I won a contest!!! Yay!

So there is a website called Indiana Uploaded that is geared towards the CG community in Indiana and they hold contests all the time. One particular contest was a themed contest titled "Dark Side of the Mind" and I decided to do something for this contest and I actually won. I never won anything in my life so I'm pretty happy that I did. It also adds further confirmation that I actually have made the right decision with my career choice.

This is the the work I did for the contest and also a link to the website to show the other contest entree's.http://www.indianauploaded.com/

Projects and what not

So I've been planning and began production on several projects and I"m really undecided as to which one I'll finish first. I had the idea of an alien attacking a secret military installation known simply as "Area 62" but do to limitations of my computer I'm concerned that the rendering due to all the effects necessary for the animation would be extremely long. 

The next one on the list is a mad scientist in his lab trying to bring a freakish creation to life and having it fail miserably. I thought of having the mad scientist be a ring tailed lemur mainly because I want an animal for a character and also because I really want to do something with fur even though this would also drastically increase render times. It also bothers me a bit because it is not really very original.

Thirdly is a story taking place in a morgue although this one is confounding me because I don't really know what kind of a story I could tell in morgue that would be humorous. 

Something else that is on my mind is that I was supposed to be the 3D modeler for a student's thesis and it's been over 4 weeks since his last email and I now think that has turned out to be nothing. I'm a bit disappointed because this could have been a good opportunity to get work seen and also have something great for a demo reel. Mostly I'm disappointed because I've really been wanting to do a collaborative project and still have yet to see that happen.

On another note, I have sort of a love/hate relationship with internet communication. I often find that things like email and instant messengers are completely devoid of any real sort of human connection. Granted cell phones aren't much better but I thought it would be an interesting experiment to just randomly post my cell number on the internet somewhere just to see how many people would actually call or text it. Will I really do it? Probably not. I'm pretty guarded about who I give my number to and the end result probably would not be to my liking. Still though, it would be interesting to do none the less.

And now a little something that always brings a smile to my face...

I can't think of a title

or really a way to start. I guess this past semester at school left me a little bit drained. I did well during the semester... very well in fact. It was just very exhausting and feel like I came up short even though I walked away with A's. I could be being very hard on myself but who knows. A great deal of the disenchantment came from my animation class. Not because I don't love it, but because I felt like my imagination turned off during the class.  It also bothered me because I am a much better modeler than what I did in that class and I felt like sticking to the syllabus was hurting me creatively. Granted, I know there is a reason why the students were being taught to do the modeling the way we were, but my mind kept saying I am beyond what this class is teaching as far as modeling. The animation part of the syllabus I really did need to learn and also the learning to rely more on procedural textures as opposed to painted textures was nice to learn.

Because of this disenchantment, I have decided to start work on my next project that will be a part of the next class about a little alien attacking a fictional "military base" that is meant to be humorous. This raises another concern of mine of whether or not I spend too much time at my computer improving my animation skills that I'm missing the bigger picture. I am constantly in fear that if I spend too much time doing this that I am heading straight for a burnout. I mean really when I'm not at work, I'm at computer. I don't really do much else.

I also have these feelings creeping in that I am going to be 32 this year, am not married, am showing no signs of ever getting married and all that other stuff life brings. I've been engaged before, which obviously and thankfully didn't work out. The most amusing thing about that is why it all came to an end. Not only was the girl not the right one for me, but she kept saying how I had no drive or passion for anything. I kept telling her that I didn't know what it was yet, but was I knew I would be doing it and nothing would get in my way. The real point of is that there were so many times when she and I would sit down and watch animated movies together and the signs of my love for animation were starting to show, and I can't help but wonder sometimes if only she could see me now. Hmmm... I guess I am currently in a bit of a state of reflection at the moment. So yeah...

First blog of the new year. first step... health

So to say I have had my own slew of medical problems would be an understatement. Never in a million years though would I have thought that wisdom teeth could be a severe problem especially after some of my much worse medical issues. After placing an emergency call with my dentist and doing my own research, it now appears that I have an infection resulting from unknown impacted 2nd wisdom tooth erupting into the original wisdom tooth that came in years ago on the bottom left side of my face.

The only course of action now is to have the affected teeth removed which can't be done until the infection has cleared with the help of antibiotics. This is something the dentist wants done soon as the swelling from the infection can cause my airway to close and the infection itself can also get into my blood which like the airway closing can be potentially fatal. The dentist is also concerned about the infection due to my already existing TMJ disorder further complicating matters.

