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So I worked on the base coat of all the buildings this weekend.  Once Daniel signs off on that I can begin the real texturing and final modeling of these facade buildings.  This took  a lot more time than I was expecting because I needed to ensure my “floors” were in the right place before choosing the colors.  Sigh.  Modeling is never done.

I also spent a long time cutting out the eiffel tower and doing a matte painting for the background but no matter what I did it just never looked right at the different angles.  The structure is too symmetrical and you can tell it’s a matte painting.  I finally went on line and, believe it or not, found a free nurbs model that looks great in the scene and renders uber fast.  There’s a little touch up work to be done with it but for now it’ll work just fine.

Here’s a couple of different angles of the streets to show the color palette.  I’ll be very anxious to find out if it’s still TOO colorful for ‘da boss.

So my favorite step, texturing is about to commence.  Daniel asked me before I actually start hand painting the buildings to do a color chart and just put some solid colors up on the 3 main buildings to see how it’s looking.  I should preface this with that fact that when he initially gave me a briefing of what he was envisioning he told me to keep the colors muted, that his two main characters should POP out against the background and he gave me assorted images for reference, especially Team Fortress.

Now somewhere along the line, this being a French street and me getting overly excited I created my own color palette or what I felt were muted colors but still with the large mix of colors that the streets were so famous for.  Unlike my first showing, he wasn’t so thrilled with this one.  But that’s okay!  He’s the art direct, it’s his vision and, honestly, I can’t get enough practice so if I do it over and over, I am A-OK with that.

In my mind, this being a French street, I see all the lower floors muted but still colorful while all the upper floors are the muted and weathered plaster.  So we discussed it some more and I realized what he’s envisioning is a much more monochromatic world where the colors are within a very small palette and the buildings are only one color.

That being said, I will “recolor” it first to get my base coat down and get him to sign off and then let the fun begin!!

So it took me a couple of loooooonnnggg weekends to get the basic modeling done.  I can’t even begin to tell you how nervous I was to show this to Daniel.  I value his opinions and very high standards.  One of the blessings and curses of him being my mentor is he doesn’t let me slack off and he’ll call me on it if I do.  I went out of my way to make sure my models were correctly done, low in polycounts and all my lines flowed.  tB, I followed all your rules and thanks to you figured out how to cut curved holes into objects.  So all my arches are dedicated to you!!

Anyways, Daniel looked it all over and it passed first inspection.  Phew.  He did however, being the boss on this job, point out that he doesn’t want the overly detailed shutters and I need to reshape the cafe sign, so I have a little more work to do to clean up.  I also managed to get the three buildings UV mapped and I need to create some large doors for the alley way arch.

Every other weekend for the past month I’ve begun working on my good friend Daniel’s character film short.  You can take a look at his current blocking passes at http://animation.redforty.com.  He’s been kind enough, or brave enough depending on your view point, to let me model and texture the scene.  Then again kind is a strong word since I ONLY volunteered to texture and he INFORMED me I was going to model too.  And you know how much I love to model. <scowl> <scowl>

So basically, I need to do an environment layout of a street in France.  I began by doing research on the storefronts of the streets in Paris and sketching out the 3 main buildings that you’ll see in the scene .  I also did an initial rough blueprint of the street layout and where I felt the building should be placed and their basic shapes.  Here’s one of my sketches of the little cafe on the corner.  Yes, yes, it’s not an award winner but that’s why I use a computer to draw!

Work has been a lot of art directing and 2D work these days.  So as hard as this is to do in my little free time I’m so happy to be back on Maya cranking away.

Yes, yes, I know it’s been months since I’ve blogged but I’ve been working around the clock and still don’t have anything I can legally show on the site.  BUT, Daniel has begun his final animation short which is due in about 12 weeks and he’s been kind enough to allow me to be his set designer/texture artist so I’ll begin posting that work weekly as we progress.  More details and sketches of that in the next blog.

Yesterday I went to an all day seminar hosted by the Visual Effects Society and Gnomon.  Because of the economy, the writer’s strike and the year long SAG negotiations our industry has suffered a terrible blow.  Work has stopped and the consequence is more and more visual effects houses closing their doors.  My company has had to lay people off including a very close friend.  It’s hard to keep your spirits up under these conditions and not be overwhelmed and incapacitated by fear.  For those trying to break into the industry it’s harder than ever and this seminar was focused on suggestions that could help find work in these tough times.

The gest of it was really reinventing and rebranding yourself.  The entire panel was made up of high end visual effects artists and supervisors, who over the years of technological change, found themselves constantly retraining themselves to evolve with the times and keep working.  It was so validating to hear other people doing exactly what I’m in the middle of.  More importantly it was encouraging to hear that they took ego hits and beat their own heads in frustration as they went back to junior level and began again.  I felt like, whew, I’m doing it right, not crazy or out of my mind as some have suggested.

