GDC
There and Back Again
19/04/09 17:50
NOTE: due to the extreme amount of content in
this journal, I have broken it up for you mix and
matching pleasure!
EMPLOYMENT:
Two months ago, a friend of mine informed me that an animation studio was opening up in Omaha Nebraska (where I live) and that the guy starting it was one of the previs artists on the movie Coroline. He was to speak after the premier of the film in town and to an animation class at the school I graduated from a year prior. I went to his talk, knowing I wasn’t qualified for the position, but wanting to get some perspective and insight as GDC was a month away. I talked to him briefly, went home and typed up 3 pages of my life story in an email and sent it away. The following day I got a text asking if I could meet up with him and it just spiraled into employment from there.
Knowing full well that I was planning on trying to get a job at GDC, he offered to pay me for 4 weeks to come in part time around my other job and learn the few things I wasn’t strong in, all the while dealing with the companie’s investors, trying to secure me a full time position. Those 4 weeks were insane. I was working 12 hour days, Monday through Saturday, all the while preparing for GDC. It literally came down to 13 hours before I left for San Francisco that I found out I had the job. As of today I have worked two full weeks at Skyvu pictures and it is amazing. Most of what I do there I can’t show, but I hope and pray that one day you can see all the cool stuff we’re working on. I also hope that I will hone my talent there. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever be able to use a regular tablet again. At home im already using a Cintiq 12wx but at work… at work I have a Cintiq 21ux
It truly is something you should experience o______o
GDC 2009:
Knowing that employment was secure, I left for what was now essentially a vacation. A vacation with the ability to network with amazing people. I left with my friend Case and flew up (over?) to San Francisco to stay with a mutual, yet equally fake friend Bryan.
He turned out to not only incredibly light but also normal, and although he had classes and boring stuff, his roommate gave Case and I the guided tour of the town.
It was there that I also met up with and hung out with Kai Lim (of Imaginary Friends) and while he had important art rock star stuff to do on most of the expo days, I still had him long enough to lure into a seedy looking mexican restaurant and get him food poisoning. (those are lies)
The expo itself was pretty fun, and I did set aside a day for the career pavilion which I will sum up in greater detail then the regular show floor.
GDC / SHOW FLOOR:
It was pretty fun.
GDC / CAREER PAVILION:
This was what I was banking my future on before I got the job at Skyvu. And in retrospect I was pretty stupid. If you didn’t have industry experience, your business card went into the trash, or more tellingly, they told you flat out that they didn’t take physical media and to apply online. I assume that If I were to pass a certain threshold of awesome, that I would be asked for such things, but I am not so I wasn’t.
There were a few exceptions that I would like to point out in case somebody gets a google trackback to this page and that is the Insomniac booth, and the Ubisoft booth.
At insomniac I spent 1-2 hours standing in line just to mob one of the two artists there who were actively taking portfolios and critiquing them. These guys should be up for some sort of award. Not only did they have no life that entire day as far as I could tell, but they offered the most sincere and helpful critique somebody could ask for. 99% of the people in line were aspiring 3d artists, but I still learned a great deal
As for ubisoft, the booth was fairly big, but I did talk to a equally helpful man who was over all just a huge encouragement to me.
The rest of the booths for the most part were fairly daunting and impersonal, but you can’t hold that against anybody, and it mainly went to confirm my feelings of inadequacy
THE BACON CHEESE PIZZA BURGER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGCCWInBfRM
This is how we closed off our time at GDC
MOVING OUT:
I am typing this up from my newly settled one bedroom apartment. I’ve been moving over the course of the past week and finally got situated today. It is my hope that the migration to normal life will begin from this point on. Im not sure how drawing all day will effect my desire to draw at home, but we will see. I suspect I’ll still go in my normal cycle.
Again, sorry for how long this took to get out. I wish all of you the best, and if you have any further questions please ask me!
EMPLOYMENT:
Two months ago, a friend of mine informed me that an animation studio was opening up in Omaha Nebraska (where I live) and that the guy starting it was one of the previs artists on the movie Coroline. He was to speak after the premier of the film in town and to an animation class at the school I graduated from a year prior. I went to his talk, knowing I wasn’t qualified for the position, but wanting to get some perspective and insight as GDC was a month away. I talked to him briefly, went home and typed up 3 pages of my life story in an email and sent it away. The following day I got a text asking if I could meet up with him and it just spiraled into employment from there.
