It begins

I'm finally back in the US and ready to get to work. That doesn't mean find a job. I have a lot of work to do before I can even start looking. To become an animator, you need to have a portfolio/demo reel. I haven't finished a project since college, so my portfolio is filled with unrelated works and my demo reel would just be embarrassing. So I'm going to stick to a plan and get some projects done before I head out to look for employment. I'll use this blog to keep a record of my work.

I got back from Korea last week Wednesday, so I've been in the country a whole week! I spent a few days with my sisters in Madison, now I'm back in my hometown. It took a few days to get everything set up, and I'm still waiting on a new computer. I bought a real nice system. One of the intel i7 processors and a ATI 5850 HD video card. Should serve me better than this beast I'm working on now, but it wont be ready for a couple weeks. I just got a new monitor, a ViewSonic VP2365wb. It's one of the IPS panels, that is supposed to have better color reproduction and a stronger viewing angle than standard TN. We'll see how it works out, if I like it I'll get a second as my secondary monitor. If I don't like it, I'll get a dell as my primary monitor and use this ViewSonic as a secondary.

This week's 3D project, a basic city. I've got it all planned out, about 30 blocks of buildings. I'm a little behind, I was supposed to have the skyscrapers and small businesses finished yesterday. I'll hunker down and get those set up after breakfast. Then I can start working on the parks and other ornamentation.

I've been working on some anime style drawing. I'd really like to make a nice little comic, so I'll keep working on it as a side project. I think keeping up with my hand-drawn stuff is important, to show off my creativity to future employers.

Aside from my work, I'll be trying to build up my Japanese language ability. The Japanese are the ones busting out the really high quality, artistic, and thought provoking animations, so I really need to keep up to date with what they're doing. The best way to do that, learn the language. Both of the big English anime magazines stopped publishing while I was in Korea, lame. But knowing Japanese will put me ahead of that anyway, since I wont have to wait for translations.

Also, I need to think about my health. I'm living with my parents, who keep plenty of unhealthy food stocked. I'll have to cut back on snacking and really work on my discipline. It's much easier if the food just isn't around, but I can't force them to change their habits when I'm living in their house. There's some exercise equipment in the basement, so I'll try to take advantage of that. I think being healthier will give me more energy. And more energy can lead to stronger mental processes and the ability to put in more work hours.

This blog is going to be a culmination of all these things I'm doing to try and become a serious, professional animator. Time to get out the big brush!