So here are some notes that Daniel and I took of some of the most important tips they had to suggest:

1.  Study the history of your art so that you don’t keep reinventing the wheel.

2.  Most of the work has moved to England and overseas.  If you have a family you may want to consider 3D work in other areas.  Apparently the medical field is always looking for 3D artists.  Who knew!  But for those of you who are single and love your craft get ready for the  life of a gypsy.  Check out www.travisa.com and brush up on all the rules for living internationally.  (Yes, I started salvitating at this prospect)

3.  Don’t do this job if it’s for the money.  Those days are over and other countries are doing it for cheaper.  BUT if you love it do it.  The money to survive will come on it’s own.

4. Keep looking for work even when you’re gainfully employeed.

5. Always work on your weaknesses.  Do it in your down time.  NEVER stop learning.

6. Investigate your recruiters as well as the artist’s in the community.  Everybody is a lead.  Most importantly, always treat your peers with respect.  They’re the ones you work with day in and out and will be wonderful leads for future work or major roadblocks if you’ve burned a bridge.

7. Check out different companies apprenticeships.  Pixar, ILM, Rhythm and Hues, etc.

8. Job sites that many companies post on:

vfxpro.com

gamasutra

creative heads

lasigraph

motionographer

scratching post

9.  Your website:

a. Spam is effective and it works, so spam out to all the companies you know and want to work for, all over the world, when you’ve finished a job and you’re available for freelance

b. mail bomber www.softheap.com

c. Lynda.com (learn anything for cheap monthly fee)

d. Start your demo with your 2nd best pieces of work and end with your best.

e. Have a strong Home Page

f. Short Bio of your professional career

g. List of recent work

h. detailed breakdown of what you did for each job

i. resume as .pdf and downloadable

j. your demo should be no longer than 3 minutes and you may consider having a generalist reel and a reel of your specialty.  This shows you’re versatile and if they hire you to do one thing they may keep you around if they know you have other skills.

k. make sure your contact info is on your site and in your email doc.

10. http://gotprint.net (great cheap business card site and they look fantastic)

11. your email introduction letter

a. brand it to match your site and logo

b. a headline that’s bold and stands out

c. one paragraph, very short description of who you are and what you do

d. photo of your best work

e. detailed breakdown of what you on the jobs

f. website link

g. contact info, name phone address

10. Create a large list of EVERYBODY in the world you could work for.  EVERYBODY WORLDWIDE.

a. 2-popforum.com/forumsdisplay.php?=180

b. ani-job.com/phpBB3

c. creativeheads.net

d. smoothdevil.com

e. fxguide.com

f. postmagazine.com

g.cinefex.com

h. highend3d.com

i. vfxhq.com

12. How to Prepare for the Interview

a. know the company – ask intelligent questions

b. be prepared – have everything the recruiter would want to see

c. always take a DVD of your reel just in case

d. what are the basics of resume, portfolio, reel – gear portfolio/reel appropriately

e. interview well – be someone they want to work with

f. have something to leave behind, paper resume, business card, reel

g. Network!!

h. The offer: make sure you WANT the offer

i: The offer: have a list of the things you want to cover (salary, hours, benefits), be comfortable with the deadline to give the a yes/no answer, it’s ok to let them know you are entertaining other offers but make sure it’s true and do not tell them who,

j: The offer: Begin negotiations ONLY if you are serious, contact other companies at that time to give them a chance to counter if they’re interested in you as well

k. NEVER LIE, EVER.

l. Negotiation: Be realistic

M. Negotiation: It’s ok to ask a company to match an offer if it’s your first choice – weigh your options carefully, get clarification on contract if needed

N. Negotiation: Do not engage in negotiations if you’re not serious, if you have several offers – notify them all once a decision if made

O. Negotiation: A verbal acceptance IS an agreement

P. Always treat recruiters and managers with respect

Sorry for the continued delay of any posts.  I’ve been working on two projects around the clock and won’t get a break until mid may.  Because of the long hours and no breaks there hasn’t been time for me to do any extraneous 3D practice.  On the otherhand, the projects I’m on, which of course I can’t legally discuss, are giving me tons of 3D practice in all areas from Modeling to Body Paint to UV Mapping, Subsurface Scattering and my beloved Texturing.  There’s even a little fur action thrown in for good measure.  Curious?  Just wait and you’ll see!!

In the meantime cruise on over to http://animation.redforty.com/ or http://toybunny.com/ and check out what the guys are up to.

Jeremy Birns, Pixars Technical Director and brilliant master lighter has a new DVD out “Lights and Shadows” that I highly recommend.

