IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS WELCOME! Animated graphics project

[GYN]

 
Hi,
My brother-in-law needs to create a 30sec medical animation for use in an educational video/site associated with his business. He's paying a USF Theater student $500 for the voiceover, and he was quoted $8,000 as the cost estimated for the video.

The 30sec clip needs to show the inside of a vein, with the blood cells and platelets flowing past; then a pic needle pierces through and the platelets coagulate around the point of entry, all of this shown from the "inside the vein" POV.

Now I've worked with Illustrator/Photoshop(duh! who hasn't?) but I have no experience doing a technical animation, like one you would see on the news, e.g., a new heart pump or how a drug interacts with a cell, etc.

He's offering me $4,000 if I can do it. I can get 3D Studiomax, "the only software I'd need" according to someone I spoke with. I am crazy to try and learn Studiomax just enough to get this 30sec clip finished? I have about three months, but he's putting in the proposal Jan1 -- meaning he needs my confirmation and fee figure by then.


THANKS for your opinions,

GYNster -- Adren's prodigal forum groupie

[Whirlingdervish]

Have you ever made any sort of 3d model or map for a game?
Do you have any sort of artistic ability that involves the ability to picture things in 3 dimensions and break them down into their basic parts and shapes? (drawing, sculpting, etc..)

If you can answer both with a yes, I'd say you can figure out the basics of 3DSMAX and make something that looks decent, at least in still frame..

Making a convincing animation is another story entirely, even moreso when that animation would involve duplicating the intricate movements of solid bodies traversing a fluid medium and doing so convincingly.

after you modelled all of the elements (the inside of the vein, the platelettes, blood cells, and needle) you would also need to find or make appropriate skins to cover the 3 dimensional objects and make them look like they are real.

This can sometimes be more time consuming and more difficult than the actual 3d modelling stage.



If you have the money for 3dsmax, and some artistic ability, and a ton of time to spend learning the ropes and the basics of animation, you can probably do it.

[GYN]

 
for not sugarcoating that...might be a remote possibility to do if I can simplify the entities down to three or four models with simple skins, because it's more of an instructional video to show the needle's intrusion and one effect of that (coagulation). whew! now I'm beginning to understand that original $8,000 figure in terms of manhours.
 

[UUD-40]

It took me two nights to make this smiley --->


Good luck!!! :>