Home for winter break, and I have been busy with helping around the house. Oh I did make a level for my level design mechanics class, I need to make a better video to show that off though.
Here are a couple things I have done over break so far though.
Hmm, oh man, it has been so longggg. Someone actually reminded me I had a blog today so now I’m being useful in my procrastination and using it as an excuse to not do C++. Yeah I’m not big on programming, I think we have already discussed this though.
Anyway, let’s see, I kind of skipped blogging for 2 quarters eh? Well, my second and third quarter were MUCH better than my first. Got my transportation all figured out [no buses! buses are evil! biking is faster] and actually taking classes related to my major helped too. It was still a lot of work but definitely more enjoyable for me. 3rd quarter I got some good feedback from the lead environment artist and the art director at 38 studios on my subway environment WIP. That was really cool. Got my first business card handed to me by a potential employer 
.
I have to admit though, I learned the hard way how it’s better to just get stuff done than to try to overachieve and miss your mark. Yeah… perfectionism can be a weakness, and it was with me. I had this environment that I wanted to be perfect, but unfortunately it’s still not done [I got sidetracked with other projects in my free time after the class] Not only was my issue being a perfectionist, I still might have been able to pull through with this weakness, it was that for a while I was actually ahead of everyone in the class but then decided to take a break and do nothing for about 2 weeks or more… NEVER DO THIS! Anyway, I still managed a B in the class but it would’ve been an easy A, so v_v. Oh well, I’ve learned from it and now I have a head start on my studio 1 class project! Though I might try to get the environment done before the class [which I'll be taking next quarter] anyway, we’ll see.
I am really looking forward to this so called “Studio 1″ class though. Basically, from what I hear, you get to pick your own project based on what you want to do with your career. For example I want to be an environment artist, so I’ll be doing some kind of environment. Oh and you also have to keep a blog, so guess what… Yeah actually we wont be using wordpress blogs but I’ll see about setting up a rss feed or something. Oh wait, no one reads this anyway, I forgot, darn it.
Where was I? Oh yes, studio 1. The only other thing I have to say about that is we’re getting a new teacher/chair who is fresh from the industry and who worked as the art director of Homefront [it's not out yet] and he’s going to be teaching that class. So that’s cool, but then I have to decide between him and the lead designer of Crysis for a teacher… Not sure on my decision yet, I’m sure either one would be great though.
This quarter however, I am taking Level Design Mechanics [LDM], C++ [oh man I could never do this for a living] and Survey of Art History 2 [not big on art history, I'm not gonna lie]. It’s kind of nice though because C++ is online and Art History is a Hybrid class so I only have to go in for class Mon-Wed. LDM is cool, we get to learn kismet, which is easy, and make levels.
Enough talk, here is some art!
Latest version of this modular piece of the scene
train station layout
Those are the main two things I really want to get done asap… though I have like at least 3 more projects I could finish for my folio… Not posting them until I start working on them again though.
Today I had my game development and my games industry survey classes. They sound… interesting. Not really in a bad way I just wish they were more art based instead of game design based but maybe that’s just me
Yeah, I do like game design and I’m definitely interested in it, but I feel like I should have more game art related classes since that’s what I’m trying to go into. I don’t want to get all full of game design info that I may or may not ever use and then not have as much art experience as I would like. but yeah we’ll see.
Bleh so bored so I’m writing here. new years… woot… Not only do I have no life but right now I have no 2d or 3d software on my comp since it’s new. I’d download some but I’m on ghetto internet. Parents have people over and I’m avoiding their boring conversations. I go back to SCAD Jan/2 so hopefully that goes smoothly with the new airline seccurity and me getting from the airport to the appartment. Hopefully the SCAD bus system works out and my flight doesn’t run late or anything, otherwise I’ll have to figure out how to call a cab.
Anyway, I started a twitter https://twitter.com/3dGroup feel free to follow. I’m just going to use it to spit out useful 3d related stuff I find and maybe share my work with. If you follow me and I follow you back and you direct message me it should automatically retweet your message so everyone following me can see what you posted… SO feel free to post your work or whatever 3d goodness you find and want to share. 
