Christmas Break

So here it is, Christmas break, and I am eagerly awaiting once more for school to start. I find myself at times going to the school link and seeing if by some odd chance that school started early and I can get back into my routine. I will be starting term 8 of 15 on January 8th, and half-way through that term I will be officiallyhalfway through my schooling. It has gone by realy fast, feeling ike I had only started earlier in 2009. I know that I cannot wait for it to be done just to have my degree and to learn all that is coming up ... but also I dread it ending because I find it so exciting at times.

*sigh*

Oh well ...

This last term I got 2 A's (College Writing II and Cinematography) and 1 B (Sequential Drawing and Visual Narrative), the B coming from the professor that I had 3 times in a row, and that I only really appreciated him during my 3D Art and Animation class. Wellllllllllllllllll ... it turns out that I might have him for a 4th term in a row because next term I am going to be in an Intermediate 3d Art class. I will also have classes on Human Relations and General Science. I am very anxious to get my books because my General Science book comes with a Physics Kit ... whatever that might be. Of course, I am EXTREMELY anxious about my books and software for my 3d Art class ebcause I will be getting new software, which will basically be more tools for my tool box and I cannot wait to play around with them.

Work is being very stressful for me right now as I am having issues with my supervisor ... to a point that i had to go to two other supervisors to discuss them. They agree that they are valid issues and concerns are are getting HR involved. All the more reason that I want school to start so that I can bury my mind in a project or two.

Anyhoo ...

I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas. I hope that the New Year brings you all joy and happiness! Love you bunches!

Just an update on things ...

Hi all ...

This term is feeling like it is going slower than the others. It seems like there is more work involved. I have A's in College Writing II and Cinematography, but have jsut slipped down to a B+ in my Sequential Drawing and Visual Narrative class. There is so much to know about storyboarding! Who knew? I normally have my class schedule for next term by now, but nothing new has been psoted yet. It may be because of the long break for Christmas. I will tlak to my advisor next week and see what he has to say. I also had a migraine last week and ended up in the ER over night. Thankfully I have my wonderful caring wife who takes care of me. We hada nice quiet Thanksgiving with mother and stepfather as well as a friend of mine from the next city over. Word tot he wise -- when ordering a precooked Thanksgiving dinner, ask if "precooked" means if the meal is warm and ready to be served when you pick it up, or if everything has been cooked, frozen, and needs to be reheated. Give you one guess what happened to us!

Something interesting Ihave been doing. I have been researching Game Companies to see see what they have for job openings, and to see if they have any internships or anything else that I might be able to do until I get out of school with my degree. I also noted where they are located. Meredith will be happy to note that there are about 3 of them so far that are located overseas in the UK, someplace that she and I both agreed would be fun to live. I included some notes that I jotted down for each. Here is what I have down so far:

Game Companies

Hiring Opportunities and Locations

11/27/2009

Nintendo – contracts out to a company in Redmonton, WA. Will only take local applicants. http://www.nintendo.com/corp/tester.jsp

Bioware – will only take local applicants in Austin, TX. https://jobs.ea.com/jobs/jobposting.aspx?refresh=1&postid=a0z50000000I9hS

SIDE NOTE: IGDA WEBSITE -- http://www.igda.org/qa

Atari Games – nothing listed for quality testing, but does have other jobs listed. http://www.atari.com/careers

Blizzard Games – offers multiple internships for different game titles, especially in 3d character modeling/animation. Located in California. https://blizzard.taleo.net/careersection/2/moresearch.ftl?lang=en&radius=1&jobfield=6160134073&portal=101430233&radiusType=K

Activision – offers internships/co-ops through accredited colleges. Will even pay for relocation. http://www.activision.com/index.html#careersen_UStype:university

SIDE NOTE – GAMASUTRA.com for listings

Gearbox Games – located in Plano, TX. Nothing listed for interns/co-ops. Nothing listed for quality testing. http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/jobs/

NC Soft – has locations in TX, WA, CA, and England. Has multiple job listings and types. Some quality testing and some internships. http://us.ncsoft.com/en/jobs/

Square Enix – located in CA. Has quality testing and must be local. Prefers someone who speaks Japanese. http://www.square-enix.com/na/careers/

THQ – has multiple job listings, some of them through Volition – Inc. http://recruiter.kenexa.com/thq/cc/CCJobSearchAction.ss;jsessionid=3204FDEC0E656BF896DB141C4537032E?command=CCSearchAll&ccid=bupJEdUjsTs%3D

