"BABY STEPS"

So the design of Jabba is complete and approved, and I suddenly find myself restless for more. It just feels as if expressing myself isn't enough sometimes. Sometimes, when the timing of life seems unbalanced, it feels as if it holds, boils, then simmers down to the strongest remaining ingredients, and I find the urge to prove myself to myself.

Like a long distance runner that finds that simple reasoning to not stop before their intended distance. They just can't. They won't. It's the trek that they look back on and gloat, most understandably, because they say that it is the journey and not the destination that it the most important remnant of one's successes. It's not what others see, but rather a checklist of what goals you can achieve that brings satisfaction and comfort.

I was happy was the result of Jabba. And thankfully so was my client.



I timed myself so that I had an idea of how long I took in respect to if I should ever dive into more designing. Time optimization and the output of presentable work is most key, when it comes to getting business. Hopefully more is to come.

Which brings me to where I am now.

Free. To do whatever I wish.
It's been liberation, ironically, that stagnates me the most.

So, on a break from uploading the remaining contents of my site, I'm on Zbrush (again), in the midst of typing reference notes and working through my first lesson of "Introducing Zbrush" by Eric Keller. My background looks like one of a fourth grader. It's really humbling, as I try to keep my end results in mind, and I shake my head to keep focus-- as I know that I will only achieve my desired prowess with tightly reigned patience.

Tomorrow I will begin to find Zbrush artists that I mentor and start my study of styles and researching of approaches. And tomorrow I will post my completed lesson from chapter 3, even if the progess is amateur. And tomorrow I will finish chapter 3, and get into chapter four.

As I quote from the great comedy, "What about Bob", which knocks boots to considerations of both crazed and sane, it holds ridiculous in its delivered content but is quite true to life: "Baby Steps."

Eventually, I will return to load up the rest of my work to the site and continue to output more traditional drawings as I learn a foreign and necessary program for my future, but for now-- the fundamentals of me and my current interests are out there for the world to critique.

Chapter 3's lesson (four grade appearance and all) = tomorrow. I'll do my very best to make it look as good as possible, but learning shouldn't be too neat. I'll also include some quick notes that can be referenced of awkwardness that I found in emerging from other 3D programs. Some might want to keep attuned to these quick references and hold them close at hand for those short term memory lapses. I know that why I take notes! Plus, short notes is always great when your a multi-tasker and your dabbling is not always consistent or daily as you'd like. There IS a lot to absorb, obvious enough...

Everyday I try to read them over, even if I can't "get with the program".

A Reminiscent Writer.

Many, many years ago before ambitions, goals, and dreams crept into the realities of growing up, I used to be a dedicated writer writing for the sake of escape only. No plot ever really came to mind ahead of time maybe mere moments before I started a session, I remember. I only had the ending planned and that was enough drive to zigzag and race eagerly through flips of pages per day.

I wasn't worried about the rules of having too many subplots or characters, narrative hooks, climaxes, or (as I had taken creative writing classes in my later college years) crafting the most luxurious Denouement to sum the story.

I just wrote my heart content. Everyday. From getting out of school up until dinnertime and then from dinnertime until it was time to go to sleep, squeezing in some quick needs for hygiene, self-maintenance, and whatever schoolwork needed to be done. Why? I think it was because I loved creating life and bonds. I was interested in what motivated people and foreign in understanding, so from there a whole story had potential to unravel. Discovering journeys, conflict, emotion, heroism -- all the fights of what makes a life of life. And the love of resurrecting creatures that only rummaged captive deep in my dreams.

I'm such I was also inspired by my brother. He was deeply involved with the Dungeons and Dragons role playing games before they had gone digital, of course. I never played but would constantly steal his "Monstrous Compendium" and his "Dungeon Master's Handbook" (and his dice) to TRY to understand what he was doing. There lies a whole other story for why I dove head first into making this layout for my own game.

My writing started through a stroll through the bookstore, possibly with my brother, I'm sure. I discovered a series called Dragonlance that just about possessed me into a blissful state of fantastical time consumption where all things surrounding me were obsolete. I was in prepubescent love and tapped my inner geek.

I plowed through this series as if it was going out of print. I was so smitten, I even went so far as to intentionally, but nonchalantly, show off the cover of the book that I was reading in a family photo. It was "Dark Heart". So vivid. And, yes, I sound like a complete geek, but I'm reminiscing so its okay. I live in reminiscing. I'm sure it will be the death of me.

This is where I became a teen writer. And this is where my writing surged into full force until I was about 22 or so. And then I ventured into other creative areas. An array of artsy-fartsy. Yes...

I completed 315 pages to a book I called "Desire for Evil". I don't want to reveal all because it is will forever be unpublished and still so close to me, and honestly because it was so long ago I can't really remember it too well.

Basically, the main character, a young impoverished orphan without a defined class and wayward, is forced into a journey to search for his younger brother after his brother is kidnapped by minion's of evil goddess Takhisis without reason. On this journey, the character finds his identity, learns the secrets to why his brother was taken, and what he must do to rescue him.

After I completed it, I researched what I was reading. Drangonlance was set along the Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms series, all published by the same company. A company called TSR, Inc. I decided to send out my work without premeditated worry of rejection that festers inside me now, and in the following days continued onto the sequel.

Over 250 pages and about 8 months into the sequel later, I received a letter of response. I was shocked. I honestly didn't believe they would reply, but they did. And to this day, I am humbled by it because it give me a sense of great accomplishment.



The novel "Desire for Evil" never did take off. I was too young too understand what
'copyright' really meant. I remembered the word 'solicited' and became curious. And soon I learned another word. I didn't take it to heart, because I knew I was really young and novice.

"Desire for Evil" was my own primary set of characters and places within an already existent world and it was all me representing me, as usual. And the story was too intertwined into the world to go back and edit everything-- now especially because of what I've learned over the years on technique and structure. I was so young that even the language would be amateur.

So I scratched both book and half book, and continued onto the next. Which I called "Braid of the Gemini". The length crept to about 150 pages, when my hard drive failed and I lost near to everything.

The only remains I have to date is 60 pages to an abandoned book, my first, that I titled "Thunderstar", one hard copy of "Desire for Evil", and a book follwing the rest called "Braid of the Gemini" which is garbled with onslaughts of symbols and numbers leading each line of text. The entire sequel, which name's failing to come to mind at the moment, was lost forever along with other writings.

Better than nothing. But... god that was painful. I remember when my Uncle told my that he couldn't recover all of my work, that I had to sit on my stoop and cry for a good 20 minutes before I could find some composure to stand up and move on.

I forever made sure I did my best to back up my artwork -- EVERYWHERE.
(Please see other post and read carefully) ;)

"Desire for Evil" is part now part of my history. Maybe I achieved my small successes long ago, and can sit back now and reminisce and settle with personal feat.

TSR was nice enough to also send along their guidelines and offered options that I never realized were possible. As someone explained later on, they said ALL work to be considered for publication needs to be through an agent: what I always thought was more "solicited" than not, but that's not entirely true.

I've coming to realize that a lot companies shun agencies. At least as advertised. Even in CG.

When my drive failed, I continued onward from this and from fantasy in a way, but never from writing. I started another project which stops at 246 as of the year 2005. That novel I don't say much of, because I still feel faith that I will one day return to complete it. Maybe.

But if not, I hope it dies with me.

One day, I would love to return to writing, but for now, it's the fundamentals of my present focus-- finding a job to keep my resume fresh and keeping on my forever long trek to become a pro Zbrusher.

If you want to read some of my work some time, let me know! I'd love that. My website has my contact information and will soon also have excerpts of some of my writing.

Zbrush: Do I love modeling?

Yes. Which means, that I will never give up in strained efforts to try and learn this software. Being busy with easier or more fun artist things, is an excuse that is just not good enough.

