Back to "THE JOB"

As I suspected, it's been really crazy. I've been out of the country for almost six days now. I have two more days to go before I get back to the United States.

It's been difficult concentrating. On one end, I want to tuck myself away in my room and submerse myself in my work. On the other end, I'm tired, I want to be social, and I'm used to working in my designated office in the basement of my home.

I've gotten a little work done, but unfortauntely I'd forgotten to install the highest version of my software onto my laptop, so at my first attempt I haven't been able to open up my files.

I had to start from stratch: Reimport the original drawing .jpeg and model the clouds I haven't gotten to yet. I've almost completed Cloud #6.

So, besides eating exotic foods, catching up on my sleep, running errands, and some miminal hustling at the gym, I've been occupying myself watching tutorials and working on a project the my friend and I had started working on a few months back. I'd like to get back to that at some point soon, as well.

At this rate, traveling and relocating every two days drains me. All I want to do is relax, and I can't stand that, because I hate relaxing when I know I have a lot to do. So here I am, *itching and complaining.

But the poistive end of things, are that are am neraly done with the modeling end of the side design. I'd give myself another week or so, if I can summon up the energy around 'the job'. It's going to be straight job-working for the next two weeks or so, with a day off or two in between each shift. So, I can't predict how long it will take to get the design done, but I can try to use my dedication to know that know matter how long it takes me, it will get it done. All of it.

So, I'm off to finish this cloud, and take a nice bath, and, yes, backwards it is and I am, get myself to the 24-hour-gym for a run.

In the Midst of a Busy Schedule...

So the break is over. I've decided the best course of action to be most effective with putting the right attention on my artwork, would be a work in chunks... To bid two weeks on the 'real' job and two weeks off the real job. This will allow the proper focus my work deserves. These last to weeks, besides some much-needed life-breaks, were really beneficial. And I'd like to keep up with the pace I was on.

My schedule for the next two and a half weeks will be overloaded with my real job. Although, it's kind of depressing, I guess I was ready to get back to work. Today marks my sixth year at my job. Six longs years at that company. Went by fast.

So I'm bidding my schedule for March accordingly. First two weeks on, last couple weeks off. And I'll condense that time off with the begining of April, so I could have even more of a gap of time off. Hopefully it will work out.

In any event, I'm on Cloud #5. Finished Cloud #4 tonight. I have two more clouds to go, after #5. Then, it's off to touch them up so they look identical to one another. And to quad-check them, so that I'll be able to export them into another application for further detail.

Once I finished the hashed-out design, I'll export it to Photoshop and get the scaling of the image right so that it fits correctly with the site. That way I'll know how much background I'll need without distorting the image. And from there, I can add the other background designs I had in mind....

Then, to texture. Then, animate.

Sounds like a lot of work. But when I think about it, if I had more time, it wouldn't be.... What to do? Oh well. Have to make money.

So, in the middle of a ran-sack weeks, while stuck on the plane, I can't really do much computer-wise. So, I plan on using that time to catch up on my magazines, learn some more, and fill up my sketch book with more poses of Billy. And start some new gestures with another old character I've been meaning to get to.

I've been itching to write to my screenplays lately, too. I don't know when I'll find the time to concentrate on that, but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

It's been hard focusing on one thing; more effort than actually working on that one thing... I'm surpised at myself for keeping on track this far, but I guess the drive is has been more overbearing then everything else.

Where, though, has my life gone? Friday night, and I have to be up in four hours for a sixteen hour work day... Back in the day, I would have been taking my chances oversleeping for work on a night out at the bar. Now, I take my chances oversleeping on a night over my computer. Yes, I've turned into a 26-year old geek, and I love it.

Man, I can use a drink, though. On that note.... :) Good night.

Behind Schedule...

So, here's the updated model of the cloud. It's looks like the drawing, so that's a start. The only thing I'm not satisfied with is the depth of the ropes, but I guess I could fix that up with the lighting and once I start texturing. The texture otherwise is too basic against the background.

My original plan was to get all the clouds done by Wednesday. That's not going to happen... I'd rather take my time and make it look good, than plow through.

I'm completely wiped out from pushing points around all night. So, I'll leave this blog at that. My only concern is once everything's put together that the flow and feel is consistent.

COUNTDOWN.

One week left before I have to go back to work. Two more days before I go away to see my Uncle in California... and a whole *hit-ton of stuff to do.

I officially think I may have a love/hate realtionship with 3D. I can't stand it. But I love it. How would one reason that? It just takes forever and a day. The end grafication, as awesome as it is, isn't as immediate as I would like.

And polygon clouds? Ugh. I'm fairly happy with the way the one cloud is coming along so far. It's just hard to handle the flow of all of the faces in a non-uniformed geometry. I know I'm complaining about it more than praising it.

I'll love it more when I finish. It will give my a sense of accomplishment. It always does. I know this whole site will, if prayfully I could manage to get it done.

I still have a lot of work to do on cloud1, so I won't leave you with a close up of it just yet. I messed around with some textures in photoshop, but I'm still brainstorming exactly just what I want to do. I know I want the starholders to be like golden cords, weaved like ropes. And I think I might want a sense of crosshatch like the drawings have.

The short of my goal is to finish the modeling of the Side Design before I go away... Let's see if I can do it. I think I may need some luck, but then again I can always just duplicate if I run out of time.

It will be done by Wednesday. And since I probably won't have much time to work on my computer while I'm away, I'll probably just focus on photoshop-ing Billy.

So Here's The Plan

Tonight I figured I'd try and start the side design for my website. I've been thinking about it for weeks now. The image below is my first drawing that inspired me to become an animator. It was drawn about ten years ago, when I was in highschool and was chosen to be on the front cover of "Ozone", my school's newspaper. Felt good, especially since he looks pretty scary. lol.

Anyway, enough of it's history. But it did centralize my passion in both character design and animation. I drew my side view soon afterward and it's all down a crumbling-starving-artist hill from there. :)



(Here's Clown's side image)



...So... The Clouds...



**This is just a quick test I did tonight. Not the final version**

That's sort of the stlye I'm going for in the side image of my sight, but fluffier. The edges of the clouds are a little too sharp. But I'm going to use these clouds with the stars connected by cords. The stars will be golden and sparkling.

Upon opening the page the stars will swing from right to left and point toward the main menu, releasing a golden pixie dust across the background...

In the end it will take longer piecing apart the clown drawing than just drawing the clouds over again in the layout I want... So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to head back to the drawing board-- literally speaking)

So I'm undecided if I should work in solely Photoshop. Or if I should model everything in 3D then bring the render into Photoshop. I think I'd like the latter, because the dimensions would be real and the shadows would be real. I'm thinking of going for a very subtle greenish lighting (undecided on that, too). But I do know I want the stars to look embossed like heavy plates of gold. So, I'll probably model them out in 3D and if things aren't looking as planned, I'll use Photoshop as the alternative.

The side image will set the tone of the rest of the page (buttons, blocks, and so on), so I have to get this done first.

So, my course of action for the next week, while I work on 'digifying' Billy's designs. It feels like that would be a lot time but at the same time a week seems short right now.

On that note, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow at twelve, so I'm off to struggle into resting mode and hopefully brianstorm myself to unconsciousness.

Billy Buck's FACIAL EXPRESSIONS...

I am feeling...


...Deliriously Tired.


But It was Worth It.