Mike's

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I learned a lot about computer graphics in general by participating in the Weekend Theme, or what it is affectionately referred to by the participants as, the WET. This all happens in the newsgroup alt.binaries.comp-graphics.

Every Thursday, a WET participant supplies an image or images for the rest of the participants to modify with what ever graphics software available and the results are posted back to the newsgroup for other participants to comment on. It is a great way to learn computer graphics and make new friends. It is a very friendly newsgroup and you are given lots of encouragement as you learn computer graphics and post your images. It has also been expanded to include a Mid Week Challenge (or MidC). On Mondays, the current WET picker supplies a theme to base an image on (an image is not supplied in this case). This gives you two projects a week to tackle.

I didn't start out in the weekend theme doing animations. In fact, my first attempts at computer graphics in general were very primitive. My first attempts at animation were in October or November 1999 (which corresponds roughly with WET 52) and were also very primitive. Now, its unusual that I don't post an animation every week. The animations done for the WET are typically done using 'cut and paste' techniques, although I frequently add cartoons created with vectors.