Learning programs has never glued my passions to computer art, because computers are computers, technology is technology, and unless I want to continue to be left behind-- I must keep on my slow and steady race to catch up.

My newest issue: Since the last time I opened zbrush a new edition was released and the interface and some hot keys changed. So I have to backtrack to the notes I had taken on Introduction to Zbrush (by Keller) and readjust them, and then relearn what had never truly been ingrained into my system in the first place. Very frustrating.

I'm taking baby steps: Today, with the hour or two left that I have before I have to travel out, I have programed my express keys on my wacom tablet for my two tablet-centered programs of choice (Photoshop and Zbrush) am now drilling these keys into my head as if I am a program myself. I feel like a robot. If I do this everyday atleast once a day it will become second nature.

Soft of like my daily drawings. I finished the finalized illustration of Jabba last night, but cannot post him until I get the nod from my client that the design is approved and that his release to the public is permissible. Until I can get back home, though, I can't get a confirmation. In the flux of commissioned versus non-commissioned artwork I am weary and to disagreeable to sending any copies via internet.

My time drawing him was rewarding, so I feel as sense of ownership over him right now and I do look foward to posting him soon. He would make a great zbrush model!

Now, back to my zbrush trials... One day I hope to post my zbrush work on here as well. Until then, my struggle continues.

Different Avenues, One focus.

Well, it's official. My 1TB external drive is non-recoverable. The data was inside is now lost and gone forever. I'm gathering up my collection of computer "stuff" from each working computer that I own and backing everything up (yet again) on (yet another) new drive.

On a positive note, I am still on my daily drawing kick. Nibbler is now complete and has received a bunch of thumbs up on my facebook page, which has always been nice and rewarding feeling for me since I don't actively work on my art around people too much:



If anyone out there wants to find me on Facebook, I'm always looking for new friendships and new contacts. I can be found under Lisa Marie Erickson (New York) and will be most happy to add you.

On other topics, I've created a to do list which I'm slowing checking off: Some of which are my own projects that had been placed on the back-burner and some of which are for others. Either way, it's a lengthy list and helps give me that extra push toward yet another challenge.

Tomorrow, it is on to start drawing Jaba, the African Bull Frog, which, based on how this sketch turns out, may become the ignition to designing more reptile cartoons.

Of all the facets of art, I always loved cartooning and character design the most. So, this really excites me.

For now, my website has kept me busy this week. Today I worked own customizing the design by making a mini sitemap at the bottom of the work page in case a viewer wanted to see something very specific easily, instead of rummaging through categories along the top navbar. My goal is to make my site as condensed with information I as can in as uncluttered a format as possible. The navigation of the interface is functional and fluid... (This also help ease my curiosity in becoming a UI designer).

I also placed my information along the bottom of the splash page, so that one can see my credentials or contact me while the video loads and the site images cache.

So, now what's left how I will layout the remainder of the content. Specifically on my mind, my writing section.

I'm ambitious to get some of my writing out there, too, lately. I've had a few requests over time from people that have taken interest. For as far back as I can remember, my writing, like my cartooning, has always been a very predominant part of my life.

Back To The Drawing Board

Ever since I started winding down from my last commissioned project, and even more so after experiencing large scale dual drive failures, I've been burning the lead against the blank pages of my sketchbook once again trying to recreate new additions for my small gang of characters.

I've been thinking of small encounters between one character and another, crafting snippets in my head of how these characters interact, and considering who they are as individuals-- what their own personal tales reveal about them for the current point in time.

To get moving from the emptiness of the page, I decided on expansion of what I had. So I'm choosing to make friends, colleagues and companions, enemies, family, whatever social integration I can think of that makes the world go around. In this case, opens opportunity to further develop narrative within the characters that I already have drawn up.

Why? I don't now yet.
But it's keeping me busy and keeping me quiet, which is what I'm best at and what people seem to like most from me.

And, like I've always, it's taking me back into my passion of storytelling. Although the development end of my stories aren't always as easy when it comes to the thought of bringing anything outside of my imagination itself... when I get that crazy idea that one of these stories might have an option to become visual versus reflected upon or written. The question of "How much work would this entail?" starts lingering and the scale of the idea suddenly paralyzes the story.

Keep it simple!
Do I want a comic or kid's book?

Well, I never honestly imagined my posse being fit for kids, but people around me have offered that I'd make a fine children's book illustrator. My character's personalities and habits? Nope. I'd be getting head shakes from lots of parents. I'm sure of it. It is a tough challenge to consider what's fit for children and entertaining enough for adults. Pixar's director, Enrico Casarosa, said it best during his "La Luna" presentation at sigGRAPH -- better than I'll probably word it, at least-- The best substance to a good story is to find something personal that hits home in people's hearts where you can relate people closely to the emotions and story's primary feeling. It could range from anywhere sentimental to humorous. It is just the ability to find those common bonds for one's personal visions.
Naturally, Pixar leads the industry with their flawless plots, and "La Luna" was another brilliant piece.

Anyways,If I was to work on something one or the other: I choose the comic.

If I took the characters beyond the drawing board?
Me and myself-- It would have to be VERY simple and VERY short.

So, I've been stacking up a pile of different ideas. The bliss of having free time on my hands from my work and personal life, Because my artwork always sits uncomfortably in the middle of both.

So most newest additions are Frazz. His fans call him Jazzy Frazz. He is the lead guitarist of "Damnation Virus and the Mofos" and bandmate to Lead Singer MacBurley, who can be seen under the characters section of my website. Eventually, I will create the remaining members of the band.



Next, is Lolita Fatz. I imagined her as a frequenter of "Sweets and Treats" (with is Clementine's shop) and "GeeBee's Fun Time Ice Cream", both of which are competitors and stubbornly own space adjacent of each other. Lolita, is what one would consider a fire-starter, who erupts trouble between the businesses purely on her own personal motive of nurturing her love for deserts.



And my latest drawing, a doggie portrait of a small spunky mutt named Nibbler, should be completed by tonight and posted by tomorrow.

I am, indeed, back to that drawing board and it feels good! So along with my checklist of pending computer artwork, I now have made drawing at least once a day every day a firm priority.

RECAP: SigGRAPH Vancouver 2011 (The Computer Animation Festival)

So, much for keeping an active blog. Things have been busy and not as active as I would imagine to the standards of a professional artist, but probably just alieviating the congestion of day to day responsibilities that have piled on. There goes that much needed personal time.

Oh, and I decided against posting my copy drawings. I didn't seem aesthetically right as I started piecing them together. Instead I'm back at hashing out my own originals again. More on that later.

My life is still deeply rooted in art, although I can't claim to be nearly as "professional" as I want. Whilst on my break, I did have the chance to hit sigGRAPH 2011, which took place in Vancouver this year. This would be my third year attending, now, and my first experience in Vancouver.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much down time outside of the week of the convention itself to really consume all that the beautiful counrty had to over. I am a huge nature freak, so I did spend every other morning or evening trekking the seawall-- the first evening making it around the entire perimeter across sunset beach -- it seemed to be about 9 miles or so.

Of the conference itself, I did have a chance to catch some entertaining entries in computer animation festival. I can't really explain exactly why these pieces warmed me so much and I'm wishing that I could find them online to link up and view again to really sum up my feelings for them. I will continue to look and if I do happen to find them, I will post the links. For now, I can direct you to there studio sources for additional information on the creators.

Firstly, the animated shorts: I didn't get the chance to see all of the animated shorts, sadly, but of the half hour I was there, I have to say my favorite was:


"RUBIKA"


TIME TAKEN: 2 Months
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: France
DIRECTED BY: Ludovic Habas + 7 Others
WEBSITE: http://habasdesign.sup.fr/
OVERVIEW: Basically involves a legoworld with lego people that exist within an antigravity rubix-type planet where the main character, despite all the rotational shifts of both time and place, continues to forge ahead wherever he is left to try to live a normal life.


