Wow, I haven't written an actual post in a while!
I have a good excuse! Actually, a couple good excuses. Okay, maybe one good excuse and one lame excuse.
Work is ramping up at Hitpoint. My job description says "animator" but the past couple of weeks I've been a programmer (I do suck at programming.) and now I'm getting into game design. A few weeks ago I was asked to come up with some mockups for a football game (WITH A TWIST!). I'll see if I can get permission to post those up here.
One of the cons of getting to work from home is that I pretty much am working all the time. For working at a game studio, I really don't have that much time to play games (besides the odd play-testing every once in a while, but even then I'm a bit busy for that).
So yeah, time is an issue. I haven't actually drawn for myself in a while. Not to say that this is bad because I really like my work, but my own personal work has taken a backseat to what I do for the studio (on the plus side, it almost sounds like I know a thing or two about game design. I blame reading internet blogs)
Okay, so that was the actual excuse. The lame excuse is that I've lost my ability to draw in what used to be my own style.
The thing about my "style" is that, like acting, I need to be able to FEEL what I'm drawing. Each line I drew had a certain quality of energy to it because I felt that energy as I drew it. Unfortunately, due to certain events in my life (I'll leave it at "no word in the English language does justice to how vile this person is"), I've completely lost that energy. It's kind of weird, actually.
Exactly one year ago, the defining quality I'd say that described me would be "Dreamer."
Today, I have no idea what that quality would be. Doesn't mean I still can't push myself really hard to make good work, I know I'm just lacking the same energy as before, like I'm stuck in reality. Maybe it's part of growing up.
Wait a minute, does this mean I'm old?
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Friday, April 11, 2008
HEY I HAVE AN IDEA!
Let's pull the fire alarm at a college dorm at 4:00 in the morning. I'm sure all the kids that live there will have a BLAST. So I'm up right now contemplating whether I want to go back to sleep or just stay up because I have to be up soon anyways.
In other news, my Media/Motion graphics class will begin production on a music video for a Carlos Santana song soon. So far the group has gone for my ideas... in fact I came up with the original concept and we built off of that.
But I'm just worried that, because I'm so bold and daring and since I talk a lot, I'm wondering if anyone else is afraid to speak up or if they just don't have any ideas. It's circular logic; I TRY to stay quiet at idea sessions, but no one speaks up, so I let loose one of the ideas that's been banging around the insides of my skull and suddenly the group likes it!
I also wasn't feeling that confident about this project before, but it looks like it could turn out alright. Right now my biggest concern is that the shot I'm working on right now is going to be done in 3D... but among the 15 group members, only 3-4 of us have MINIMAL maya experience (I have 2 semester's worth of maya animation, but no modeling or shader experience). Fortunately Chris Perry has been kind enough to allow me to barrage his inbox with questions (again).
But I COMPLETELY forgot to draw a chicken and pin it up in the middle of the storyboards. None of my groupmates would understand the reference, come to think of it, but still. I believe carrying in the torch also means getting my pranking abilities down. I think I'll have to spruce up the animatic a bit, in that case.
Also reading John K.'s blog got me all depressed again. Here I am, kid with no art background in school for animation when the rest of the world is turning its back on this lost art. Heck, bringing up Disney in my motion graphics class or any cartoons to anyone I know earns me an odd look. I guess I'm weird for watching old cartoon on Youtube rather than turn on the television and watching one of these hip shows that everyone else seems to watch (what are those, Scrubs? Project Runway? One of those damn game shows?).
I'm also reminded of the fact that, even IF the 2D industry comes back, my competition is going to be all the older displaced animators that lost their jobs, and then other people that have much more experience with art and acting than me. Darn it all. Maybe I should just go into conceptual art and make millions by canning my own crap or signing my name on a urinal. I should completely gouge out a squirrel's heart in front of the police station in Amherst and call it a performance art piece. I'll be heralded as the next BOLD artist and adored by those art critics that hang around the galleries all day. I'll call it... My Inner Child: A Treatise on Reality.
In animation news, Studio Ghibli just started recording the voices for their new feature, Ponyo on the Seacliff, which means that production for the film is nearing an end (if memory serves, they animate FIRST, record SECOND, the opposite of what Hollywood studios do.)
In other news, my Media/Motion graphics class will begin production on a music video for a Carlos Santana song soon. So far the group has gone for my ideas... in fact I came up with the original concept and we built off of that.
But I'm just worried that, because I'm so bold and daring and since I talk a lot, I'm wondering if anyone else is afraid to speak up or if they just don't have any ideas. It's circular logic; I TRY to stay quiet at idea sessions, but no one speaks up, so I let loose one of the ideas that's been banging around the insides of my skull and suddenly the group likes it!
I also wasn't feeling that confident about this project before, but it looks like it could turn out alright. Right now my biggest concern is that the shot I'm working on right now is going to be done in 3D... but among the 15 group members, only 3-4 of us have MINIMAL maya experience (I have 2 semester's worth of maya animation, but no modeling or shader experience). Fortunately Chris Perry has been kind enough to allow me to barrage his inbox with questions (again).
But I COMPLETELY forgot to draw a chicken and pin it up in the middle of the storyboards. None of my groupmates would understand the reference, come to think of it, but still. I believe carrying in the torch also means getting my pranking abilities down. I think I'll have to spruce up the animatic a bit, in that case.
Also reading John K.'s blog got me all depressed again. Here I am, kid with no art background in school for animation when the rest of the world is turning its back on this lost art. Heck, bringing up Disney in my motion graphics class or any cartoons to anyone I know earns me an odd look. I guess I'm weird for watching old cartoon on Youtube rather than turn on the television and watching one of these hip shows that everyone else seems to watch (what are those, Scrubs? Project Runway? One of those damn game shows?).
I'm also reminded of the fact that, even IF the 2D industry comes back, my competition is going to be all the older displaced animators that lost their jobs, and then other people that have much more experience with art and acting than me. Darn it all. Maybe I should just go into conceptual art and make millions by canning my own crap or signing my name on a urinal. I should completely gouge out a squirrel's heart in front of the police station in Amherst and call it a performance art piece. I'll be heralded as the next BOLD artist and adored by those art critics that hang around the galleries all day. I'll call it... My Inner Child: A Treatise on Reality.
In animation news, Studio Ghibli just started recording the voices for their new feature, Ponyo on the Seacliff, which means that production for the film is nearing an end (if memory serves, they animate FIRST, record SECOND, the opposite of what Hollywood studios do.)
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