Sega – has multiple job listings in multiple locations, but NOTHING listed for quality testing or internship. http://tbe.taleo.net/NA4/ats/careers/jobSearch.jsp?org=SEGAUSA&cws=1

Rainbow Studios – in Phoenix, AZ. Few jobs listed, nothing for quality testing or internship. http://www.rainbowstudios.com/employment/index.php

Capcom – does not have many jobs, but does have an internship. Located in San Mateo, CA. (WARNING – ask.com autofills San Mateo with COUNTY JAIL and COUNTY INMATES) http://www.capcom.com/us/?careers

Traveller’s Tales Games – located in Maidenhead, UK. Has multiple job listings including quality tester, but must be local. No interships listed. http://www.ttgames.com/jobs/

Ubisoft – programming jobs only. No internships or quality testing. BIZZARRE website. http://www.creatorsofemotion.com/home.php?param=en-us

505 Games – located in the UK. No career information listed.

So, anyway ... I have to finish getting ready for work. Next week I have 2 job shadowing opportunities with people in the standard tech areas of State Farm. I just wnat to keep my communications open with them in case anything falls through for me. I al have been keeping touch with Erwin. He tells me that State Farm jsut hired a person to work solely with 3dsMax. We are going to see if the 3 of us can set up a monthly meeting with each other.

Well, off to work!

Well this is exciting!

It was an interesting day at work for me on Wednesday. I had signed up to attend some training, and it was supposed to start right away when my shift started. It was in the building next door, and when I got there, no one was there. I went back to my desk and quickly checked my schedule and saw that something was scheduled for me, but didn't take a long look because I was running late and had to run back to the other building. Still, no one was there. I got back to my desk, and the lady sitting across from me asked me if I was going to the Developmental Fair because she was and didn't realize that she was scheduled for it. Checking my schedule again, and sure enough, it was the fair I was scheduled for, and not the training. At the fair, I got to stop off of booths put up by other departments at work and see if there was any other department that interested me. Of course, I stopped by the Creative Services Department and got invited to Brown Bag Lunch-n-Learn that will give even more information about their department and give me a chance to network. One thing that Erwin told me about and they reinforced is that some of the jobs will require that I present a portfolio of my work. I haven't quite gotten to a point yet where I feel that any of my work is portfolio quality, but I am still working on it. I also got some information on both sides of the ITSS (Internal Technical Support Systems), and it was really exciting stuff. For starters, the people at the booth recognized me as the person who installed all of their computers over a year ago. The felt that I would fit in really well with them just from my experience as is. I told them that I didn't even have a degree or any certifications, and one guy laughed at me and said his degree was in agriculture. He suggested that I set up some job-shadow times and go sit with their groups and see if I could do it. The other exciting part is that there are two sides to ITSS, one for hardware and one for software, and for the software side the point of contact was someone I worked with for my entire time in the kiosk. I attended meetings with her so I have hopes that perhaps I might be able to get in on a developmental opportunity with her group, and possibly on full time (I am currently only part time, and making less than what I would make within adifferent part of the company). Meredith asked if I would be happy doing helpdesk sort of work, and I told her that if it meant full-time, having all of my evenings off with her, and getting paid more, I would be more than happy to do that for our little family.

So ...

My supervisor was not in on Wednesday, so I need to talk to her first before I can start communicating with these other people and see about setting up some job shadowing and such.

Keep your fingers crossed!

As for school, things are going great. In the first three weeks of this term I am at 97% or higher in all three of my classes. I am excited!

Anyway ... will write more later!

My visit with Erwin

So today I talked to a member of the Creative Services team, his name is Erwin. He is the only person who uses 3dsMax, which is the tool that I am currently learning for school. This will most likely be my main tool, but as my instructor has mentioned, there are many programs out there and each one should be a tool in my tool box.

Erwin and I talked for about an hour about different things, different programs that he has used, and it turns out that 3dsMax is not used that much at all. State Farm is pretty much in the practice of hiring outside help to do their 3d animations. He mentioned that they have currently hired a company to make so many seconds of 3d animation and is paying them $150,000 to do it. Professor Clever had mentioned that freelancing can be a good way to go, but the downtime between jobs is what can pull you down. Erwin also mentioned that State Farm bounces back and forth between whether they want people for 3d work or not, and that maybe my skills would be better for Learning and Development instead of Creative Services. I do have skills with other programs that they use, such as Illustrator and Flash, and so I could try to get on there with those programs and continue to develop my 3d skills on my own after I am done with school. Maybe freelance a bit while I do that, but who knows?