Of the Electronic Theatre, I had a list of favorites. My top picks, which I wasn't alone in selecting them as favorites, were naturally among the chosen award winners. The were obvious stand outs and easily selected along their competitors. These included:


"PATHS OF HATE"


SIGGARPH AWARD: JURY
TIME TAKEN: 2 Years (10 Minutes)
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: Poland
DIRECTED BY: Damian Nenow
WEBSITE: http://www.pathsofhate.com/en/
OVERVIEW: Two jet fighters in the froths of unrequitted fury seek to eliminate one another despite all surrounding emotions and consequently encounter the darkened afterlife of their fate. A highly stylized animation, comparable to the likes of Heavy Metal magazines.


"THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE"



SIGGARPH AWARD: BEST IN SHOW
TIME TAKEN: Still Researching
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
WEBSITE: http://www.moonbotstudios.com/
OVERVIEW: A man, enamored in his books, enters a world in which his books enamor him. Upon his maturing passions, they release him off into his former life to blossom with the knowledge and dreams he has acquired and welcome another in another young visionary to culture.


"FLAMINGO PRIDE"
CLINK HERE FOR IMAGES OF THE PIECE
I will post the video when it is made available online. For now, here is another short(Tomer's first), A WONDERFUL NATURE, that will allow he to visualize both his humor and his style:



SIGGARPH AWARD: STUDENT PROJECT PRIZE (Flamingo Pride)
TIME TAKEN: 6 Minutes Long
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: Germany
DIRECTED BY: Tomer Eshed
WEBSITE: http://talking-animals.com/
OVERVIEW: A straight flamingo amidst a party of a flock of gay flamingos ventures off to find another party of various birds, one which he falls for and becomes determined to win over. After they all ridicule him for making a pass at her, he experiences a traumatic event that changes his perspective and frees him into trying a completely random approach on her.


My other favorites, which did not win any awards, but still stuck out while sitting through the viewing were all very unique in their own way:


"MUTANTLAND"
CLINK HERE FOR IMAGES OF THE PIECE
Unfortunately, this was another short that I couldn't find. And, again, if I do find it, I will update this post. However, one of the lighters, Alex Stockwell, has a demo reel with some work of he did on Mutantland:



TIME TAKEN / LENGTH: 4 Minutes Long
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: Phil Tippett
WEBSITE: http://www.tippett.com
OVERVIEW: A world of mutant creatures fight the battles of survival of the fittest in a seemingly post-apocalyptic environment in order to survive.


"DREAMGIVER"
This isn't the actual short, but an insightful hybrid of a documentary on it:



TIME TAKEN / LENGTH: 7 Minutes
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: Tyler Carter
WEBSITE: http://tycarter.blogspot.com/
OVERVIEW: While a little boy sleeps with a book by his side, the Dreamgiver sneaks in to cast the boy his dream for the night. In mishap of nightly incantation, however, the Dreamgiver accidently causes the boy to have a nightmare that evolves from the book weherein the Dreamgiver must now rescue him.


"IMAX HUBBLE 3D VISUALIZATION EXCERPT:
JOURNEY INTO ORION NEBULA
I liked this one because of its finessed narrartive and its visual beauty. I felt it was the one of the most interesting because for its value of non-fiction and my undying curiosity of the unknown. So, for that fact, I go deeper into my afterthoughts...

They were very successful is capturing the depth achieved for the degree of scale that they were reacreating. I also read an article in 3D World on the creation to BBC's "Wonders of the Universe" series, and found myself wondering if the same techniques were used in approaching the design in order to maintain accurate realism.

But apparently, I'm very wrong-- It IS marked as 'Hubble'. Although, both documentaries seem equally beautiful.

On the visual art end, according to 3D World's article on Wonders of the Universe, studio BDH entsilled the help of a father and son team, The Parks, who use various fluids magnified under a petri dish to mimic stylized and highly resolution fluid-like effects that are quite popular within the film industry. The process itself is called 'micophotography', but the Parks have customized their work to make it a trademark of their name. And the detail of the organics captured within "Wonders of the Universe" is quite apparent. It really reminds me of what I saw in "Journey into Nebula" and I am very surprised that the Parks were not involved...

Ah, research. Sigh. But still good to know of them--- the Parks' work is phenominal!

Anyways, here is the link to the son, Chris Parks' credentials, which include work seen in the movie "The Fountain" directed by one of my favorite directors Darren Aronosky. And here is a link to one of BBC's WOTU excerpts (with some awesome ambience to alter your emotions and brainwash your current mood) ;)



OK.

Back to the Focus, the look of Hubble's piece, like mentioned in BBC's article on WOTU, "could" have acheived with 2.5D setup, high usage of maya fluids, render layers, and final gather, and then topped with heavy after effects compositing (With WOTU I read the plugin CCSphere was involved with the Parks' inkspots and massive duration adjustments were used with TimeWarp).

I don't know for sure how this piece was down in respect to WOTU. I am now reading that this piece was made from actual footage of IMAX cameras that were taken into space on the spcae shuttle for Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missions in both 1993and 2009. 2009 carried the 3D IMAX Camera, which contained a mile of filmwhich can record up to 8 minutes 30 seconds of footage.

My ending note on this one, "Journey into Orion Nebula" was fascinating, and definitely a favorite (however it was done):



TIME TAKEN / LENGTH: 4:34 Minutes
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: No significant credits that I've found yet-- Credit is giving to a "collaboration of research astronomers, computer programmers, and visualization artists"
WEBSITE: http://www.spacetelescope.org/
OVERVIEW: A relaxing visual walkthrough of the history of the Orion Nebula constellation and the creation of its planets and stars.

Among these, I would definitely point out some others, but on the length of this entry and time I want to invest into my next post on what I've personally been up to-- I would limit my choices and plant my high-fives into the palms of the teams listed above. Overall, though, sigGRAPH 2011 Computer Animation Festival, left me with an unchanged opinion from the last three years I've attended, will always be well worth an attender's time.

CRAFTSMAN OR ARTIST?

I've been thinking about this one for awhile, even father back than my last post in June. See, lately, as of the past year or so, I've been constricted in coming up with original ideas to lay down on paper.

Somewhere along the lines of my education, the confidence I had in my creative drawing abilities dropped below the standards of enjoyment-- along with that, however, my technical skills and seemed to flourish. I found I was able to replicate images already drawn or photographs general life drawing, but not able to concoct too many of my own originals, which is what most people liked best about my work.

So things have dried up for me professionally. The latest 3D project I was on has mainly come to a close after is debut at DWELL ON DESIGN in Los Angeles. We have met our prearranged cap agreement and now I'm into my bonus assistance during my own time, or what I call a "filler" time. Where to pick up personally before another gig?

Now, these times are GREAT times for many artists out there. Nothing is better than the freedom of artistic expression-- that's what makes us artists versus craftsman! I read in somewhere, possibly PC Gamer for the company's 20th anniversary, that even Blizzard Entertainment allows their artists to openly work on their own material if it falls outside of looming deadlines. They support and encouragement expression because they feel it's important for the artist to "breathe", I guess.

