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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.

My sincerest apologizes for going two full months between postings.  Getting back into the swing of a work schedule has taken me some time to adjust to, as well as getting a handle on being a junior again.  I never seem to leave work before 7p or 8p, at the earliest, because it takes me four times as long to do a project as anyone else.  I spend most of my days just trying to figure out what button to push and am filled with great joy when something works. . . not necessarily looks good, but works!!  Ahhhh, the joys of being a newbie again.

Most of the projects I’m currently working on I can’t discuss or display progress on until after they street because of disclosure agreements.  That said, I’m working on a couple of long term jobs that will tie up many months before I can post anything.  But I do have personal projects and hundreds of tutorials I continue to do, every weekend to further my learning, and I’ll try and start posting those regularly.  I swear for every one new thing I learn I realize there’s a 1000 other things I need to figure out.

So the second day back at work I was asked to design and animate a small graphics package for HBO for a special they were running, covering President Obama’s Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.  They wanted something very simple and elegant that they could key live over the event and to drop into large flat screen panels to loop.  Here’s a 5 second clip of the animation for the looping panels.  I had to learn the basics of Maya N-cloth to pull this package off.  Thanks to my dynamics class & very patient instructor, I was able to carry over what I learned there to grasp N-cloth and get a handle on it, especially when I had to start moving the pieces of cloth around during the open animation.

For the past 3 weeks I’ve enjoyed being a complete and utter bum.  My brain completely shut down.  I’ve slept in even later than usual and rarely got out of my pajamas except for a daily hike in the mountains, and always topped off the day by watching lots of movies.  It’s been absolute heaven.  But alas, like all good things, this glorious time of slough is rapidly coming to an end.

Starting next Monday I return to work and join the 3D team as a junior 3D generalist and, I thought, a Senior Art Director.  I was really looking forward to letting go of a lot of responsibilities and just focusing on my designs and animations.  But there’s no escaping the previous talent and experience I already have, and as my father pointed out, no one’s going to be crazy enough to let those skills go to waste.  So yesterday the call came offering me the chance to return as a Creative Director, overseeing the 3D team, as well as, joining them as a 3D generalist.  It’s a very unique and unusual position in that I’ll be able to art direct and guide the creativity while being able to take on all the junior 3D work, freeing up the senior 3D artists to allow them to grow and push their projects and themselves further.  And because you can’t & shouldn’t art direct your own work the 3D team will be able to role reverse with me, art directing me & my work, helping me grow and hone my own 3D skills while they learn how guide the art and further the mentoring.

It’s an incredible opportunity and challenge and, like my entire career (or life for that matter), slightly unconventional.

In all my excitement for this next chapter I’m also filled with apprehension and a bit of fear.  It’s one thing to go to school and learn and quite another to put that new and very shaky knowledge to real work and frightening deadlines.  Everyone at The Studio has such high expectations for me and I just hope I’ll be able to live up to their standards and still be allowed to be the 3D junior who makes lots of mistakes.  I keep telling everyone I’ve learned just enough to get myself into a lot of trouble.  But at the same time those same high expectations will also be the motivation and drive to push me to learn and grow faster than if I was at some shop where no one knew me and didn’t expect me or rely on me to do anything more complicated than the basics.  Besides, fear has always been part of my relentless drive to overcome and conquer it.

So in these final days I’m trying to force myself to go to bed at 10p and get up at 7a so that the culture shock will be less painful next week.  My body soooo doesn’t want to do that!  I’m also watching tutorials on the new Maya 2009 render passes and trying to organize my digital library to take with me.

All I need now is a new Scooby-Doo lunchbox and some shiny new shoes.

Happy New Year everyone!

With mixed feelings I finished up my last class, Kinematics, today and with that the second term of Gnomon comes to a close.  I put my heart and soul into learning these past 6 months, not taking any real days off, studying, studying, studying.  Yep, I’m pooped.  But I can honestly say this has been one of the happiest times of my life.  I love learning Maya, I love the sense of artistic freedom and the ability to dream without limits, knowing that with a little time and effort, I can create it.

I can’t believe how much I’ve learned and how far I still have to go just to be good enough to be considered a junior 3D generalist.  But I’m feeling very proud of what I’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time and I’m excited to go back to work and start applying my new skills.  I’m even more excited to see where I’ll be at a year from now and how much further I’ll have grown by then.  Nothing teaches you faster then being in the thick of it with the deadlines looming, clients screaming and your computers crashing.  But before all that begins, first, a real rest and a time to enjoy the holidays.

I will not be keeping a regular weekly blog from this point on but I will continue to post personal projects progress and any work related projects that I legally can.  So stop by on occasion and keep throwing out your advice and thoughts.  It’s much appreciated and let’s face it. . . the learning’s just begun.

Thanks Daniel and Christian for supporting me through this incredible ride.  Hope you won’t regret it when I move into your office space in 4 weeks.  I’ll do my best to not taint the 3D testosterone room too much with my girlish ways!!

Peace.

Horrah!  Despite the setbacks with losing weeks of animation because of the referencing snafu I was still able to complete my final project for Dynamics.  I’d like to go back in and continue working on my particles, pushing the dust bits that float through the air, making them more organic and feel like pieces of dust up close, passing by the camera, but for now here is my final submission for the class.

Enjoy.