"Animators"

[AlueeN]

Have ever seen one of those profiles with less than 100 hrs in sfm and with dozens of poorly made animations who call themselves animators.To me an animator is a title that one must earn and find it kinda funny when I see profiles that make ♥♥♥♥♥♥ animations with "Animator" in their steam description.This is sort of a rant but I want to hear your thoughts.

[lecunea]

I'd say "hobbyist" or "student" is a better title. Heck, even student might be hard to achieve as you probably need to study in an animation school.

[Clown]

Originally posted by Swears:

I'd say "hobbyist" or "student" is a better title. Heck, even student might be hard to achieve as you probably need to study in an animation school.

you dont need to study in animation school its just practice and time understanding the software '

[Carbadox]

'SFM Artists' is a title I see way more. Pisses me off just as much though

[Kumquat [Velbud]]

I prefer SFM USER because sfm is not limited to just poster making and animation. I use sfm for porting purposes, testing, and even to make workshop content. There are a lot of other uses but those are usually the cases, this if a person is interested in multiple of these fields, then they are an SFM USER to be more accurate.

[Pte Jack]

5000+ hours in SFM and I don't use either title (or any title for that fact), why??

Because, I'm not!

If I refer to a title at all, it Hobbyist! Because, what I do here is... a Hobby!

But everyone has their own delusion of grandeur in what they have achieved!

...So, let it slide!

[episoder]

mmh. i dunno. why they do that? motivate themselves calling themselves animators? or maybe nobody ever told them what real animation is. if you do that most should get small real quick.

as for what people started calling themselves here. i'm definetely no animator nor do i need a title.

if i'd give one myself, i'm just an intermediate prop artist. maybe an fx lab coat. most of the time it implodes. everthing else is whatever there needs support on the forum.

[AlueeN]

I've seen these people open up Patreons....that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sad

[The Resonte!]

titles are lame and people who care about them are also lame

it may be dumb but its like whatever okay

[tf2player]

Originally posted by Tylenol | Medicine Cabinet:

'SFM Artists' is a title I see way more. Pisses me off just as much though

I know, they call a few hours of work art

[Kumquat [Velbud]]

Agreeing with Jack though that it doesn't really matter. However, there are more gullible people out there who if find that you are an sfm animator will be attracted to you. They don't look at reputation but rather if you can or cannot use it.

[Capt Fuzzy]

I agree with both @Pte Jack and @Velikhi Maikeru, but would to add one little thing to what they said...
I don't care about titles and will not label myself with one.
Titles are earned (just like respect) so if someone else thinks my work is good enough to label me an animator, or artist, I won't argue with them, but I'm not going to label myself that just to get attention.

Anyone that does this type of thing is just setting themselves up for ridicule and failure, IMHO...

[Marco Skoll]

Of all the things I think the SFM community needs, elitism and people looking down on each other are not amongst them.

I might raise an eyebrow if someone had picked some grandiose title that tried to sell themselves as something unique - like that meme that was going around a while back, comparing some guy with strange hair (credited as a "Digital Prophet") to Tim Berners-Lee (being credited as "Web Developer") - and if you haven't, it's here: https://twitter.com/ElSatanico/status/514340801468706816

(For those who don't get it: "Web developer" is simultaneously both the most accurate and the most understated way you could possibly describe Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He literally invented and developed the World Wide Web).

But "animator" is not a particularly pompous title.

Beyond that, I think some people around here put *far* too much weight on the number of SFM hours on a player's profile.

I'm a professional miniatures sculptor. I make tiny detailed models, and can model a realistic face that's less than 5mm (0.2") tall by hand (no computer modelling or 3D printing involved). I knew about posing and how the human body moves long before I ever started using SFM.

Someone with less than 100 hours in SFM may already have years of artistic and animation experience from elsewhere - don't boil everyone down to just a number.

[Kumquat [Velbud]]

Originally posted by Capt Fuzzy:

I agree with both @Pte Jack and @Velikhi Maikeru, but would to add one little thing to what they said...
I don't care about titles and will not label myself with one.
Titles are earned (just like respect) so if someone else thinks my work is good enough to label me an animator, or artist, I won't argue with them, but I'm not going to label myself that just to get attention.

Anyone that does this type of thing is just setting themselves up for ridicule and failure, IMHO...

This also is a response to Wolf. I agree with both of you, but I still say there is something you can do instead of labelling yourself as well as doing nothing.

TBH, labeling is not the right thing to do. You can, however, do what I did and add a list of what you are or what you can do. For example, using SFM is actually a skill. You can joke about it all you want, but just knowing how to use the program, you are ahead of a majority of people who don't know how to use the program or don't have the patience to learn how to. If you are able to build basic scenes and come up with good ideas, that is also good. If you can make REALLY well done posters that seem almost realistic or even official videogame quality, or make REALLY good animations, that is a bonus. A lot of people learned GMOD frame by frame animation, thus giving them a slight advantage in terms of patience and skill building.

I gave this list for people to A) request ideas, B) practice potential commissions, C) make tests, and D) make something new. I want to produce something new with each release of something, Blender or SFM. If I kept showing the same thing, that which the Workshop has, it feels...bland and pointless. :/

[Free Funny Educational For Kids]

You put too much on just a measly number. Hours is not a plausible indicator of someone's skilI. Someone who has less than 100 hours in SFM will still be able to make things way better than my 220 hours as I mostly use SFM to screw around in.

Regardless, you sound like you have a bit of an ego. I can definitely agree that you shouldn't instantly give yourself a professional title if you're a beginner, and I agree with a lot of people here in the sense that you should either label yourself as a beginner, hobbyist or just not at all, but I don't see why you should discourage these bad animators from continuing on, practice makes perfect. Of course, if a person just does one thing over and over and refuses to change then they most likely won't get better over time, so why not give them tips to improve if you're such a good animator yourself?

[The Gaben]

id rather not waste my life making animations kthx