So, me: I'm breathing right now. :)

I'm even taking a breather from my website. I've completed the entire 2D section, inclusive of my traditional animation, now, in which you can see snippets of lightbox-style animation cycles. They range from stop motion through walk, weight cycles, a bouncing ball, pose to pose-- all the exercises that one would learn to to get a sense of timing so as to become an animator:

My Cell Animation: Check It Out Here
I'm currently teaching myself Zbrush, a hugely popular digital sculpting program that goes hand-in-hand with 3D modeling. As someone who is a stickler for detail and has always been very fond of modeling, learning Zbrush has been a long time coming. I'm reading "Introducing Zbrush" by Eric Keller and working very intimately in the program while doing so by ingraining the hot keys in my head by robotically repeating them on the daily and navigating deep into the interface as I continue through the chapters. I'm only on Chapter 2, but I want to make sure I take my time in any event, taking notes and writing down questions, and leaving NO rock unturned.

I'm also hoping to tackle more time into maintaining this blog. I read while spending a few free moments in the FedEx Office last week that a blog, to be considered active for social networking, must be updated at least two times a week. My last post was near to a month ago, I believe, so I was immediately on my own ass about it.

I know I will be back drawing in full force quite soon-- Being the artist I am, versus the craftsman I tend to slip into every now and again, I have there specific compositional stories brewing. For now here are two older originals which I consider to be more story driven versus character driven pieces.

"WILD PUSSY"


This piece is one of my favorites. I wanted to give a sense of empowerment, security, and ease to the main character while keeping monotony, rawness, and mixes of emotions with the dogs below. To add a sense of mystery, I decided to have the cat's back face the viewer. I didn't want the dogs to be too malicious, but rather questionably friendly and domesticated. The Quote on the bottom was a quote that really reached out to me while I was reading ImagineFX, by an artist named Lorland Chen. It is very significant to fleshing out passion in your work. At the bottom of this post, I've added a link, if anyone would like to read up on Lorland or view some of his artwork.

"AFTER THE WORLD CRUMBLES"



My drawings of impulse usually come from a feeling. I don't really remember exactly what I was going through at the time, but I remember how I felt. This piece captured that feeling of defeat and lonesomeness. When I was a smoker, sometimes I felt like the only thing that wasn't going anywhere and would continue last a lifetime would be my cigarettes. I really wanted to show beauty that still surfaced alongside the corruption and to build a sense of sympathy.

And in Closing....

While I continue to breathe, this week I will post my work as craftsman. I figure that I'd try to keep the page lively so these images will be COPY DRAWINGS alongside their credited originals for comparison. I replicated them not only because I admire the design along with the artists, but also to keep my hand/eye coordination on track, to become more familiar with anatomy and differing design aesthetics, and because I was feeling the pressure of the blank page. I NEEDED to draw something in order to keep myself fresh. So, please be gentle..... and stay tuned.

About Lorland Chen And His Work

The Hiatus-- Make a Plan or Few!

This past week was a slower week than the past few before... With a week vacation from my job at the airlines and a plateau in my latest 3D project whilst I wait for remarks from my most recent deadline-- I found myself with some time on my hands.

Not usually a fan of downtime, I figured it was best to try to fill the void. A vacation that warrants the opportunity to doing nothing has always been difficult for me. So I figured it best, to make a Plan or Few, so that I didn't get restless or bored.

And as today comes to a close, I go over in my head of exactly what I DID accomplish-- and it still seems as if "doing nothing" was indeed something that turned up in a few moments last week, but not many.

Organizing is ALWAYS a great mind cleanser. Things about my house were in such disarray over the past few months that it felt good to get organized. So I sort through stacks of mail, sorted through overlooked business cards, cleaned up the paper lying around the tops of my office desk, organized and cleaned up space on the disk drives of my workstation and laptop (recycling a red barred 8 gigs into a blue barred 28 gigs-- completely wiping out the overruled 15 gigs of free space rule). Gone with the garbage! Argh! I tossed away and filed paperwork, properly updated my invoices and tracked my the speeds of workflow from scribbles to .doc. I was taught to at least always "try" to keep track of how long everything takes me while working. Just so that I'm self aware. It is indeed a good habit to get into when you're trying to speed up and it's an easy task, but for some reason, at the very end of the day it is an annoyance. So, I do the best I can and always try to incorporate it into my invoices so that it soon becomes a priority versus a practice...

It felt good to get organized. And it was a long time coming with the past few months.

I also dabbled back into some traditional skills. Picking up a pencil and laying it to a piece of paper had been another huge area that has been suffering for a while now. I have been itching to draw again. To really draw-- like I used to-- outside of my sketches and anatomy studies. So I took an attempt at drawing a portrait, or what I consider more to be my interpretation of a girl named Zoe.



As I had written, on my Facebook "Portraits: Never been a forte, but always good for refreshing the training of the eye... It's been a while... Next time I will go back to the grid, I think, though. Can't lose with that method!"

I mean it. It was a last minute piece and although it had taken a couple hours of my time-- I still find that the grid method that I was taught when I was a young student at my local library always worked like a charm! I had taken portrait classes in charcoal and pencil and we were taught to use that method religiously. I will definitely seek to use this method should I venture into another portrait. The best part about this method its that it breaks down the image into mathematically accurate components that can easily determine how the subjects of the image are laid out. The proportions of the subjects are easily deciphered as well with smaller areas of positive and negative space....

Yup, artsy-fartsy talk in all its glory. ;)

Anyways, It is a popular method that I'm sure most are aware, but here is link or two that kind of explains the approach:

GRID METHOD ONE
GRID METHOD TWO

This approach can also be used for a number of different avant garde experiments when you really start to think about it by "box" components instead of as a whole image. For instance, check out some of the works of Chuck Close.

Lastly, I attended an event in the New York City hosted by Oceana Digital for The Foundry, a software development company, in which they demoed Nuke a popular composting program and one of their newer hatching, Maridadi, both strong forces within the Visual Effects industry.

The event seemed to be a success, bringing a large volume of both followers and professionals alike, and offering a pleasant combination of fun mixed with earful of inspiring and useful techniques for navigating through their software.

I left with a small buzz and large ever-growing interest in Mari-- a program which I learned of back in issue 129 of 3D World, where they first discussed that Weta Digital, who initially developed the software as proprietary for use in Lord of the Rings (I believe) and the onto King Kong, and finally onto Avatar. As soon as I read the article, I was asking around about it and flaunting some trivial FYI knowledge-- such as Maridadi is swahili for "beautiful" -- Dumb facts like that in which I get accused of being a brown-noser, but I've always been keen on absorbing the weirder, less significant details. Mari is now being released for usage of companies outside of Weta Digital is now plays a large role in high resolution textures and look development, the latter, which I have always been fond of as a possible career option in relation to its close partnership with previsulization. I would imagine, however, a program that closes in this level of detail such a Mari (Mudbox and Zbrush and Vue, as well) is probably more commonly used while in Post-production.

I will comment more on its features in my next post. But this particular post is a glimpse of how I spent my week. Inspired for more still-- and wishing what we all wish for sometimes: If only vacations could last forever because last week was a really great and memorable week.

And So It Is Written:

It has now been fully confirmed that the project that has consumed approximately four raw months of my life between flying abroad will, indeed, be shown on screen at the "International Contemporary Furniture" fair this weekend at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. I will be supplying my client with business cards in case anyone may inquire about my work throughout the day and I am hoping to be there to support both the marketing of my client's product and the marketing of myself.

I am both relieved and ecstatic. And like anyone else out there who may know what it's like to constantly weigh your level of professionalism to yourself, I am hoping that this event brings me more opportunities.

If it had been a group effort, I feel that this gig could have had the potential to be more of a stunner, but, as it was only me, I had to make alternate moves. So I stuffed in as much effort as I could in between a full time job and I am returning an end result as more of a "quantity-over-quality" type of piece in compliment with the demand of material requested from my client. It's warranted sometimes, I guess.

To some, the more the merrier. To me, the less you have to show, the more power and presence is needed underneath what is being shown. I am a detail freak at heart --- "Tweak" -- I call myself once in awhile.