Erwin told me that he had mentored someone before for a short period because she got in to Creative Services not long after he started mentoring her, so there was little left for him to mentor her on. He did give me a name of someone to talk to about mentoring, and I will follow up on that.

He did show me some of the things that he had worked on, such as a tornado simulation and at-fault simulators of vehicles. Those were pretty cool to look at. He said that the models were provided for him and he did the camera work. Still pretty cool stuff.

Over all, it was a very well spent hour. It has given me some leads to work on and made a friend. He said he will keep in touch with me and that I should start working on my portfolio, which is really great advice.

So, I gotta run ... gonna take care of some schoolwork.

Made the Dean's List again .... yay!

Well, I cannot seem to lcoate the sheet that I had written down my grades, but it was all A's in my classes. I do remember for my final project in 3d animation that I had received an 88%. This really bummed me out for I felt that I made the changes as my professor had requested them. I still received an A for teh class, but it was disheartening because he gave my prelims rave reviews, stating that he wished everyone else was where I was at with their work. He was disappointed with the gag, saying that he didn't get it (the bottle flying at the bear). Meredith wondered if he had never seen any Disney cartoons, for the bottle behaved like the brooms in Fantasia. Oh well ... can't win them all, right?

So, this term is going along really well. In my first week, I recieved 100% in all three classes. I am slightly worried about my Writing class as I need to come up with a a 7-10 page research paper by the end of week 9, and I still ahven't picked a topic yet. Not even sure what I want to research at this time.

I am very excited about Tuesday, coming up. I have an appointment to meet with the only person at State Farm headquarters who uses 3dsMax (the software I am learning) and he will show me how he uses it there. If I am lucky, I might even be able to job shadow him for a day depending on how things work out. This could be my "In" to the Creative Services department.

So, that is it for now. More later!

The final draft

Here it is, my final draft. I softened the light coming from the sconces, and lessened the reflection on the brass table base. I also added some more footage, and made the teddy bear's gait a little more swayed to add weight to his movements. I hope you all enjoy it.

My final ... a rough --

Well, here is my final for my 3D animation class. It looks a little rough due to compressing the file down to size, but when I have to upload it to the school's server, I have to keep it small. So this is still my rough, but it is not due until next week. Hope you all like it!

To answer some questions from my brother, I have just completed my my 6th term out of 15. I will complete all of my classes in July of 2011. Hopefully by that time I will have a nice portfolio put together and can find a really decent job with this degree.

Anyway, it is time for bed.

Grades and Next Term

Well, here it is in week8, and have 2 more weeks to go until I am done with Term #6 of 15. Wow. Where does the time go?

So, my grades so far are:

College Writing I: 466/500 (93.20%)
3D Modeling and Animation: 1102/1250 (88.16%)

College Algebra II: 663/730 (90.82%)

For my animation with the mouse, I got a 405/500, which really dropped my mid-A to a high-B. I don't mind much getting a B in my math or english class, but as this is the tool that I will be using in my newly chosen career, I want to do well with it. I do not agree much with his grade, as he docked me points because of the way I compressed it. As we never really went into great detail about compression, I used the same format as 98% as the people in the class used. Everyone but one person had large files that were uploaded that ranged in the 20mb-50mb range, and that last person had it down to less than 1mb. So, I now jsut have to work harder to get that grade back up to an A. The last project, which is worth onl 100 points, will be a teddy bear running across a floor and bumping into a glass table (see the attached picture). Why the last project is worth only 100 points and the midterm one was worth 500 is beyond me. After all, you know more at the end than you did at the beginning and know how to use it better, right?

Anyway ...

For next term I have three classes. One of them is my second English class. My other two are:

Cinematography
This course provides students with an overview of camera dynamics. Topics include camera placement and movement, scene composition, and lighting. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to analyze, identify, and apply cinematic elements in games.

Sequential Art and Visual Narrative
This course covers in depth the elements and techniques of sequential art. Topics include story boarding and scene layout, graphic arts publishing, pencil tests and animatics. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to create dynamic and effective narrative content for a variety of visual media.

Don't they sound exciting? I cannot wait for these class to start!!!

So, that's about it for right now.

Character Posing

This week we took our first steps towards Character Modeling, and that was posing. We were given an already made character model, and were asked to pose it in 4 different manners that looked natural. I played around with it and turned in two sheets just for kicks and giggles. I am happy over all, but think that perhaps I could have done more witht he hands, especailly on the first sheet with the four poses. But I won't know until a week from Monday when I get my grades.

