I want to add one more thing... it does strike me as well to be in slightly in poor taste to so blatantly use the AM name and concepts, even if it is with the best of intentions. You are in a extremely small industry where intellectual property is very important, and everyone knows everyone else. Even if you aren't hearing from the AM legal department at the moment, it still might not reflect so well on you as a professional. Something to keep in mind.
I know the whole point of AM is the mentoring. I am really going to try to collect the money that is required to do it!
When we are talking about the feedback on AMX, I wasn't expecting any pros or something like that to give it. I was just expecting people who had the same idea as I have to help each other. People can then of course post their test on other sites.
I know the name of the site sound very childish without any imagination... I just did not want this whole thing to sound as if I was creating something bran new. I know I'm just copying what is already out there and collecting it to one site 100% inspired by AM. And I am not trying to take any credit for that.
Greg - your point about the ethical problems actually scared me a bit. Since this thing has gone beyond what I thought (More people commenting on that fact that what I'm doing might be a bad idea.) you just made me realize that a future boss finding out about this might consider it a problem... And because the industry is so small it might already be too late... who knows... I guess the best thing would be to delete these threats and close the site...?
« Last Edit: June 30, 2008, 04:24:52 PM by Patrick Alessi »
Personally the only thing I would be worried about is calling it Animation Mentor X. Lots of schools use similar assignments, and if you want the truth about it Animation Mentor was probably influenced by those schools to use the assignments. A push pull assignment and a personality walk are not new things AM came up with.
I think it is fine to do the AMX premise, I just worry about the name. But thats just one mans opinion. I don't know if it will knock you out of a job some day. Just recognize that everything you do reflects on you as a person. And In such a small community of people your name gets around. As proof of this I can name other communities that I have seen you personally post at before. When your name does get around you want to be known as a person who is hard working, humble, honest, and good to work with. I'm not saying one way or another if AMX is a sign to the contrary. I'm just saying be aware of it.
Hope this is helpful, and I hope Im not discouraging you in any way. I think everything you can do to improve as an animator is admirable. Just be careful to not step on any toes along the way.
doh, sorry to see the legal monkeys came down on you, although like we said its not surprising. You don't have a bad idea about making a site with some free curriculum, just make sure that its your own, and not a copy of someone else's. However there really isn't anything stopping you or anyone else from just doing AM inspired tests and posting them on any of the critique sites like this one, not sure you have to have a new web site to do that.
Listen Patrick Don't be afraid that future employers will read this and think of you as a thief, idiot or dumbass. They won't! We ALL make mistakes. Even guys at Pixar!! If they can't see past this experience, they are properly not where you should work anyway. You at least tried something. Maybe because you never had the money to enroll in the real AM, you had the initiative to think of a solution. Not the best solution in the world, but admirable that you did something.
I had a sort of similar experience a few years ago right here at Cg Char, where I thought all my job possibilities were over after some comments i made, but 5-6 years down the line I'm still employed In Denmark, i know, but I'm not even sure I want to try USA anymore.
I haven't been paying attention to this thread. Sorry.
As far as the original post, I think that what you are doing is completely fine. As pointed out by others, I think the only place you went wrong was using the name that you chose. If you redesign the website with your a different name, you are probably okay.
I'm not sure if you were contacted by lawyers or anything. But, something to keep in mind is that lawyers love to use scare tactics. I've had them try to do the same to me over the years and since each time I was not doing anything I couldn't, I just laughed it off and it never went any further. I never saw your original website, so I can't really speak directly to what you were doing, just throwing that out there. Lawyers piss me off with their tactics and it really gets my blood boiling. ahhhhh.. deep breath.. Okay, back to normal.
I wouldn't worry about being shunned from the industry. Anyone that takes part in that sort of nonsense isn't worth working with anyway. Petty fools.
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In Denmark, i know, but I'm not even sure I want to try USA anymore.