I read an article in ImagineFX a couple months that professed that for most artists sometimes the "devil can be in the detail"... That every once in a while one must break free from the blase of lifeless meandering within a system of work and just tweak away at something until it can't be tweaked anymore. There's some twisted fulfillment in perfection in human beings that almost resembles a way of controlling what seems to be uncontrollable.

Well, for me... for now. I'm twisted, I guess. :)
I will learn. I've been told.
And I believe now.

Next time I will work those demons out on my own time with my own personal work-- for where there is passion there is a small need for portrayal of perfection. After this run, as the hours had seemed to slip away and friends retreated for apps and brews whilst I forged onward making not so bold moves in too bold of a piece of software, I suddenly found myself starting to get it. More and more every day.

Four months later, the project looks standard enough for me to be somewhat satisfied. Maybe because I know the work the went behind it or because I know the hustle of issues needed out by having to learn the differences between working in Max versus Maya. Maybe because, creatively, it was all me, and technically, I now know how to install multiple types of shower drains in a bathroom assembly. All in all, I just feel very close to being done, that I have learned a lot along the way. I am so pleased to be able to get the reward of having a crowd of people, small or large as it may be, see something that I can call my own hard loved labor.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE FAIR

Here is a link to the event in case you may be interested in the latest developments of furniture across the world and who's on the venue. Seems it should be pretty interesting... The future always is.

What drives you?

I don't know sometimes... Holding onto the confidence to continue onward with your dreams is tough sometimes when you don't have a motivational push outside of yourself. Only once in awhile its needed-- in the most difficult of times. Usually those times when you are rearing the hardest areas of work, the tightest marks of time, and you only find the silent ambiance humming deep beyond the echoes of your thoughts.

The breaks? How are they filled?
So I keep questioning where my drive comes from. Is it in the appreciation of quality time after basking in small accomplishments of the working hours? Is it in the simple things like friends, or rather, family. Your support system-- those of unending faith in your achievements when really you feel like you need to be dusted off?

Does the drive come from those much-needed breaks, stemmed from everything outside of where the drive really should be invested?

It's been a couple months on this project. A long couple of months... Enough to place some jpgs of my 1st draft of boards that I crafted way back. This will start to give you an idea of exactly how much the project changed between then and now.

Take Heed-- 12 Pages: I would have done clickable thumbnails or a downloadable .pdf, but I don't have the time to customize right now.... so, here it is, in all its obnoxious bliss.

























The boards have changed a lot since then. And the project has scaled by triple the amount of work. I have another week to complete the basics of majority of these adaptations for its original deadline which would be a small spot at an expo, and even more time to finesse the piece in its entirely-- ultimately for a demostration for the product and its website.

In my eyes, it still needs a lot of work. But it has indeed come a long way. And I can't wait to finalize it, send it off with some blessings, and move on to other work.

As far as my website. I'lve finished the tattoo page and my character pages, mostly all of my 2D section. My next step is to load my Cell Animation and to add the links to my Character Developments.

Here is a shot of the Tattoo page:



My next free moment, the dedication will be to the above!

Closing in on a Dealine? Well, then, expect the upexpected!

Yup. Expect it.

Expect that your back up hard drives will fail as you transfer large amounts of data. Expect some or all of any major program you use to refuse to open or close at your mouse click. Expect that even a power outage will unfold after the storm hits and whilst the birds are chirping peacefully. Yes- a very unlikely power outage.

Expect it all, with or without luck, because it happens.
I'm a recent survivor of it.

This past week has been a handful of technical nightmares. Have you ever heard of the movie "The Mangler" by Stephen King? Well, prepare that the computer could be like that, and also its artillery of hardware, and proceed with caution while forging toward a finish line.

The closer the finish line is the more defensive courses of action one must have stuffed up their sleeve.

Because even in being safe-- now I can officially say that back up drives will fail, too. And investing your money in one super-duper large external drive and dragging everything from pictures to your life's work in there has never quite been a smart approach to avoid malfunction, either. It would seem like the perfect option, but...

Remember, that the bigger they get now, the larger the size of the risk being taken. Right now, external drives fit 2TB of data. Huge. Do yourself a favor, and buy a bunch of mini 50-100 gig drives and store data for each folder subject, instead. That's what I'll be doing when I get some free time, I'll being backing up my back up!

I checked briefly for my data in my panic, and luckily most my work over the years was on another external drive even MORE senior that my *&!%!$#@! Seagate... While my newer work was packed away in a folder on my Desktop. (Yes, in these cases I'm grateful to have lazily stored folders on my desktop)

That *&!%!$#@! Seagate isn't even recognizable at the moment. And to think, that all this trouble stemmed from plugging the drive into my brother's netbook.

I believe Netbooks are fresh-off-the-shelf miniature virus vaults. Loathe them.

As far as why my computer was being temperamental, I took basic precautions and ran a series of scans and different tune-up options. I use BitDefender-- This antivirus software is a favorite for two reasons: It's very simple to use and it uses low processing power.

My computer hasn't flared up into any further fits thus far and my programs have been cooperating. Although, I will have to check more deeply into exactly what happened and go about finding the remaining files that need to be salvaged onto new hardware. Boring stuff.

First things first, meet the deadline and have my own lonesome wrap up party. A bottle of wine and Cheesecake Factory cheesecake?

At least, those files were not lost.

The "Official" Copyright.

Is it all worth it? I don't know. But what's done is done, and hopefully my work over the years is now rightly protected by law. I read a while back about a new law that was pending called the Orphan Law, which I may have made mention to in an earlier post.

I believe this law hadn't been passed by Congress, thankfully. For powerhouse companies it wouldn't have been as much of an issue to fluff up their ownership, but for smaller venturers not so beneficial, because its seemingly more diffult to locate an individual versus a corporation and takes more work.

So it almost forces artists to legitimately copyright all important work for fear of not being able to be located. Because if the owner of the work cannot be located, they are no longer considered "owners" and therefore allow their work to be used by others.

If I have it right, which I may have some cocoons to be unraveled out of my cobwebs, it seemed very unfair. For the unabashed and legit story:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7449210_orphan-works-copyright-law.html

I believe the law flopped.

In the end, this industry knows who is genuine and who is corrupt, who works on what and for how long, how hard everyone works, styles and mediums, hats-off skills and imperfections. This industry has blasted out people through social medias for stealing work and claiming it as their own as I've read of late... I commend it. Very awesome. Between the artists' community, A blacklist is satisfying enough to me, if it holds 100% absolute validity.

Its hurtful to know that all of the time and passion invested in creativity whether personal or professional could be compromised through another person's laziness or insecurity of abilities... At very least honor the artist by giving due credit, if not by getting the proper granted permission.

So building a blacklist within our own pool might by the more 'street' approach while copyrighting might be a lengthier option but more standard. And what do you do when the person using your artwork isn't even an artist? So all in all, protect the artwork. Theivery happens all the time and the ones who do ripping off don't consider it to be as big of a deal as it is obviously...

But it is to me, as it is to many of us.

Animation Business.

After a small hiatus, I'm back. I know I don't have many people that follow this, but I still try to be fairly consistent with my posts for my own records and also out of respect for those of you who do stomach these long reads. If you get by with my rantings, I appreciate it very much! Thank you.

So where things are: In the midst of the pressures of an approaching deadline. Never a very fun place. What I try to keep in mind is that I know myself well enough to know that I stive to meet whatever deadline I have -- the more time I have alotted, however, the more time I will take to work. This is where self-management becomes diffcult. How long of a shift is too long of a shift... How long of a break is too long of a break... How much is too much... How little is too little... What are the major areas of importance in getting the project delivered on time and with positive notriety for yourself from your client? It's a daunting afterthought as I close in on many long nights and quick days.