So, here is my mouse project. I had to compress it and so the quality isn ot that great. You can still see everything pretty good except for maybe the fur detail. I am quite happy with my overall finished product. Out of about 12 of us, I think 3-4 people did a better job than me. Everyone else did as little as possible when it came to animating their mouse. They would move the entire mouse and not animate it at all so it looked like it was gliding or flying. I cannot wait until next week when I get my grade back for it and find out how I did.

Enjoy!

Alrighty, then ...

Well, I have a new picture of my mouse. Pickles was finally cooperative and let me take some pictures of her fur. Also, here is a lesser quality rendering of my bounching ball. I hope you like it.

Since I have posted, but I have been pretty busy. I am finding that I made the right choice in picking what I wanted to do in school as me 3D Character and Animation class is extremely exciting. And to think, I thought about going to school to be a chef!

So ... let me say that I am learn a LOT about 3D animation. I earned an interesting lesson the hard way the other day when I tried to render (or finalize) part of my project. I have to make a 30-60 second animation, and as a test, I thought I would render just a small part of it to see how long it would take. I sat at the computer for about an hour watching and waiting, reading a book, watching some more ... and after about an hour of thinking that surely it must almost be done ... it was only on frame 3! Yikes ... My project will be about 900 frames long, and after doing some quick math discovered that it will take about 2 weeks for it to render! OUCH! So, I was up until 3:30 A.M. reworking my mouse. It seems I had too many hairs on the lil guy. So at the current settings I have on him, my project will now render in ... 24hrs. Not TOO bad. If I leave his fur off, it will render in 3hrs. So now I have lots of choices to make. One of the choices that I have is trying to use a picture of fur instead of real fur. Let me tell you that Pickles was not being very cooperative with me when I tried to take some pictures of her fur up close.

Anyway, another thing that I had to do was animate a ball bouncing through a room. I am not quite done with it, but I will post it here for you to see. Not bad for my first try at 3D animation, huh? Erm ... it is too big to load here right now. I will have to try a few things.

I also redid the room that I first posted, trying to make it look more realistic.
Well ... Grades so far, although imcomplete (why do teachers take so long to post grades?!?!?), are as follows:
College Writing I: 157/170 (92.35)
3D Modeling and Animation: 369/380 (97.11)
College Algebra II: 209/230 (95%)
So, that is about it ... will post more when I have it!

My finsihed mouse and other things ...

Well, no grades as of yet ... some teachers are taking their time. That's ok. I am enjoying my 3D class too much to care. I made a really stupid mistake with the mouse I was working on, so I had to start over. What did I do? Well ... When I made the head and wanted to render it so taht I could post its picture on my blog, I saved the .jpg and closed out the file ... not saving my work file at all. So when I went back to work on it some more, the work file was not there and all I ahve was a picture of what I had done. That is pretty much liek typing up a report, printing it out, and not saving what you had typed. When you went back to edit what you had done, you ended up having to type it all over again. Anyway, as you can tell, my newer mouse is looking much better than before!

Also, the next shot is of a recroom that I made. My first project is to animate the moue to run through the room to nibble on some cheese. So, we shall see how that turns out.

Anyway ... I am of too work! Take care everyone!

My first 3D work

Hey all, I am now in my second week of my second term of my second year of school. I have no grades as of yet, but I have been working with the 3Dsmax software to do some 3D modeling. Nothing too exciting yet, but it's a start!

Anyhoo .. I need to keep it short so I can get to work. I will post more as I get things done.

Missed it by THAT much

My final grades for this term were:

Advanced Drawing and Perspective for Games: 1139/1300 (87.62%)
Character Development Design : 4019/4385 (91.65%)

So I got a B and an A-, but I didn't make the Dean's List. As my brother Skip would tell me, they are great grades, and I should be happy for them. I am, and cannot wait to start the next term which is less than a week away.

I am happy to say that I am done with the first of three years, and it went by very quickly. At this rate, I feel like I should have my degree by next year! One can only wish, right?

Meredith and I had at one point talked about getting me a larger monitor than my current 20in flat panel. I have been toying around with the idea of moving my desk in the den to the wall that is shared by our living room because our 27 flat panel TV is right by the door. If I had a wireless mouse and keyboard, I would be able to sit on the couch and work from there after I swapped the monitor cable from the monitor to the TV. Just toying with the idea:-).

Speaking of Skip, he and his wife Suzanne have the most adorable little girl named Sarah. She is learning how to play the violin and the ballet. You can see her at his website at the following link http://pelorus.org/wordpress/

So ... that is it for this term. 5 down, 10 to go!

