New Weezer album is released on June 3. It’s on my calendar - how ’bout yours?
Until then, enjoy the video for “Pork and Beans” on the new Red Album. It stars Weezer (of course) along with a number of familiar faces…
wow. So that was the end of my first week as an animator.
The job has been very cool - the people are super cool, the training is going well, the project seems like it will be a lot of fun. And the company has been really cool to us - even a new guy like me. Earlier in the week, one of the execs came in with a stack of tickets to AMC theaters and basically handed them out to everyone, telling us that things were going to be kind of crazy - the project I’m on has a quick turnaround time from what I’m told - and that the company wanted to not only send us all to the movies, but that we HAD to go on company time. How awesome is that!?
So there’s a couple of us going to save our tickets until something like Indiana Jones comes out in a few weeks and go then. Of course, we’ll all probably have like 5 shots hanging over our heads by then…
Anyway, now the second week is teed up and I can’t wait to get started. If I’m right, they’ll assign me my first shot this week, and I can’t wait to dig into it. I’ve been working on a little training scene they put together, and it’s cool and a challenge to work on, but I really want to get something from our project. I’ve seen some of the other new animators who hired on before I did, and the stuff they’re doing looks like a lot of fun.
Hopefully, this gig will go past June 30. I know the company is really getting busy and they have a number of projects lined up. I’ve seen some stuff written up here and there, and the upcoming stuff looks like they could be a lot of fun. It’d be awesome if this turned into a job that went for a while.
So it begins.
Heh…maybe a bit too melodramatic, but it’s been a heck of a weekend and this is the first time I’ve actually looked forward to a Monday in a long, long time.
Seven years is a long, long time. That’s how long I worked for my last employer - I was in marketing for over 10 years! All in all, I’d say the first 3 years were very good. I worked for a company called Deutsche Financial Services - a company that provided boat and RV loan services. Marketing that service wasn’t the most exciting job in the world, but I worked with really great people. One of whom became my wife, so all in all it was a good three years.
The next seven were, I would say, neither good nor bad. They just were. It’s odd to think that I spent so long in a place I clearly didn’t love working, but when you don’t exactly hate it either, it doesn’t seem so bad…it’s just someplace you go, day in and day out, to earn the money you need to live. In retrospect, that’s really no way to live a life. I’m just glad I figured out what I wanted to do, and was able to pursue it.
And now, here I sit. It’s Sunday night and I’m practically counting down the hours until I’ll wake up, get ready for work (casual dress! It’s the little things that make it all worthwhile), get the kids to daycare, and then get on a train to go to work in Burbank. How awesome is that?
Couple rather random thoughts:
1. Last Exile - I’m not a huge anime fan. I mean, I like a few things I’ve seen, mainly movies, but I had yet to find a series that I really found interesting. Well, I take that back a bit - when I was younger I was really into Robotech - LA’s channel 13 showed the Macross Saga - one episode per day every day of the week…Anyway, I found Last Exile due to Netflix’s Watch Now feature and figured, “What the heck, I’ll take a look,” and I’m glad I did. It’s got a crazy steampunk vibe to it - giant airships that look like they came out of the 1920’s, smaller personal airships (called Vanships) that fly one some water-based technology. I’m not even sure I could explain the plot, but for whatever reason, it has managed to suck me in for now. The animation isn’t always great, and some of the dialog is pretty atrocious, but it keeps me coming back for more. That can’t be all bad, right?
2. My final week at work - I’m down to my last week at work before I start my first animation job. Now that I’ve made it through Monday, I’m down to my last 4 days. 4 days isn’t so bad, right? RIGHT?
3. Roxanne - back to work now on my Roxanne shot. I really need to get this thing wrapped up and taken care of so that I have some new material to put on my reel. I imagine I’ll wind up with some good stuff from my job, but I have no idea when it will become available to me. I know in at least one case, the actual game isn’t scheduled to be released until nearly the end of the year, so if I’m given any shots from that game, I probably won’t have them accessible to me for a while…So I need to get this Roxanne shot finished up, and hopefully one more as well.
4. Mafia 2 - I just found out about this game today. Mafia was one of my all-time favorite PC games. It was a GTA-style, “sandbox” game that took place in the 1930’s and follows the story of taxi driver Tommy Angelo who, through a twist of fate, gets caught up in Don Salieri’s organization, one of two warring mafia families in the city of Lost Heaven. Tommy finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the family, initially acting as a driver, then moving up the ranks while completing jobs involving extortion, bootlegging, assassination, arson…you know, all the good wholesome aspects of gaming.
Anyway, a few years back I had heard rumors that Mafia 2 was going to be in the works, but nothing ever seemed to come of it. Then today I was just browsing through Wikipedia, happened upon the entry for Mafia, and saw that Mafia 2 had been announced - Happy Day! This time around the action takes place in the 40s and 50s in Empire City and the player must take control of another young man involved in organized crime. To say I’m looking forward to this is an understatement. I’ll post updates as I find out more.
One week down, one to go. Giving two weeks’ notice can just seem like it lasts forever. But, on the positive side, I have five more days of work, and then I can put that job behind me forever. It’ll be so sweet.
So I’m very, extremely, super happy to announce to the 2 or 3 people who read this blog that I’ve just been offered my first job as an animator! Technicolor Interactive provides creative services to game developers - mainly working on stuff like in-game cinematics. You may remember the Gears of War “Mad World” trailer. Yep, that was Technicolor (along with all the in-game cinematics on that game). They’re involved in some crazy good stuff and I’m super excited to be joining them. My freelance contract starts in 2 weeks!
Well, I’m starting in on a new shot. I’ve chosen a clip from Roxanne - a great movie from the 80’s with Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah. It’s a version of Cyrano de Bergerac set in modern time. I’ll spare you the plot outline and just jump directly to the clip I’m going to use.
I like this one because it starts out rather intense, then just devolves into parody as Daryl Hannah’s character completely mis-hears what Steve Martin is yelling. Feels like there’s a lot of good opportunities in there to have fun with the acting and some of the facial expressions.
I’ll post up some of my planning, blocking, etc. as I get it done. I’m still looking for a job, so this new shot is going to be playing second fiddle for a while as I make sending out my reel a priority…
Wish me luck!
Well. Who knew it was so hard to keep a blog updated regularly! Certainly not me…
Anyhoo, I’ve been pretty dang busy - graduation, then a trip to Florida for a work thing, then working to polish up my demo reel, etc., etc., etc. The upshot of all that is…well…I’ve pretty much finished my demo reel - for now. I mean…it’s never REALLY done, is it? I know I can’t look at much of my older work without thinking of all the various ways I could have improved it in some small fashion, plus I feel like some of the oldest stuff on here is pretty stale and needs to be replaced with something new.
But, this will do for now. Sure, after a week or two of sending this out, I’ll start to get antsy about animating (awesome alliteration, eh?), and will start a new dialogue shot, but until that time comes around, this is my final, polished reel. That’s my story, anyway, and I’m stickin’ to it!
AnimationMentor opened up for the new term, and I’m not a part of it and it feels strange. Of course, I’m super-happy to have graduated - nothing could change that. But there’s something to be missed in the ritual of an internet search to find out just who your mentor is and what he or she has worked on, finding out what date and time your Q&A session is each week, and posting hundreds of welcome messages to the incoming students (some people are more prolific than others…)