But it's getting there.

I've officially started the first assembly of animation. I'm working a hybrid of straight ahead and pose to pose with the camera-- On major moves, I have a start key, an end key, and begin with one key in between...

It's been a pain animating with the target camera, a 3DS Max feature, and I'm starting to wonder the benefits of both:

So here they are:

Free Cameras:
-Easier to use when the camera's position is animated along a path.
-Offers a view of the area that is directly in front of the camera
-A better choice if the camera will be animated.
-A single parameter for Free cameras defines a Target Distance—the distance to an invisible target about which the camera can orbit.

Target Cameras:
-Easier to animate when not moving along a path.
-Both camera and target can be animated indepent of each other.

*Referenced @ http://www.expertrating.com/courseware/3DCourse/3D-Cameras-1.asp*

A couple valuable tips I've learned about Camera Animation:
-Always animate ONE axis at a time.
-The camera NEVER stops moving during an animation... EVER. Follow through.
-Watch for the fluidity, smoothness, and arc compliments of the animation curves
-The more animation keys the more complicated the animation becomes-- If I'm not able to get on track, I start deleting the weaker, less prominent, areas of movement and rebuild my animation from there.

After building and lighting a basic set, I decided to do some animation tests to try and achieve a look that my resembles my client's visions. Happily, a magazine that I subscribe to called 3d World offered a solution that I recalled-- The Slice Tool with Cap Holes is a wonderful modifier in 3DS Max (if your geometry is neat). They had a tutorial about a cheese grater cutting through cheese that stuck out mainly. The similar soltion in Maya I'm researching is the Cut Faces Tool or Animated Booleans and then the Append Tool.

I'm exploring another techniques now for the shots to follow, but I am glad I remembered this one tutorial in paticular, because it was exactly what the job required as far as creating a very specific "look" that was desired for a one of the shots.

I am now thankful that I read this article during my downtime my airlines job even if I can't actively do the tutorials whilst at work... For the past 3 years I have switched on and off each year between two subscriptions of both 3D World and Imagine FX.

As far as my personal work, it's been on hold temporary but I definitely plan to return to uploading the rest of my work to my website soon. And from there am hoping to get more work. To keep my own chops fresh, I have kept a now halfway-promise of "Trying to sketch daily" to "Trying to sketch more". This is smaller more realistic goal and a less discouraging option for me when under the madness of a busy schedule.

Discovering My "Technical Process"

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZING LIKE A MOFO...

SETTING UP--
The MAJOR ONES FOR ME:

1. Preparing My Resources for Impending Problems
Spending more time preparing for HOW to go about the work than actually working will hopefully help save more time in the long haul (HOPEFULLY).

I've gone through my all the resources that I had in my office and scanned in pages from hard copies of areas in 3D that I know I'm going to have to confront at some point during the duration of this side project, but as of right now chew my nails thinking about. Those, for me include Rendering, Lighting, and Color. Everyone has there own technical soft spots.

I wanted easy access in times of need... so I rummaged through over two dozen issues of 3D world magazine (one of my favorite resources) table of contents in search of anything and everything covering those subjects and scanned away for my own handy archive. I've also started bookmarking sites into folders for quick reference. And searching for video tutorials. I've decided my major focus for this project is going to be to try to take on learning and incorporating Vray. I also feel a need for a very straight-arrow purpose with projects that are outside of my own. It gives me a driving point and helps me get through the long hours. The mental and physcial stress warrants the construction of as many purposes as possible.

2. Disciplining Myself
I'm trying my best to be my own teacher. I trust that if there was absolutely NO ONE out there to help-- that I could rely on myself and only have "go-to" when there is absolutely no solution in troubleshooting to very specific questions. (Which can happen more often than not when one has specific goals). But HEED: You do not want too be needy (You lose friends that way).

Really, though, the only way you'll truly learn is the hard way. The easy way only offers solutions that are sourced from others and everyone's approach is different, but in the end sometimes the best way to remember is through recycling your own studying and memorization skills. In any event, whichever works. You know the way you learn best and how your brain filters information, as do I for myself... But remember that you should be the one to discipline yourself above all.

3. Warm up Days.
When it comes to computers and software, I find that negligence from one program versus another seems to occur more often than not as I try to expand my intersts. When it comes to a job, I now find my frazzled and frustarting trying to navigate the interface once again. Fumbling with hotkeys and hestitate with mouseclicks, trying to fire up the fibers of tips and tricks learned but now settled into the back corners of my squareheaded brain... It's frustrating. Maddening, really. I wanted to scream tonight, but instead I left the computer to exercise out the pummeling agression that was brewing-- than sat back down and decided its best to take it easy first-- I stretched! Always stretch they say, no? :)

I was taught in Maya and am very comfortable in the interface, but have also learned some heavy fundentals of 3DSMax as well over the last two years. Now, I still love Maya with all my heart, especially for character modeling and I will return, but went with 3DSMax on this project for these reasons:

1). The product files that I was given for the shower drains are dwg extensions, which stores 2D and 3D dimensional design data from AutoCad, I believe, and is unrecognized in Maya.

2. The Measuring Tools and Unit Set-up in 3DSMax are excellent for building to scale in order to attain proper lighting.

3). Arch and Design Materials. So much less of a headache than building my own shading networks in the hypershade from scratch, which I enjoy, but outside of budgets and time constraints.

A note for both: ALWAYS delete the preferences extension! Trying to select more than one object, wasn't possible without doing this. And for both programs tends to make your workflow super buggy.

So, it starts. THE SET-UP in 3DSMax.

I've officially dove back in the wonderful world of 3D and have now started the process of 3D layout for more some more intensive previsualization. When it's all said and done, I will post pictures of the progress.

For now, the website has to go on hold. With a snapshot the last page in the works, now in dreamweaver with working rollovers and spans that will take the you onto a page for dedicated to individual characters and/or styles:



What I will try to do, is sketch more... These long excerpts need some drawings attached. Until next time!

Elementary School Hustler...

(ICE MAN)
As I continue to trudge through the website which I'm now onto laying out in "2D Characters" page in Photoshop, stressing through the process of weeding through my most dominating collection of work by far... I dug through piles of my oldest preserves, some dating back to pieces as early on as 1994. Some, I'm SURE, were from even before then, but were left without a specific date (I've always had a very bad habit of intentionally not dating my work). This is one of them:


(MY OLD SCHOOL LEMON/LIME GAME CONCEPT)

I could swear two years afterward they made a video game featuring lemons and limes, but I probably just dreamt it. I'm still googling to see if I crafted this in my head. Someone please let me know if you can recall a lemon/lime video game --serious! (By the way, if they didn't produce a game of this theme, I do consider this entire blog, both ideas and artwork, an unofficial proof of copyright ... I consider this blog a foster parent to some of my temporary orphaned works). Copyright is expensive, but I will be making it happen! What's up with this 'orphan law' anyway? It feels wrong, but what can you do? I hate to think of some of my work as orphaned anyway... Feels like bad parenting.

So, yeah, no defined date on that one... Definitely before '94, Definitely very young, but still had my mini game designer cap none the less. ;)

Young work? I was an honest fair but non-certfied art hustler. Each day when I was in 5th grade, I used to take requests from the other kids in my class, go home, draw, and then return the following morning with a stack full of custom cartoons. I used to sell them for a quarter each. And I used to sometimes go home with about $7.00 a day. My friend, Vicky, then joined me, and then it was both she and I leaving with arms empty of drawings and pockets full of change.

We followed a system of style that my friend was able to pick up fast-- but mostly my usual distinctions-- big interesting eyes mostly and wild-looking smiles. The designs were simple enough to hash out in under two minutes--- or atleast it felt that way... and I guess they were entertaining enough for a kid to shell out a quarter.