The final week of this term

Well, here it is, week 9 of the final term of my first year. I have mixed emotions about it all. I am very happy and excited because it is one of three years down. I am bummed a bit because I am just finishing up my first class that I feel the teacher was really poor and that I might actually have him again next term with my very first 3D modeling class. I'll go more into this in just a minute ... first of all, my grades so far (keep in mind that we are now in week 9, but I only have grades up to week 7 in both classes):

Advanced Drawing and Perspective for Games : 913/1050 (86.95%)
Character Development Design : 2496/2725 (91.60%)

As you can see, I am pretty much into the lowest scores that I have received so far since I started school. This has me bummed out. Truth to tell, I blame the class layout and the instructor for my Advanced Drawing and Perspective for Games class. We were to turn in our rough drafts by the end of one week (Week A), and then turn in our finals the following week (Week B), but we would not get feed back from our instructor until the beginning of the week after that (Week C). It was because of this lapse that I missed out on some easy points, and my grade would be higher.

I know ... it is still a B, and I should be happy. I AM happy that I have a B. I am very happy that I am doing better in college then I did in high school. I am happy that I am doing something and having fun with it. I am bummed, though, because I had no control over it and it took some of my pleasure away.

Did I do anything about it? Others already had. They posted their displeasure about it in the discussion threads, and the teacher pretty much said that he was overwhelmed. I will have my say when I fill out the end of term survey. I get one for each class, and I will go into detail. Oh well.

Anyway ...

I apologize for the rant. I am hoping that everyone is doing great. My Aunt Karen from North Dakota came for a visit. Meredith and I had my mother and her over for dinner. Since that visit, Meredith has repainted the livingroom, and we have rearranged it. We made more open room because we intend to get a Nintendo Wii with a Wii Fit to try and get us into some shape. I am very proud to say that I have cut my soda consumption by 2/3. In about a month, I hope t be soda free.

So ...

With that being said, I need to head to bed. Tomorrow I need to get my hair cut, and finish up working on one of my final projects. It is due Wednesday, but I want to turn it in tomorrow.

Take care everyone!

Next terms classes

I just confirmed my class schedule for next term. I have mixed feelings about it. I have three classes, and they are: College Algebra II (ACK!!!), College Writing (meh), and .... 3D Modelling and Animation (W00T!!!)!!!

Am I excited? Sure am! The first two I can do while I am at work. That should not be a problem. That will give me plenty of time to do my full class at home. The description of the 3D Modelling course ias as follows:

In this course students are introduced to 3D modeling and animation using industry relevant software.Topics covered include project development from initial concept to final production using lighting, camera angles, and textures. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to create and animate virtual objects in a 3D environment.

Doesn't that sound exciting?!?!?

I am so very anxious again to get this term over and done with and start on my next one!!!

Hades: High School Gym Teacher

It is now week 5, and that means I am halfway throug this term. Once done with this term, it will be 1 year that I have completed out of 3! I am VERY excited about that.

My grades for this term so far are:

Advanced Drawing and Perspective for Games: 449/485 (92.58%)

Character Development Design: 575/609 (94.42%)

In my character design class, I have sparked an interesting discussion with my character turnaround for Hades, Greeek Lord of the Underworld. We were to take a mythological character or creature and redesign them any way we wanted. I thought it would be fun to take Hades and turn him into a gym teacher. As you can see, I made him on the hefty side. I thought it would be funny for one, and two -- what would be more torturous to students than to have the person who is trying to get them into shape be out of shape? The discussion is whether or not the chatacer is believable. Some people argue that it doesn't matter that Hades would be able to take any shape he wanted, that a gym teacher SHOULD be in shape, and so that is the end of it. Others have argued that they have had gym teachers that were out of shape, and it was hell having them make them do sit-ups while the teacher broke a sweat just watching them. It has been a very interesting discussion. Especially because some of the peoplpe arguing against the believability have their own renditions of Gods running around in power armor!

Anyway ... heading to work now.

Take care!

Samurai Bear

So, I now have my grades back for week 2, with it now being week 4 of class. And they are as follows:

Advanced Drawing and Perspective for Games: 117/130 for a total of 244/260 (93.85%)

Character Development Design: 154/158 for a total of 358/375 (95.47%)

So, I am still hanging in there -- but things are still early. I am really not liking the perspective course, as e ven though I understand it and it's importance, it boogles my brain sometimes. I know that once I get into the computer aspect, I can always draw whatever I need or want on the system, and it can then be rotated to give me the perspective I need. On the flipside, and this is why I do need to do well in this class, is that sometimes it is quicker to get it hand drawn without using the computer, so ...

