Being Ted Boardman

[Jonferimonic]

Great some honest replies, I only put this thread up cause at work we sat round and howled with laughter at the website run by a bloke with almost mythical status in the 3d world, a Yoda-like grand master who seems to have slipped his game and forgotten how to use the light sabre.

[DrJan]

I don't think his courses are about how to make nice images, but about how you can improve your workflow. His workshops are usually about easy tips and tricks to use features inside 3dsmax. It's up to you how you're going to use them with your own projects.
For example the Loft tool. It's amazing how many "oldschool" 3d modellers don't know about this feature or don't know how to use it properly.
I've attended two of his workshops now and there were some things that were quite interesting. And I've been using 3dsmax for about 7 years now.

[percydaman]

I don't think his courses are about how to make nice images, but about how you can improve your workflow. His workshops are usually about easy tips and tricks to use features inside 3dsmax. It's up to you how you're going to use them with your own projects.
For example the Loft tool. It's amazing how many "oldschool" 3d modellers don't know about this feature or don't know how to use it properly.
I've attended two of his workshops now and there were some things that were quite interesting. And I've been using 3dsmax for about 7 years now.

Certainly a valid point, but again, If you want to make any money selling your books, classes, etc etc, Man you gotta have something decent to show. I mean how many DVDs would Chris Nichols have sold, if on the front of the DVD, you saw a horrible pic, like say the pic a few posts above this one?

[DrJan]

I can't deny that, but Ted has build up a reputation for himself without making beautiful pictures and pretty much everyone knows him. I don't think he has to do alot of promotion for himself. People know who he is and what he does.
And sometimes, he just invites himself to an event
Last year during those workshops in The Netherlands, he called the organization and said: "What time do you expect me to be there". Even if he wouldn't have been invited to talk there, he would've come, just like Dave McKee. They would just show up because of the whole atmosphere during that event.
(An ex-colleague of mine organized that event. That's how I know.)

[Jonferimonic]

"I don't think he has to do alot of promotion for himself. People know who he is and what he does."

This is whats confusing me. What does he do. I understand he was there in the beginning when 3d graphics took off so naturally all the old school industry boffins will know who he is and not mind when he tags along to one of their dinners uninvited.
But how can you charge almost $4000 for a 3 day course in Max/Viz to 'Unlock the secrets and Discover the magic combination for beautiful images and great animation' when the images on your own personal website prove your skills are still locked in the '90s?

PS - Did he do the animated video for Dire Straights Money for Nothing?

[DrJan]

The workshops I've visited were mostly about useful tips to improve your workflow. In other words, sometimes you use techniques that could be done in another, faster way.

But it sounds too much like I'm defending him
I can totally see where you guys are coming from. The quality isn't great, but it seems like he doesn't have to make nice images for his portfolio to get work, unlike us.

[ShaunDon]

Ted Boardman is one of the few people in the world certified by Autodesk to train OTHER 3ds max trainers. While you might not think much of his imagery, producing renderings is not his profession. It's his job to know everything that there is to know about max and all of its tool sets and widgets.

No, he's not a production guy, but as a trainer that is a VERY GOOD THING from my point of view. After working in production for any length of time you inevitably become myopic to the new tools and work flows being built into the software. Every time I talk about max with Ted, he always has new techniques or tools that he's been experimenting with that honestly I never have time to learn, and he helps me figure out if and how they're useful to me. He doesn't use V-Ray. He's dabbled a bit in Mental Ray, but by and large rendering is not what he teaches.

Anyhow, I'm fortunate enough to live in the same city as Ted, and almost every morning (when he's not off globe-trotting to train the up and coming max artists) he's in the coffee shop downstairs from my office. Say what you will about him, but as someone who's both still young and a ten-year max user, I find him to be an invaluable asset to the 3D community.

Shaun

[DrJan]

That is a very good explanation of what he does, ShaunDon.
And I'm jealous that you live in the same city as him and get to talk to him more often...

[Jonferimonic]

Yep thanks for the explanation, just what I was fishing for. I see he is possibly worth the 4k for a 3 day session then, although not very useful for myself as I already know everything, even stuff that hasnt been created yet.

[EricKlein]

Yep thanks for the explanation, just what I was fishing for. I see he is possibly worth the 4k for a 3 day session then, although not very useful for myself as I already know everything, even stuff that hasnt been created yet.

..........

[siliconbauhaus]

PS - Did he do the animated video for Dire Straights Money for Nothing?

No that was done by Mainframe in Canada (the reboot people)

[Jonferimonic]

No that was done by Mainframe in Canada (the reboot people)

How old are you?!?!?!!
Im kidding, that is one old video.

[siliconbauhaus]

I'm a old bugger mate ;P

[Neilg]

he's in the coffee shop downstairs from my office.

Shaun, hi!

Could you please ask him my question about his beard? Also if you could get him to measure it too, that would be brilliant. It would make my day
I plan to grow one myself someday, and I want to know what the high level standard is. I hope to one day hit his standard and as far as i can see thats the only thing i'm missing.

Must say, although I see where youre coming from, to say that working in a professional environment and producing renderings means that you'll be more out of touch with the software I cant even begin to agree with. You make of it what you want to.

[ShaunDon]

Hehe, I may broach the subject if the opportune moment arrives, but the beard may be a touchy subject.

You're welcome to disagree, but in my experience the more you work with the tools you have the less likely you are to look for new ways of doing things. Even if those new routines are already possible in the software you have.

Let me put it this way -- I spend anywhere from 8-12 hours a day in front of max in production. My motivation is to get my work done efficiently, and that means using the techniques I know will work. I could experiment in down time, but our office does not get very much of that, and to be honest after that much time spent in front of max I'm not terribly motivated to go home and do it some more.

Ted and others in his profession spend their entire day just tinkering with the software and trying to understand what it can do. There's no deadline pressure, no real-world constraints to inhibit their experimentation. While this means that some of what they come up with isn't necessarily valuable in a production environment, they do gain a better overall understanding of how the program works in general.

Of course you may make learning new things in max a priority, but that's not to say the rest of us choose or are able to make time out of our day for that. And when I do get time to just play around, I depend on people like Ted to give me a short-list of the things I should spend that time looking into.

Shaun