Knowing full well that I was planning on trying to get a job at GDC, he offered to pay me for 4 weeks to come in part time around my other job and learn the few things I wasn’t strong in, all the while dealing with the companie’s investors, trying to secure me a full time position. Those 4 weeks were insane. I was working 12 hour days, Monday through Saturday, all the while preparing for GDC. It literally came down to 13 hours before I left for San Francisco that I found out I had the job. As of today I have worked two full weeks at Skyvu pictures and it is amazing. Most of what I do there I can’t show, but I hope and pray that one day you can see all the cool stuff we’re working on. I also hope that I will hone my talent there. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever be able to use a regular tablet again. At home im already using a Cintiq 12wx but at work… at work I have a Cintiq 21ux
It truly is something you should experience o______o
GDC 2009:
Knowing that employment was secure, I left for what was now essentially a vacation. A vacation with the ability to network with amazing people. I left with my friend Case and flew up (over?) to San Francisco to stay with a mutual, yet equally fake friend Bryan.
He turned out to not only incredibly light but also normal, and although he had classes and boring stuff, his roommate gave Case and I the guided tour of the town.
It was there that I also met up with and hung out with Kai Lim (of Imaginary Friends) and while he had important art rock star stuff to do on most of the expo days, I still had him long enough to lure into a seedy looking mexican restaurant and get him food poisoning. (those are lies)
The expo itself was pretty fun, and I did set aside a day for the career pavilion which I will sum up in greater detail then the regular show floor.
GDC / SHOW FLOOR:
It was pretty fun.
GDC / CAREER PAVILION:
This was what I was banking my future on before I got the job at Skyvu. And in retrospect I was pretty stupid. If you didn’t have industry experience, your business card went into the trash, or more tellingly, they told you flat out that they didn’t take physical media and to apply online. I assume that If I were to pass a certain threshold of awesome, that I would be asked for such things, but I am not so I wasn’t.
There were a few exceptions that I would like to point out in case somebody gets a google trackback to this page and that is the Insomniac booth, and the Ubisoft booth.
At insomniac I spent 1-2 hours standing in line just to mob one of the two artists there who were actively taking portfolios and critiquing them. These guys should be up for some sort of award. Not only did they have no life that entire day as far as I could tell, but they offered the most sincere and helpful critique somebody could ask for. 99% of the people in line were aspiring 3d artists, but I still learned a great deal
As for ubisoft, the booth was fairly big, but I did talk to a equally helpful man who was over all just a huge encouragement to me.
The rest of the booths for the most part were fairly daunting and impersonal, but you can’t hold that against anybody, and it mainly went to confirm my feelings of inadequacy
THE BACON CHEESE PIZZA BURGER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGCCWInBfRM
This is how we closed off our time at GDC
MOVING OUT:
I am typing this up from my newly settled one bedroom apartment. I’ve been moving over the course of the past week and finally got situated today. It is my hope that the migration to normal life will begin from this point on. Im not sure how drawing all day will effect my desire to draw at home, but we will see. I suspect I’ll still go in my normal cycle.
Again, sorry for how long this took to get out. I wish all of you the best, and if you have any further questions please ask me!
|
Pre-GDC
21/03/09 23:52 Filed in: GDC
One last blog before GDC! Chances are if your reading
this its because you got spammed with my card or you
collect garbage. I hope to have a full recap
afterwards in some sort of form, but I don’t expect
to update this during the thick of things! If you
want to get together just let me know, my phone is
always on!
So begins the New Year
I guess updating my blog as the year transitions from
08 to 09 is a pretty lame thing to do, but i have no
excuses. A huge portion of my life’s direction could
easily be conjured within the next few months and
that gets you thinking. In the mean time, before GDC
now is the time to scrounge up business card designs,
settle on what style of portfolio I will bring with
me and hopefully produce a few more things of
artistic quality in the mean time.
Hopefully i’ll get a last minute entry in before i head out to San Francisco in regards to my plans and schedule at GDC.
Hopefully i’ll get a last minute entry in before i head out to San Francisco in regards to my plans and schedule at GDC.