On I go.

Anyhoo ... here is a recent picture that I did for class, called Samurai Bear. I had to take a classic character archtype (villain, hero, sidekick, comic relief, and so forth), draw something that fits, and then redraw it a second time as if it were a different arachtype. So I drew a polar bear as an animal sidekick, and then drew him again as an anthropromorphic Samurai. I received a 48/50 for it, because I didn't have enough emotion or expression showing on his face, which wasn't enough to tell a story or what he was thinking.

Oh well.

Enjoying school!

Hey all ... this term is certainly pretty interesting, if nothing else. Both of my classes are focusing on drawings, so they can be very time consuming. As it stands, After teh first week, I have "A"s in both of my classes, and still an "A" in one class, and unknown in the second. I seem to have one teacher who gets the previo9us weeks grades up withn a day or two, and the other who posts them at the very last minute, or even a day late. ARRRGGGGGG!!!

One thing that I have done so far this term is to create a character from scribbles. Basically, using MS Paint (found under Accessories in the Start Menu) I made a bunch of random circles, squares, lines, and scribbles, and then made a mirror image of it and see if I can spot anything to work with. The picture shown is one that I came up with. Looks like some sort of insectoid head in a hood, doesn't it?

Anyway ... my first project in this course is to take a mytholical character or monster and redesign it. Put them into some sort of different role. My intention for this project is to take Hades, Greek God of the Underworld, and turn him into a high school gym teacher. Give him tight gym shorts, short sleeve shirt, whistle around his neck, and shades. Should look pretty good once I am done.

Anyway ...

Work is keeping my busy. I took my Canada licensing exam about 2 weeks ago, and I score a 25% out of 100 questions. Seems that 3 of us had that happen to us. I studied long and hard for that test, and even if i was to walk in off teh street and take that test without studying, I could have scored 25%. So upper management is trying to fight this, thinking we were given the wrong test to the listed answer key, and we will see what happens. Worst case is that I will n eed to retake the test, but if I fail, I will need to pay the $150 for it. I really do not want to retake it, especially because it is no longer fresh in my mind. And it will jsut mean having to restudy and devote time to it that I much rather devote to school and Meredith.

So ...

That is about how things have been here lately. Hope all is well with all of you everywhere else!

Back on the Dean's List!

Just received my final grades:

Life Drawing for Aninmation: 7107/7710 (92.18%)
College Algerbra I: 1052/1160 (90.69%)
Game Analysis and Playability: 1228/1250 (98.24%)

3 "A"s!! Woot! I feel great that I made it back onto the Dean's List, as I feel that I am giving it my all. One thing that my stepfather always tried to get across to me is not to do anything half-assed, with I feel that I did a lot as I was growing up (and maybe still do every so often). I don't feel that I gave it my best shot the first time I tried college 20 years ago, and so I am now giving it my all (witht he support of a wonderful wife), and setting high goals that I want to make. I see that I am not only getting good grades, but am making progress with my ability as well. I am really eager to get into the 3D side of the art work, but that will jsut take some patience. Best learn how to walk before I can run.

Love you all!!! See you next term (1 week from today!)

Heading into the final week ...

Well, here it is, the final week of this term, and these are my grades:

Life Drawing for Animation: 5602/6015 (93.13%)

College Algebra I: 772/830 (93.01%)

Game Analysis and Playability: 1056/1075 (98.23%)

In this final week, for me to maintain my "A" in each class, the breakdown for what the week is worth versus what the minimum I will need is as follows:

Life Drawing for Animation: Worth - 1695; Need - 1337

College Algbra I: Worth - 330; Need - 272

Game Analysis and Playability: Worth - 175; Need - 69

I feel fairly confident that I have gotten an "A" in both ym art class and my game class. I am worried about my math class, but will be happy to even get a "B". Over all, it looks like I made it back onto the Dean's List which makes me happy.

I have put up here my character sheet that I turned in for my final in this art class. Looking back to my first term character sheet, I see that I have made improvements. I feel that I have not yet made it to a point that I have something that is portfolio worthy, but ... I do feel that I am on the right path to getting there. I am putting up my first term character sheet to show the difference.

Any thoughts?

So, one thing that was suggested was that I ditch the mask, and try some other approaches. Here is what I came up with. Any thoughts on what Frankenstein XIII's head should look like?