Finished my first quarter at SCAD Nov 20th. I got 3 classes to transfer at the last minute with a portfolio review, I was thinking of taking the Modeling Materials and Lighting class just for fun even if it transferred but when it did actually transfer I decided it was too much money and I want to graduate before the end of the world [heh]. I’m not sure if anything would have transferred though if it hadn’t been for the game models I finished for work, thank God for that job.
I’ve been working myself up so I can finally have something to post on the polycount boards, hopefully this Sculptural Texturing for Games class will help get me going on some really awesome stuff. I’m already trying to plan what I’m doing for the class… [I managed to get an old syllabus] but yeah, networking ftw! those guys seem really awesome, I’m becoming a fangirl I know 
, but the thing that draws me to it most is that it’s all about game art and non of that silly other stuff so everybody on there is a game artist pretty much and that means almost all the pros there are game artists too.
Oh, and I got a new lap top for Christmas! Now I just need to find all of my software installation disks… guhhh, I”m not sure if they are at SCAD or at home though…
So yep, I go back to scad the 2nd and classes start the 4th so ready or not…
btw, if anyone wants to watch me on deviant art, here I am: http://mental-radiation.deviantart.com/ I’ve been posting my new stuff up there, it’s a lot easier than using this blog believe it or not, besides I don’t keep up with this enough for people to actually want to follow me here.
Oh, also if you are really into getting into the industry, this podcast is 1000x better than my blog http://gim.acanaday.com/ the guy who runs it is on polycount and actually in the industry and discusses/interviews other people from the industry… ANDDDD he keeps it more up to date than I do. So there ya go, DO EET NAOW!!!
So it’s been a while, and I’ve been pretty busy. Still not as much work as I would like to show but I’ll post some stuff I’ve been working on at the end of this.
Anyway so yeah, SCAD is real school alright. I wish I would’ve stayed at my community college and taken a few more classes that would’ve transferred though, I’m technically a “sophomore” right now and not taking any major related classes -_-. {sigh}
For fall quarter I’m in 3d design, survey of western art history and drawing 2. Drawing 2 is the most fun, and i’ve been trying to practice at home on my own a little so I’m not at the bottom of the class. When I first started I thought I was THE worst one in there but I think I blend in decently now… I was just freaking out a little.
So yeah… I need to manage my time better and spending time on a blog makes me feel pretty guilty for not doing work instead so I’m just going to post these things for now.
speedpainting/unfinished but whatever:
most recent, 1 hour
so yeah painting isn't really my thing just so you know
dude
lips and teeth
First let me apologize, I’m pretty tired and so I didn’t go into much detail about anything and didn’t really say anything useful. Not like anyone reads this anyway.
So my wrist actually kept being sore after the last post for a couple of weeks, so I took it easy on it. Really don’t need to get RSI… I’ve also been pretty busy with work and I have a good load of character animations to complete before I leave work to get ready for SCAD.
Oh yeah, I’m going to SCAD this fall. It’s all been pretty stressful trying to get everything in to go on time because my acceptance was so late but I think it’ll come together. I still have to worry about my housing fee getting there on time and figure out why I’m listed as a freshmen… Anyone know the transfer evaluators email or if they even have one? Oh well, it’s going to be an awesome experience, and I’m going to learn a ton I’m sure. Still though, I’m uneasy about all the loans… guh. They aren’t my first loans either… Oh yeah, I’m going into major dept. My parents really want to help but can’t, at least for now. So going to SCAD has both a light and dark side to it. Money isn’t everything at least…
Anyway on a more positive note, I should be getting back into 3d soon. At least when I go to SCAD anyway. This weekend starting tonight I’m going to also try finishing a model for a small competition I’ve been working on. I haven’t really had too much time for it lately so it’ll be good for me.
Well, I’ve been doing 3D a ton lately at work and at home. It’s starting to catch up to me I guess though because today at work my wrist started to hurt. It’s a little bit of a bummer because I love getting stuff done Friday nights but I think I’m going to take a break for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow It wont bother me and I’ll be able to finish the highpoly of something I’ve been working on lately. I’ll post it when I’m done.
