, our discipline is effectively re-learning things like coding standards
, error handling etc.

Do you think that TA should be considered it’s own discipline

Yes.

Do you think that TAs need programmer and art to create/solve/aid by the very nature of the role and that opinion while always remain (for a reason)?

Not always. One of the great things about being a TA is having the freedom to create and solve. There will be moments in any TA’s career where a problem will arise that neither an artist or programmer can solve, and it will be up to the TA to solve it themselves. Those moments are why we are a separate discipline.

What is the divide in tech between games and production (film/tv/advertising)? Is there a divide? I seem to have come to the conclusion that games is a lot more pipeline and tools orientated, while film seems to have a lot more room for character TDS and such. What’s your opinion? Is this wrong?

Games are equal parts entertainment and full-on software development. Games have a higher focus on tech because they usually involve writing an engine, performance, stability, QA testing and so on. The equivalent exists in film and TV, but in those cases it’s more like finding visual glitches, shot continuity, focus group test screenings etc.

[clesage]

What is the divide in tech between games and production (film/tv/advertising)? Is there a divide? I seem to have come to the conclusion that games is a lot more pipeline and tools orientated, while film seems to have a lot more room for character TDS and such. What’s your opinion? Is this wrong?

Great answers from Scott.

In my experience the biggest divide between games and tv/film/ads is less need for rigorous standards in film/tv and especially advertising. Solving a problem can really involve some lateral-thinking hacks.

In advertising, the scope of the project is so small that each problem is solved individually without really worrying about conforming to any existing standards. As you get into television with long, episodic scheduling this can begin to be more important but mainly as a time-saver, not as a strict requirement.

Since then, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of a ride, trying to defend to my uni that tech art IS an artist’s job and therefore my project is justified and able to earn me my degree.

So your post is quite verbose; is one of your core problems justifying that tech art is an art? I might be off the mark, but I wonder if it would be beneficial to seek out specific things that tech artists do which seem tangible, visual and… artsy.

The most artistic jobs I do are when I am rigging very cartoony characters. This is when the technical choices I make end up directly on-screen.

Other examples are flocks/schools and crowd simulations, deformation effects, code-based motion-graphics. (I don’t work in games, so be aware of my bias in examples.)

Basically, the things that an artist couldn’t achieve without some tech, but can still be pointed at on screen: “there, there! That’s what I do.”

[Wuffles]

Hey guys!

I’ve been thinking about what you have said Scott for a few days now to try and see how that might change my understanding of tech art. I understand that I am very naive about the whole thing in the grand scheme of things but I’m trying to make sense of it!

First of all, to ankit, my uni is a very good uni and I can see their worries about my degree and my project. Even I am having a hard time try to justify what I want to do from an art’s perspective. I know it’s possible, as clesage so kindly described, it’s just not what people seem to talk about! Their fears are very legit, so this is why I’m doing my project - to prove to them that is IS an artform - one way or another - and hopefully that will give them scope to allow other aspiring tech artists to do other things at my uni. They’re very good about letting me set my own terms and projects, so if I came off as critical of them in any way I did not mean it. They really are quite generous at working round me!

I now understand the tech art is a spectrum between the two disciplines, but CAN be considered a discipline itself with it’s own roles!

Thank you Scott for clarifying why you think they are artists mainly. How do you think this shows in the work they produce, exactly - or do you think it’s more of an understanding and mindset that you consider them to be artists? I know clesage defined what he/she thought was arty about it (cartoony rigs! :), but I’m curious to know if that’s truley the far end of the spectrum, or whether there is more to it than that.

Also clesage, sorry for being a bit…liberal with my words! I’ve been writing documentation for a week straight now - haha! Also, I think when I’m a bit confused I tend to write my thoughts as they develop, more than something that is structured - so you’re right about that!

Thanks for all the input and words so far - they really are helping me solidify my understanding of tech art and it’s nice to hear it from the pros!

[ankitgajjar456]

Its good that you uni is nice and as u mentioned you are doing projects so keep on doing because projects make us learn more n more.
Now i not in uni but then also trying to learn scripting as much as i can and trying to make some basic good tools in mel which will be useful for those artist who dont know mel.
And as search i also found that tech artist really make other artist work faster and easy by providing different tools and solving problem.
and the cool think is you always have some new thing to do and new challenge waiting for you.