Some really good feedback ...

In my art class this term, we have to come up with a character and make a more advanced character sheet than before. To do a study of the character, as it were. Of course, we had to write a backstory for the character, and this is what I submitted:

Frankenstein XIII

Victor von Frankenstein actually lived and had created a monster. Contrary to what popular fiction would have you believe, he and his creation did not die. The monster survived with minor injuries, while Victor suffered major bodily trauma. Through the use of his notes, the followers of the baron’s research have kept his brain alive in a jar for the past two centuries. With the aid of his followers, the baron has made 12 attempts at making a creation that remains stable and controllable. Most of these attempts resemble human beings. The others incorporated the use of animal parts to enhance the possible combat factors. Unfortunately, each attempt was a failure. Each creation was lacking in some shape or form. While some showed promise in being controllable, they lacked in other areas such as speed, coordination, or intelligence. And those that excelled in physical traits became hard to control and exhibited psychopathic tendencies.

It is the year 2012, and Victor is ready to make his thirteenth attempt at making a controllable monster that will be the ultimate being. Using the body of a gigantic Mongol that was captured in the Himalayas, Victor’s followers place the brain of a captured navy Seal inside. This works out to be the perfect combination, but the Navy Seal rebels against the cult that created the abomination that he has become. Using the combined strength of the Mongol with his own combat training, he escapes and starts making his way back home. To bring back his finest creation, Victor has released the previous twelve creations to hunt him down.

And this is what my professor responded with:

David...this is the finest work yet, for this class. I really love your story. Siskel and Ebert would give this thumbs up! Consider copyrighting this. Not only did you breath life into an old classic, you gave it lead off branches to the four corners of the earth, so to speak. Also, to the careful observer you garnished this with some backdrop depth of symbolism - by using the number 12. Whether that was intentional, it works:)

So ... I am hoping that next term in my Chracter Creation class that I can really flesh Frankie out more and get something more solid that maybe I can get a copyright. I have an email out to my professor asking for more information on the process as to what I would need to have solid before such a thing. Will just have to wait and see how it goes.

As for my grades:

Life Drawing for Animation: 4209/4540 (92.71%)
College Algebra I: 644/690 (93.33%)
Game Analysis and Playability: 747/765 (97.65%)

So, over all, still going strong. I hope to make the Dean's List again. I am currently at a 93.41% for this term, so that is still a pretty good "A".

Anyhoo ...

Have two more weeks to good for this term. Meredith will be gone to Florida for my last week. She will be helping her mother and grandmother pack up the grandmothers belonging so that she can move to Cincinnati to live with her parents. I will miss her dearly.

That is it for now. I hope you all ahve a great Cinco De Mayo!

A paper I wrote (with Meredith's help)

I had to write a paper about a game that came out in the the 1990's, and why it was enjoyable to play. Here it is:

Final Fantasy VII
“The RPG by which all others are to be measured” – IGN Staff

In 1987 when Hironobu Sakaguchi created the game “Final Fantasy”, he had no idea that 10 years later he would be instrumental in releasing what is arguably the best role playing game of all time. For its time, Final Fantasy had the best graphics available. The game play was on a level that had not been seen before. And the story had people in tears.

Both the story and back story of Final Fantasy VII is profound and multi-faceted. The plot is varied with aspects reminiscent of “Dune”, “Frankenstein”, and “Godzilla”. (Kesavin) The game takes place in a futuristic world on a planet called “Gaia”, referred to as just “The Planet”. The Planet is ruled by the Shinra Electric Power Company, an unscrupulous entity that holds the population in a grip of terror.

There are 9 playable characters, each with their own unique and engaging back story. Some of the best characters include Cloud Strife, a member of SOLDIER, the elite fighting force for Shinra; Barrett Wallace, who leads the resistance force of AVALANCHE against Shinra; Tifa Lockhart, a childhood friend of Cloud’s and a member of AVALANCHE; and Aeris Gainsburough, a simple flower merchant. (Williams) The greatness of the characters provides a realistic dimension that no other game has been able to match.

Part of what makes Final Fantasy VII an excellent game is that the player can take on side quests that further the back stories of the characters themselves, but have no effect on the main storyline. A player can complete the game without doing the side quests, but in my opinion they would be robbing themselves of some of the most excellent writing and storytelling.

