Tag Archives: 2D Personal Projects

Personal Project Overload? Reboot.

Leave a reply

A frequent problem of mine – coming up with too many tasks to do in my free time. Its something that plagues me when I’m too busy to add to the list; I have to keep piling it on. A backlog of games/books/movies, new projects, blog updates, clean out files on my computer or desk, picking up gardening, trying new recipes, begin an exercise program, catch up with old friends, and the list can go on and they do and they multiply. Often it leaves me just sitting and staring at the wall, not knowing which way I should be turning and my brain scattered across the room. Or even worse, it ends with endlessly streaming through Facebook posts and articles, mindlessly going where everyone has gone before. I feel lucky when it’s more productive procrastination, cleaning the apartment and reorganizing my desk, both usually on my “Household List.” In the end comes down to me not getting anything meaningful done.

Continue reading →

Creative Outlook

Leave a reply

We have all, at one time or another, been faced with a complete lack of motivation.  I am not talking about just not wanting to do your work.  Here is a scenario:

You sit down at your computer to do freelance work or just a project of your own and you feel like this is the day.  You are going to rule the world and it is going to be awesome and then we others realize how awesome your work is they will revel in your awesomeness.  This project is just going to put you back on track.  You are going to learn new things.  You are going to have to learn to light…and….render properly…..hmmm….that model is really complicated.  HEY!  If those other awesome people online can do it I can do it!  ….HOW THE HELL DID THEY DO THAT!?  You begin fiddling online looking up helpful useful inspirational stuff and a friend IMs you or you IM them and eventually…. you dwindle ….and then it is evening.  You have spent most of your day on Twitter or Facebook and IM and now it is the time of day you shouldn’t be working because you have to “clear your head” before you go to bed so you can get a good night sleep and do it again tomorrow……

/cough

Something is missing.  I was busy all day right?  In a sense.

I am really bad about productive procrastination.  I rather organize files on my computer or clean out my email then find out I have wasted my day, instead of being productive on something that needs to be done.  This is what has happened to my portfolio amongst other things.  I will say though that I also work a full-time job and often forget that it counts as being productive and why I tend to be tired.  I may be a possible work-a-holic, but I digress and think that would be another topic.

What this comes down to is coming up with ways to really motivate myself on a professional and creative level.  For some, a quick jog around the park can do that but what motivates me is being surrounded by those that LOVE what they do.  They exhibit passion that you don’t find everyday and they do what they do because they LOVE it.  Pretty simple…unless you aren’t in a very creative environment, but that is what the internet is for…right?

I am hoping to start postings that are inspirational or doodles or quick sculpts I have done about 5 times a week.  In order for this to work I have to be non-bias on what I submit and completely take in my shortcomings and learn from them.  This can even include if I just decided to learn something new and then blogging about it.

This is a major push on my part and hopefully the motivation can be passed forward.

Here is a prime example of inspiration and a good chunk of the reason I am taking more action.

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012259/Train_(or_How_I_Dumped_Electricity_and_Learned_to_Love_Design)

Just watching this has renewed my sense of excitement for all that stuff I learned in college and have been fighting for time to do again.  I think it is time, and do enjoy the lecture.  It is highly informative and fascinating even if you are not a game designer.  It is game design to a whole new level.

I am in the Newspaper!

Leave a reply

Since graduation I have been very busy. As some can see I have deleted all my previous posts on this blog. It is time to start new. Over the past six weeks I have been working as a specialized lecturer at Arizona State University teaching 3D Studio Max and Photoshop Elements. The experience has been tremendous, and I am very happy to have taken this position, though temporary. I feel as though I have learned a lot over the past weeks, and I have come to the conclusion that I still have lots to learn. To be honest, the idea of learning more isn’t new to me. I figure, I won’t ever stop learning in my field and I plan never to stop. I like learning.

I did have a pleasant surprise today. While I was sitting off to the side letting the students work on their projects (Projects due tomorrow), a gentleman from the Arizona Republic newspaper came in to interview students and take pictures. I am now in the paper and you can read the exerpt here (http://www.azcentral.com/commphotos/azcentral/1124/8/53/). It really is weird reading about yourself in the paper. My favorite part is that I said something along those lines but not those exact words, but they work for me.

In other news, I am heading to Siggraph in San Diego in a couple weeks and will be frequenting the job booths. If you are going, leave a comment. I feel very positive about my whole job hunting situation and I don’t know why. Just cross your fingers.

I still have plenty more to do in order to plan for everything, and I have personal projects set up for myself including the CGTalk Strange Behavior Challenge.

Hope to update more soon once I get my projects rolling and set up for Siggraph.

I really should blog more often so my updates can carry only one topic.