[QUOTE=Wuffles;13455]Hey guys!

I’ve been thinking about what you have said Scott for a few days now to try and see how that might change my understanding of tech art. I understand that I am very naive about the whole thing in the grand scheme of things but I’m trying to make sense of it!

First of all, to ankit, my uni is a very good uni and I can see their worries about my degree and my project. Even I am having a hard time try to justify what I want to do from an art’s perspective. I know it’s possible, as clesage so kindly described, it’s just not what people seem to talk about! Their fears are very legit, so this is why I’m doing my project - to prove to them that is IS an artform - one way or another - and hopefully that will give them scope to allow other aspiring tech artists to do other things at my uni. They’re very good about letting me set my own terms and projects, so if I came off as critical of them in any way I did not mean it. They really are quite generous at working round me!

I now understand the tech art is a spectrum between the two disciplines, but CAN be considered a discipline itself with it’s own roles!

[/QUOTE]

[ScottHarber]

How do you think this shows in the work they produce, exactly - or do you think it’s more of an understanding and mindset that you consider them to be artists? I know clesage defined what he/she thought was arty about it (cartoony rigs! :), but I’m curious to know if that’s truley the far end of the spectrum, or whether there is more to it than that.

I think a lot of it is to do with the mindset.

The special ingredient that separates a TA from a programmer (for example) comes from their unique way of approaching and solving problems. In my experience, this is typically found in artists.

It’s observable when you watch artists work. When faced with an issue or something unexpected, they will work around it and think nothing of it (unless the issue is blocking them or draining a lot of their time). Thinking outside the box is second nature to them, which is something that artists and TAs share.

[Wuffles]

[QUOTE=ScottHarber;13482]I think a lot of it is to do with the mindset.

The special ingredient that separates a TA from a programmer (for example) comes from their unique way of approaching and solving problems. In my experience, this is typically found in artists.

It’s observable when you watch artists work. When faced with an issue or something unexpected, they will work around it and think nothing of it (unless the issue is blocking them or draining a lot of their time). Thinking outside the box is second nature to them, which is something that artists and TAs share.[/QUOTE]

Awesome Scott! Thanks for your input again. I’m going to have to do a lot of reading to define the mindset of an artist for my project, but it’s great to get feedback! Haha!

I’ll be keeping a close eye on this topic of course, but since it’s the holidays I wish everyone at tech-artists.org a happy holiday - whatever you celebrate! Gonna be taking it easy to spend some time with the folks for the next week or so myself!

[primal_r]

Heya… Didn’t have time to read everything, but saw that you mentioned deciding/considering to learn MEL instead of Python…

DON’T.

You’ll be much better off learning Python; as it is used in both Maya & MotionBuilder (and likely all future AutoDesk products) AND in stand-alone-software.

Learning both is a waste of time as learning Python better would be a better time investment. MEL is a dying language, and it’s dying because it’s flawed.

On to the subject (if I understood it correct… which I probably didn’t…):
Two big parts of many TA’s jobs are -workflow/content-creation-pipeline- and -file structures/naming conventions-.
Many of the stuff a TA does can be derived from the -workflow/content-creation-pipeline-. But it’s never that stiff… TA’s usually do what they are good at; so if you’re good at one thing you’ll likely be doing a lot of that because that’s how you’ll produce the most value for your team. If this is coding, rigging, workflow analysis or ‘just’ the more complex types of art/animation totally depends on you and what is lacking in the team.
As such, the most important skill any good TA will have is adaptability. … How do you learn adaptability? I don’t think you do - I think you just choose it.

[clesage]

Heya… Didn’t have time to read everything, but saw that you mentioned deciding/considering to learn MEL instead of Python…

DON’T.

I generally agree, but her reasons for using MEL were valid. It is likely easier to find direct help examples in MEL and in the Maya docs. If your goal is to learn to be productive as a tech artist/scripter, then skip MEL and learn Python.

But if you are exploring scripting in Maya for mostly research purposes, MEL will likely suit you fine for now. Learning Python idioms on top of that could be an unnecessary layer at this point.

On the other hand, I totally agree; skip MEL, learn Python.