Man though, I really have a ton of work to do. It’s not as bad now that I’m probably not going to have to submit a portfolio by August for schools to look at since I’m probably not going to school… I don’t know, but I need to stop making new projects for myself even if they are small and just for fun. I’m trying to work on a mod, participate in a competition I practically promised to participate in, finish this model that I’m going to work on tomorrow and hopefully post soon, and I have a ton of other stuff that I need to finish. I’m not going to be making any new projects for a while. Yeah, I have issues with starting something and then getting bored of it and starting something else. This probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem if I alternated working on like two projects instead of 5 or so. I now recognize this issue though and am trying to teach myself to manage my projects a little better. After all, it’s always better to have a few good finished pieces than a ton of scraps.
This week at work kind of started off as “blah, what the crap am I doing!”, but it ended up well. I usually know what I’m doing at work though, but this week there was a lot of dealing with things I had never done before, like animating a character in 3ds Max [I'm more of a Maya animator] and getting it safely into the Unity engine, but I figured it out in the end with some help.
There were some other little issues too but it all came out in the end and I learned not to assume things even if you think your lead implied them… otherwise you may end up doing way more work than you have to.
OK SO… I decided that using the free version of WordPress as a portfolio page was a bit unprofessional and that I need to rework my portfolio anyway. I also thought it might be interesting to document my “epic quest”, as I like to call it [I'm a nerd, I know], to get a job as an environmental artist for a commercial video game company. So, here I am, my first real blog post on this journey for my dream job.
I guess I should start by giving a little background on myself, which I will probably elaborate on more once I write an “about me” page of some kind. Anyway, I’ve always loved video games. In high school I honestly didn’t know what the heck I wanted to choose as my profession. I always thought working was supposed to be about making money more than about fun. Eventually I thought to myself “Well, computer science sounds kind of cool I guess, CS people make money, and I like computers… Maybe I could even go into video games some day…” Hah! Sadly, the most computer science I had ever experienced was from a couple of game maker tutorials and messing around with some config files from old pc games. Really though, I knew I knew nothing, I just didn’t realize what I was getting into.
That first year of college majoring in CS, I was still very prone to ways of the slacker culture of highschool and didn’t expect college to be much different. Well kids, it’s different. Don’t be a slacker, and if you don’t know what you’re going to be when you grow up, try saving $20k and going to a community college for a couple of years. At least take a few classes that you think might be interesting before you invest that much money. Just know what you are getting into before you try to just jump in, and know that it’s going to take a ton of work, even more than just the assignments if you want to be good!
My first semester at college really wasn’t too bad, but, like I said, I really was pretty much a slacker and wasn’t into it at all. Actually, the only class I wasn’t a slacker in was my elective, drawing 1 class… I have always been interested in art and really enjoyed it, but I never thought of making it my profession due to the lack of money it tends to yield. That was my favorite class that year though, gooood timesss.
Second semester was a real pain, I ended up dropping the only CS course I had, pretty much vowing to never take it again. This was when I decided: “I don’t care about the stinking money, ART IS FREAKING AWESOME!”
So, still wanting to go into video games, I decided that I still liked computers and that 3D was the way to go for me. Unfortunately my 20k/yr college didn’t have any kind of program for that so I transferred back home to my 1 or 2k a year community college. Ahh, much better… For the first time in my life, I loved school and was doing homework for fun.
And here I am, I have my Associates in digital media, now what? I’d really like to continue my formal education, but it’s just too darn expensive for me right now. I currently work for a company that does a lot of military contract work, and we are making a serious game in the Unity engine, but I still want a commercial game job. My current job is really great and all, and I can’t complain about the hours, but I’d like to be able to look back on a game that I helped create and say “Man, I want to play that again!”, I really want to be surrounded by the best of the best, and I want to be on the edge of innovation and new technology.
In order to achieve my goal of becoming an artist in the commercial game industry, I know it’s going to be hard work, especially since I probably wont have a school to help push me along with my portfolio creation. I have my forums for inspiration though, and I really need to start participating in the bigger ones more in my free time. Anyway, I’m going to use this blog to post WIPS of my creations as well as discuss certain things in my life related to getting a game industry job. Therefore, this blog will pretty much be a sketchbook/journal, and I may or may not go a little off subject from time to time.
All in all, people please DO NOT look on this as my portfolio, because it’s not. If you want to see my portfolio then go away for about a year and come back and if I still don’t have a link to my real portfolio up here then go away again, lol.