I forgot about that up until now. It's funny the stories that begin to surface sorting through everything. I wonder if any of my classmates still have any of them. One of them I remember in particular for some reason-- It was a Frog named Goober. It seems the harder I try to visualize the curves of the character to remember how to draw it, the farther away from me the memory feels, but when I don't try so hard to rememeber, the experience of seeing the image as a whole is so vivid still. Wild. I wonder if other artists go through that. A teacher once taught my to study the lines, then close your eyes and continue to try to see those exactly lines in your head, working down the image piece by piece: studying, then shutting off your eyes and turning on your brain. Great piece of advice. Another one that stuck. And a lot harder to do than one would think.

(CLOSELY RESEMBLEMED TO THIS CHARACTER: BENBEEZER)

So, to close up this here is another valuable lesson for me... In bringing in my old traditional work for this never ending website capsule of mine, I became familiar with how to mimic some of my traditional design techiniques digitally. Coming from a traditional background and confessing to not touching a computer for graphics until I was 22, I still find it very diffcult to get comfortable "free" drawing on the computer and I yearn to draw again-- painting digitally would be pristine if I could just encompass the same components in my strokes and shadows that made my designs unique. And tonight I felt I found some resemblances.

My Test: To Match up areas where strokes were lacking, parts of the bodies were blurry, the page was discolored, the leg or arm was distorted or needed to be moved... All of those replacement areas in photoshop had to be the same as my drawings. Making one match to the other was the key component to matching my traditional paper style. Corel Painter I heard was easiest to embody the realism of traditional work-- One day, I hope to play in it. I heard it's great!

But back to where the challenges that come in for ALL the elementary shcool hustlers out there... The moral of my story or the drive behind it?

The sense of learning, comfort, and confidence that one wants to feel as an artist determined to be an true artist, digital or the latter, and the amateur determined to be a success climbing on and UP the ladder.

All about Early Deliveries.

Always. I recently received (very recently actually) a very valuable piece of advice from a very close compadre. In vents my woes against the nerveracking pressures of an approaching deadline, he explained (in my intrepreted jargon) "Always overestimate the amount of time it will take, and then surprise them with an early arrival." Thank you for that.

It stuck out, though, in a way that was both useful as well as memorable...

I had my second revsion of storyboards delivered a little later than I planned in my head, but a day earlier than they were expected. I kicked myself for not meeting MY deadline beffforrree the deadline, but... am keeping this statement in mind as I await a response at the closing curtains on the day "of" the actual delivery.

Over the next few weeks, my schedule will peak for my artistic endeavors and plateau for the airlines. I have a nice break from flying after today. Always welcomed when you feel as if you want to throw the towel in on the sweatshop labor of working with no anticipated breaks in doing your laundry and repacking for a quick return to the airport versus sitting down and watching a movie with your family... That job is great when your finished ONLY. I guess, as is most?

Two weeks of freedom from the rapidfire shifts and full focus on bringing the 2D photoshop sequential set sequences into 3D life. The set needs to be constructed now, and 3D, I feel, is the best way to properly build an animatic without much heartache of angle adjustments. With repitious perpective and angle adjustments, photoshop will make me cry if I had to sit down for another massive angle revision... "If you can just pan the camera 90 degrees and shift everything to the right...?" is like asking "if the earth can rotated upside down and right side up instead of around and around...?". Completely different visuals. Ah, art.

But back to delivery... I'd rather wait, than keep someone waiting. I anticpate getting back to any and all or my personal work in the mean time, along with the occasional match on a bottle of red and a really, really good night's rest. Saying farewell to flying for a bit and hello to the gym, leisure, and all of my other loves.

This Scenic Route Is Not So Scenic.......

There's a few problems that I run into with working downstairs in my office by myself. The number one speedbump, mound, or mountain is that when I need help in a very specific area, I can never seem to master my googling skills to troubleshoot a appaudable solution in an adequate ammount of time. So, I achieve the task I set out to do, but in a solution that is comparable to finding an underground tunnel and having to swim through slop to get to the other side versus climbing over with the guile of a spiderman... I do evennnntuuuuallllyyy get to the other side, but not in a way I consider productive nor conclusive to higher learning. Just like the age old times of when there wasn't a video camera but only a camera for animation--- that's how I "want" to look at it to feel a little better, but surely there is an easier way out there in the world wide web that has nothing to do with in-house development tools or advancements in technology. It just boils down to not being at the advantage becoming my own TD (Technical Director) on any level. I can't give myself a promotion. I must reapply for myself in another year, I guess.... :)

Seriously, it's bothersome. It makes me hate working alone, because sometimes there is no easy answer for what one is trying to achieve and there are no simple resources when projects get complex. In a nutshell. I promise I'm not the only one out there that must feel this way!

Also, I have a feeling that what I am trying to achieve with my website at the moment, is even more diffcult to explain. So I won't bore you with the technicalities.

The main thing: I do have a solution. And it may be longer, more arduous, and teeth writhing, hair grabbing, and provoking of frothing madness, but it gets you to the destination eventually and perhaps a little off schedule.

WHY??? Well, If I seek help online through a forum, I have to wait for someone to conjur up the energy to write a solution or, even worse, wait, and then after some hoping get a response in which they request clarification. No, no. Not that I wouldn't want the assistance, I'm patient, but I feel they'll need a visual reference to fully help me with a solution is webdesign savvy. Unfortuantely, I don't know many people who are deeply involved with web design to pick up the phone and call...

Right now-- it just works. It's functioning and its fine, But it's probably the WORST approach possible. It's reminding me of shoving clothing into a closet because you have nowhere to put it while all along wanting to make the room appear clean. In reality, it's not clean. It's a damn mess.

The way I always try to work, is that if I want to get skilled in multiple areas-- I have to not just do it. I have to do it right. Perhaps I am a perfectionist. So be it. Better off crafting for flawlessness than throwing together something with a core filled of careless errors.

I will seek help after to learn. And hope that someone can guide me down a smarter path, but I can't take the time right now to wait for the solution.

It works. But the scenic route, the "real" scenice route is definitely not this way. I've loaded up my Concept content online, and, minus the desciptions, I am almost finished with the life drawing section. You can view both interactive pages here:
http://www.lisamarie.biz/2D_Designs.php
http://www.lisamarie.biz/GalleryPages/2D/Cycle1/2D_LifeDrawing1.php

Otherwise, here's a snapshot. The same layout, really, as the concept page...



IF ANYONE CARES TO READ THE TECHY END OF THIS THREAD, HERE IT GOES:

Right now, my main struggles are the iframes of the submenu (CHAIN WITH LINKS) and how they are working with the main design pages. I want the chain holding the plates (when clicked) to appear as if its dropping... but when clicking the iframe links, they are referencing each other (and appearing to drop), instead of referencing their complimenting background pages.

I'm not sure if I can keep the iframes but have them reference TWO things when clicked-- I doubt it. Must find out, but, for some reason I believe it might be unlikely without major coding outside of html. This area in particular that I am speaking of:




I could have done flash (it probably would have been easier in the long haul) but I wanted a stop motion sort of feel for now. I may change this later because I really like the organics of flash, but for now.... I like bareboned.

I got rid of the iframes (which I'm not a fan of anyways) and created a div incorporated into the Design Pages, and now have a different Design Page for each "placement" of the plate in each of the following topics: CONCEPTS, CHARACTERS, TATTOOS, LIFE DRAWING, CELL.

Where this leaves me:
WAAAY to many pages for my liking + (besides the changing divs) mostly repitious content per Topic.

I was also considering a php include as an alternative... to cut down the ammount of pages accumlating and slim the site down, but I'm not sure how I would do this when the background needs to change on each topic?