[Wuffles]

Hey, thanks for the feedback! For the input on Python - I know it’s the better language but I was hoping to learn the basics with MEL and transfer the skills across when required. I’ve always heard that learning your first programming language is the hardest part - so I am kind of leaning on the fact that picking up Python won’t be too hard if I understand how you can USE the languages.

I listened to the TA Bootcamp recordings, and it WAS suggested not to focus on only one language, but to learn a bit of everything and most importantly understand HOW they are used - as it’s mostly a matter of getting your head round the different syntax and slightly different ways to doing things (I know that MEL is quite restricted…).

The reason I’m focusing on MEL, is cause there are a LOT of nice learning materials that cover how you would use a scripting language to carry out a task and it is in MEL - there are very few resources that tell you how you can use Python inside maya to do what you need it to as far as I can tell. I don’t 100% understand the application of scripting so far - like I know it’s often to eliminate tedious tasks, or do something within code that is difficult or simply impossible through the maya interface - but there is much more to it than that! I hope that through a lot of practise examples and writing some scripts on my own will help solidify why I’m writing them and for what purpose and then taking the ideas and underlying knowledge of scripting with Python will be a lot easier than reading some Python game programming book and struggling to apply it to maya!

I hope my explanation makes sense!

Also, touching upon the last point made by primal, surely knowing both MEL and Python will make me a much more flexible worker seeing as it’s not entirely dead yet! Haha! Seriously though, thank you again for keeping me right - it really is appreciated. I definitely know that learning Python will be part of the process, but I feel that starting with baby steps and MEL might be a little bit better for me (a total programming/scripting noob) than jumping in the deep end with not a lot of time to spare floundering about - even if I do learn something more valuable!

[Wuffles]

Hello again all!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year! I got a little time off myself but I’ve also been working hard over the break too.

I’ve decided to modify my project and I’m looking for a little advice.

It was mentioned earlier on that technical art is a spectrum of skills, suited to all individuals within the range. It is my understanding of TA that being so broad, it makes the strong and convincing case that it should be treated as it’s own discipline. I know this is apparently already in games and film, even if the understanding is shakey - but it’s totally misunderstood within education. I’m still getting to grips with the whole thing!
So as earlier, I mentioned evaluating technical art pieces. This is crucial to my project if I want to evaluate my own work - which is really important for my dissertation. I’ve finally decided on the method, which is a questionnaire and a follow up interview to discuss the process.

Because of the scope of the project (it’s not a PhD), it is acceptable to use one expert in my evaluation process, rather than a selection of random people (the alternative). Thus I was hoping to do the following:

1. Create a basic questionnaire that evaluates the work. I would break these down into three criteria as I spoke earlier. How well does the tool/piece perform from an artist’s POV, how well does it tool/piece perform from a problem-solving POV, and how well does it comminicate its functions (the interface essentially). Does this sound like a reasonable approach?

2. I’d then take it to a professional and present them 3 pieces of work, one that heavily favours an artistic function, one that heavily favours a technical function, and one that balances the two, and then ask them to fill a questionnaire for each piece.

3. I’d then interview them briefly on what improvements could be made. Ideally, this would be via live chat/text so I can save time transcripting! Haha!

4. I’d then modify my questionnaire (judgement criteria) and if there is enough time, repeat the process.

However, I’ve got a couple of questions regarding this method. I’m really not sure of what an example of an art heavy/tech heavy tool might be. They have to be good at what they do, but obviously targetted at THAT audience. I know this sounds like I really don’t understand TA - and to be honest - I really don’t entirely! That’s why I’m doing this project. I’m really keen to get to the root of this, but I’m wondering if this is a feasible way to approach the project.
Also, due to my course, I do have to try and argue the artistic integrity over the technical, to some degree.

I hope someone can help me out here, as it would be a great benefit to get some expert help and advice on this project. It’s evolving as I do it, and anything I’m told early on will certainly modify the project.

I’d also be VERY grateful if any professionals wish to actually offer some of their time to taking part in my project. This would really, really help the validity of what I’m doing.
Also, if anyone here thinks I’m totally going in the wrong direction - please tell me now! Before it’s too late! I can take a hit, I promise.

I’ve been reading and watching this forum almost daily now and while I realise there is a lot I don’t understand (like all the PyMel thread) and not much I can help others with, I’m really trying to learn and make this career happen.

Thank you all again for your time!