This really sort of puts thing into perspective a bit for me now as I never really viewed wisdom teeth as being something that could cause such an extreme problem. In all honesty it just feels like I have a bearable yet painful case of the flu. This also worries me because I have heard the horror stories about how wisdom teeth should be removed at a younger age because the older a person gets the more lengthy the recovery process takes. One of the things that bothers me the most was my orthodontic surgeons decision to not remove these teeth when the upper wisdom teeth were taken out. It really could have saved me a lot of pain and worry. So here's hoping that I can have this problem resolved without it getting any worse.

2010 and beyond...

    So 2010 is almost over... There are a lot of things that could be said about the past year and some of the years prior. I'll focus on 2010 cause really the prior years weren't so great. I'll start with movies. Inception was awesome to say the very least. Tangled completely renewed my faith in Disney and made me feel like a kid again. How to Train Your Dragon is certainly the best film from DreamWorks Animation to this point. Tron: Legacy was a movie that I was very much looking forward to seeing and was very let down by awful it was. Something really important to me was the Diamond Edition release of Beauty and the Beast on blu-ray. This is and always will be my favorite film from Disney and it has a magic to it that many animated films don't have anymore. Beauty and the Beast is the film that made me absolutely fall in love with animation even though I didn't really know it at the time.

     This year also saw me go to SIGGRAPH 2010 as a student volunteer. The full rundown of SIGGRAPH was covered in another blog so I will not go into full detail about it other than to say it was spectacular. Meeting people who are creative and love many of the things I love was the best. This also was great because it had been over a decade since I had left Indiana or even flown so going to Los Angeles was great.  This trip was even better considering I almost didn't get to go due to a health emergency happening that tapped all the funds I had saved for the trip.  I am certainly looking forward to Vancouver.

    Every year is a major learning experience and this year I learned a lot about myself and many other things. It has been sort of a life changing year. The thought that I am at last pursuing my passion is one that never escapes me. Where I will go from here is to continue working on and improving my skills as an animator but also see how it fits with the bigger picture of my life as a whole. Things like where I want to be, and how I want to live are questions I am beginning to ask myself. If anything, I would like to come out of my shell a bit more. I am notoriously shy though most who know me personally would not think that, but I am. I would really like to be more sociable and try and get out there and experience more of what life has to offer. The one thing I am absolutely certain of is that Indiana is not the place for me as an artist, but more importantly as a person. So... Happy New Years to everyone and remember that no matter how hard it gets, always continue to chase your dreams. Dreams are what make life worth living.
       

Current and future projects

 So I've been very busy with my current animation project that is actually my class project that I'm going to make into a short.  Between school, work and this project I haven't had a lot of sleep. The short is something that I really want to get done because it is something that I feel I have to get out of me.

So, that brings me to the next idea I have in mind. I was at work today and an idea hit me. More like smacked me right upside the head. Bank robbing bunnies. I seriously think that would be a very humorous idea if carried out properly. Hopefully, when I get started on it, I can get some collaborators because that would just be awesome. I really want to collaborate on a project with someone and this could be quite a fun collaboration if I can get anyone else to be interested.

Student Animation Project

So when I started the current semester I knew was going to be making an animation for my current course much like I did during a previous semseter. The animation had to be at least 10 seconds but the instructor told me that it could be as long as I wanted it to be as long as it was at least 10 seconds.  I'm glad for that because I was like 10 seconds is nothing.

So the original idea was to have an old man getting frustrated with the rabbit ears on his television not working properly until one of them breaks off completely. It was supposed to be a bit on the humorous side. That idea has been completed altered by the very simplistic modeling of a book that contains writing by the old man.  It was merely meant as a prop for the animation but after writing the text in the book, I realized it was written with a very reflective tone. 

This altered the story completely and is now going to be at least 5 minutes in length. The story has now changed to the old man reflecting on his life on what will be the last night he is alive.  The writing in the book will be something he does during the animation, and the final shot will be on the book as the desk lamp illuminating the book burns out at the end. The burning out of the light is to be a metaphor for the old man quietly passing away in his sleep.

As such this will be a lot of work as I am the only person doing all the work which is clear by the fact that I don't think I have slept in weeks. I personally think this story works better than the original and will have a greater impact. A little dark and morbid to be sure, but something that will have more meaning. I look forward to getting this idea out and seeing out works in the end. If turns out the way I hope it will, I plan to submit to animation festivals upon completion.