Anways, so yeah.
Techy troubles in the land of web design.
I'll let you know what responses I receive to the problem.

In Contrary to a "Best Work Only" Portfolio?

Loading in the content is more difficult than I thought. Along with having one of those funk days where I needed to force myself to get motivated to work, I found myself struggling with whether or not I'm adding an overload of content. I heard it quite a bit of times to only show your best work, at least when it comes to demo reels. I'm almost sure the same applies to everything else.

But why, really? Shouldn't one be honest with their selves? Show the strengths that come along with the weaknesses? Display the whole packag, ready for a reaction to the reaction, whether to duck from tomatoes or catch flowers. Take the good comments with the bad? You only learn from this-- and I find it to be a bit pompous for a viewer, employer or other, to not expect someone to have any areas that are more intermediate than others.

My first content page as it currently appears:



So, decidely, I'm putting it all out on the table for review-- and welcoming whatever comes with a sense of levelheadness, that I'm not Boris Valero by far, I adore the talent and design skills of Mr. Bobby Chui and Mr. Jonny Duddle, I admire the success and unabashed realism captured by the females artists Ms. Marta Dahlig and Ms. Katarina Sokolova, all of them are my top favorites and I can never cease to get amazed by the flawlessness of their work, but I'm just me. Just me, and I've given it all I got in my past and I'm still hopeful that I can get even more out myself of the future.

So, again, what's really the right thing to do? Best Work Only ... or All or Nothing? I step with my best foot first, but I do still have two....

Anyways, please do check out the work of these artists. I promise that you'll be floored. All of them are truly amazing:


http://digital-bobert.cgsociety.org/gallery/
http://www.katarinasokolova.com
http://www.blackeri.deviantart.com/gallery
http://www.imaginistix.com
http://www.duddlebug.com

The Euphoria Of Seeing A Finish Line...

Tonight I'll be adding in my collection of work to my website. This are stand alone pages that will represent skills outside of my 3D reel from artwork I've built over the last decade. These galleries will display are wide varitey of areas I've dabbled in with some being more specialized than others. Overall, though, I really felt a need to share an general proof of some sense of an ability for each.

My main gripe with this, now... (There's ALWAYS some kind of gripe with me)... is that I won't be able to stuff-up all of the thumbnails. And as I work out the style of the actual galleries during this work session in Photoshop-- I still don't even know how many thumbnails there with be yet. Thinking through, I've been contemplating whether of not to put in "Coming Soon" placeholders icons, sort of like the link icons... and just fill them as I accumlate a denser portfolio, which is next on my list inbetween the free moments I have with my current freelance gig.

I will say that the feeling that surfaces lately from this all: RELIEF. As if crossing the finish line, I do all of the things a finalist would do, with hands on my knees suck in all the breaths I can thankful that I can still breathe, throw back my chin to the sky with a jug of water to my lips remembering the taste of water that I just want to forget while along the way, the wedgie factor finally freed without worry of reoccurence, the anticipation of a shower and a massage........

OK, so I'm overexaggerating. :)
But you get the idea of how I starting to feel.

Now back to the finish line I haven't QUITE crossed yet. Well, hello, focus!
I'm not sure if I should sprint, but I know that the last couple two days I was running at a slow pace in luxury of thinking I'm actually winning-- Watching movies, exercising, reading, socializing with coworkers at my airline job over dinner and drinks... And it feels like bliss.

As I would imagine a marathon runner would feel as they look ahead and saw the end of the 26.something miles they just invested. The story of the mararthon, however, in hopefully not in my own fate. My friend, Geroge, I credit this knowledge to, but quote it from the wonderful works of Wikipedia:

"The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530 BC–490 BC), an Athenian herald, was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran 240 km (150 miles) in two days. He then ran the 40 km (25 miles) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word "Νενικήκαμεν" (Nenikékamen, "We have won") and collapsed and died on the spot from exhaustion."

I reinstate my euphoria, yes, although after I do finally finish this site after my long haul of alliance to it, I am hopeful to avoid the "collapse and died" extreme. I feel quite exhausted, but still can't wait to go out and have some downtime and then advance onward to other personal projects!

So, It's been awhile...

Things have been hectic, Things have been busy, but still nothing much has seemed to change in my life. I can't say I'm necessarily happy, and not necessarily sad. Overall I'm content with a few ticks of discontent. Sometimes I wish that things would pick up a bit more or move a little faster, but that's always been the way I operate. I keep trying to remind myself that there's no rush, but time goes by so quickly and I there's still so many things left unchecked on my to-do list.

I still feel the need to keep the world posted on what I've been up, too, as if to soothe over some guilt that you all may feel I'm lazy. Please believe, I've been working my toosh off. Always am with occasional slumps of downtime outside of my job at the airlines. Yes, next month will be a whopping 10 years in the airlines business <--- That's the epitome of time flying right there.

So, here's what been on the home front of my true passion. My art. I've decided to go with a new theme for my website versus the lame theme I started blogging about way back in 2006. Over time, I filed away ideas and inspirations of other work I had seen, including mediums outside of the presentation of an attractive website.

I found inspiration in the 3D reels of other artists, the mood and balances of digital paintings, and over exaggeration and feature of character designs... I just wanted to store away all that I could (even added some to my favorites) and thankfully I felt somewhat fulfilled by all the talents out there rather than discouraged. And now I find that I'm on the road to try and be part of that line up.

I start with the presentation right now: My new site, Carousel Science, which should be completed, skimmed of all junk coding, equipped with clean and fluid navigation, and ready for an official shout out on Facebook by the end of next week. This 3D version of personal web project of mine has been in the works since the end of the summer, but had to be put on hold a few times for some freelancing. Oddly enough, the work I've been getting of late HAS been web design. I feel that presentation, at very least, says a whole bunch of something, if it isn't looked at as being 'everything' in this day and age.




2011: I've defined more of a focus now on what I aspire to do as a career with the help of some friends I've made over the summer. I don't want to jinx myself so I will withhold from that revealing that label. In any event, I'm not quite there yet and I am welcoming all work in any medium.

Currently, my most recent venture, between the airlines and this web design, is hashing out the preliminary rounds of a web-mercial for a shower drainage system. I can't post the thumbnails or storyboards yet because I'm still in production, but will take you through my process after I wrap the project up.

I expect the project to last around 2 months or so... It is only me and I running it the way I was schooled to run it-- thumbnails, boards, animatics, model sheets and modeling, layout and placement, filling into animatic placeholders to make a previs, and then onto replacing the previs with finalized comps, postwork, sound fx, etc etc etc. (That long list of stuff ahead that I try not to think about except in broken terms and one at a time) Otherwise, it's overwhelming.

My largest trouble, I predict, will be figuring out the technicalities of the best and most time-efficient way to approach the shots in 3D. R+D, gotta love it.

Anyways, it's nice to have the time to sneak in a small comeback on here. And I really am set on keeping these post steady.

The term Carousel Science the theory that all life is a cyclic science only because without science we wouldn't have technology, and without history we wouldn't have the ability to advance technology . They are both borrowed necessities to the fundamental roots of improving the future of life.

Here are some screenshots of my revamped site of 2011:




The site is www.lisamarie.biz

I wanted a hybrid of both the natural and the mechanical, as my opinion is a close relation to our current time... A Juxtaposition, as well, motion from stills, to convey stop motion. I aimed for RAW and user friendly as possible-- (flash and Javascript free with a 600x800 center of interest).

My next steps are to finish cleaning up the remaining files, to work out iframe issues, then load up my work, and get a functioning CSS image preloader to diminish any choppiness or wait-time after loading.

If anyone would like a how-to on any component that you may like in my site, please feel free to comment and I'd be glad to assist where I can.

Thanks for reading and for being there.
It's good to be back!