It’s a great compliment to his book “Digital Lighting and Rendering.”  You’ll remember that from the post past when I was recovering from surgery and read it from cover to cover.  Ironically, the entire time I was reading it I keep thinking I wish I had a Maya scene to see how he set up those lights, not just talk about it.  Well this DVD does exactly that and I already picked up a few simple lighting tips that they either forgot to teach me in class, or I forgot that they taught me in class.  It makes lighting a scene so much easier. . .or at least more helpful.  The still image of the room is a scene I’m currently lighting from the tutorial.  I’m going to practice doing a bowl of fruit next.

I share my office with two really great 3D artist’s.  Because of the shape of the room and the fact that they were in there long before I was I got the desk that has my back to them and they get a wide view of my computer monitor.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  About every hour, or even 10 minutes depending on the day, I’ll be banging away on my computer thinking I’m almost done and ready to move on to another part of the job when I’ll hear “Vicki, why are you doing it that way?”  It’s a sobering moment because I’m about to be told what I’ve been doing wrong and the realization that I’ll be redoing it, eating into my precious deadline time and the moment I can put it aside and rest.  At the same time it is the greatest blessing because they’re catching me doing something wrong and helping to correct it before I spiral into a really bad place and completely fail at the job and blow my deadline.  LOL!  But my poor ego.  It’s really taking a battering but the end result, learning and improving is worth it

The Harry Potter logo, below, is a direct result of their instructions, corrections & endless patience.  I’ve always wanted to learn how to create carved type in 3D. Not a simple process like Bevel Plus.  You literally have to model each letter.  For the Harry Potter font it’s even more difficult because the letters are not uniform and have all these crazy edges extruding out and swishes intersecting several letter stems.  Hence, a great logo to practice in those down times.  The first letter “H” took me 8 hours to model, but by the last letter I was able to create it in 20 minutes.  When I get some more time I’ll texture and light it properly as well.

I want to take a moment and get a little sentimental.  Becoming a visual effects artist has been a dream of mine for a long, long time.  Going to Gnomon, even for just six months, was an incredible beginning.  But there’s a reason the school is two years. Six months helped me to learn the very basics and to get me started but certainly not enough to get my skills to a level that would allow me to get a job in features.  At this point I’m now in the school of life and it’s hard.  Really hard.  In the old days (and I’m only talking about 5 to 10 years ago) if you had the brains to figure out a couple of key frames and make something move you could get work.  Deadlines were reasonable and there was such a thing as time for research and design.  But now we’re all faced with deadlines and budget cuts so tight you have to hit the ground doing wheelies and your design has to hit out of the park in the first client showing.  All this means that the bar for entry level is pretty high and getting higher.

That said I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Scott, Daniel and Christian.  Scott has been a good friend and colleague for over a decade now and he was willing to support me through this career change and ensure I had a job to flex and grow my skills.  In this economy I don’t have to tell you what a tremendous blessing and major miracle that is.  So I’m blowing kisses to you Scott and I SWEAR I’ll get faster & better.  I’m working on it!!

Also, that debt is ever growing larger to Daniel and Christian.  As if it’s not enough that I have a job that’s allowing me use my new and raw skill set but I have the two greatest friends and mentors helping me to stroke and fine tune it.  These two young men share their work space and their knowledge with me every day.  I must ask them at least 50 questions an hour on how to do something and they always stop their pressing work and patiently walk me through the process, helping me to understand and grasp this beast called Maya.  But they do even more than that.  They also hold me accountable when I want to slack off from frustration or exhaustion and they always help boost me up when I feel like I’ll never figure this madness out.

It certainly doesn’t feel like enough to express my gratitude but gentlemen, thank you.

I must have rescued a drowning puppy in some other life to be so blessed.  The best pay back I can do for them is to pay it forward.  I was told by a colleague decades ago that we’re all in it together and we have to take care of each other.  It’s true words for every aspect of our lives and the people in it.

So not only am I spending every waking second with my difficult boy-friend “MAYA” but I have to do a little catch up on my After Effects skills as well.  It’s been over three years since I’ve animated regularly in it.  Taking on the role of a Creative Director has the unfortunate result of dust collecting on your 2D compositing and animation chops.  That said I’ve been doing a lot of dusting to catch up.  Just think about how much AE has changed and grown in three years and you’ll get the idea.  The good news is I can learn the new skills fairly quickly and it’s invigorating to watch that area grow exponentially, especially when I feel like I take three steps back for every one forward in Maya.

Since I’m always working I don’t get much time to watch my favorite TV shows.  Such is the blessing of a Digital Recorder.  Horrah!  I have noticed that one station in particular seems to air the shows I prefer, TNT, so I see their graphics package constantly.  I LOVE their new look with the metal ring and the fabulous bubble particles animation they’ve created.  I found a great tutorial on line (http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/the_ring/) that helped me learn how they did it.  Here’s my practice piece from that tutorial using AE: particular and expressions.