At the start of the game it seems that the main protagonist of the story is Shinra Corporation, but through twists and turns we learn that it is actually Sephiroth. Sephiroth is the hero to Cloud and the long lost leader of SOLDIER. (Williams) His goal is to be revered as a god and will stop at nothing to reach that goal. During the course of the game he kills one of the main characters. This cut scene is one of the most talked about cut scenes of all time. This act alone makes the game stand out from previous games of this type and certainly from the other Final Fantasy games.

As an extremely immersive role playing game, there are no levels to conquer; instead, like the original game from 10 years earlier there are expansive areas to explore. Most areas are not accessible to the player until certain criteria are met, such as discovering an airship or a submarine. Each area gets progressively harder than the previous area. In a fairly new twist to immersive role playing games, players are allowed to go back to areas that they had previously explored. What truly adds to the richness of the game is that each area stands out from the others. For example, when exploring the Shinra Corporation, the player can sense the “industrialization” of the scene expressed through both colors and sounds. When entering the jungle areas, the scene is quite different with bright colors and birds in the background.

The graphics for this game are simply fantastic. Many of the locals are static and hand drawn. Also, the 16 different summon monster spells each have their own cut scenes, such as the “Leviathan” spell. This spell was on the demo disk, and this “sneak peek” is believed this scene provided the high demand for the game. (Boor) The graphics stand out even further when the game switches to the unique combat system. Each player and weapon has a distinct look to be equipped for every attack. Each time a character updates a weapon, the graphics show the change during combat. When a character learns a new attack, the animation during combat changes to reflect this. Prior to Final Fantasy VII, animation change was never seen.

There is also a fantastic soundtrack to the game, composed by Nobuo Uematsu. (Kesavin) Nobuo is also the composer of the original Final Fantasy game from 10 years ago. As mentioned earlier, one of the main characters is murdered by Sephiroth, and one cannot help but to get teary eyed as the mournful music plays in the background. During combat, each attack has a distinct sound, and the monster summoning spells really come to life with their own sounds and soundtrack.

The game play really grabs the players and gives a never before seen control over each character’s development. Weapons can be upgraded and made more powerful with different colored crystals called “materia”. “Materia” crystals can be mixed, and depending upon what colors are used, special abilities are given to the characters. Combat itself is menu driven and simple to use. Navigating the open world was even more simple. Even the side games have quick little instruction snippets that instruct the player. Over all, it is an expansive game that is simple to play.

The artificial intelligence from the original Final Fantasy has been greatly improved in VII. Nothing seems senseless or useless. In the original game the AI “silences” players (prevents them from casting spells or using abilities) that have no ability to cast spells. As each player has special abilities they all can be “silenced”. If a player relies too heavily upon one character for their special ability the game “silenced” that character. Attacks are still pretty random, though, without the monsters trying to single out the healers or any other specific character. The game would have been much harder had specific characters been targeted by the AI.

The ultimate goal is to stop Sephiroth. That is the “win” condition of the game. Even if you do this, the player still feels a sense of loss at the death of one of the main characters. There is an actual “lose” scenario written into the game and can be seen if everyone in the party dies during combat. If you play like I do with frequent saves, this is not a problem because one can go back to the last save point. All characters seemed to die during the big “boss” battles which made the save points especially important.

Many would argue that “Final Fantasy VII” is the best RPG game available. Definitely “the most shocking moment in video game history” (Gouskos) occurs when Sephiroth kills one of the characters. Today the graphics still look good. When the game debuted, the graphics were amazing. The game play, the combat system with the addition of the “material” components and the monster summoning spells made this a game to be remembered for all time. Is it worth all of the attention and praise that it has received, including spin-off games and a feature length movie? Many players including myself think that the attention and praise is deserved.

Works Cited
Boor, J. (n.d.). Game Details for Final Fantasy VII. Retrieved 04 15, 2009, from IGN Entertainment Games: http://psx.ign.com/articles/150/150494p1.html
Gouskos, C. (n.d.). Greatest Games of All Time. Retrieved 04 15, 09, from Game Spot: http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6155700/index.html
Kesavin, G. (n.d.). Final Fantasy VII Review. Retrieved 04 16, 2009, from Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/ps/rpg/finalfantasy7/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review
Williams, S. (n.d.). Final Fantasy VII - Characters. Retrieved 4 17, 2009, from RPG Gamer: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff7/text/char/ff7char.html
Sakaguchi, Hironobu. "Final Fantasy VII", video game, 1997

3 more weeks to go ...

And then this term will be done. I am still waiting for a grade from my art class back from week 4, but it seems so are a lot of people.

Life Drawing for Animation: 3236/3522 (91.88%)

College Algebra I: 590/620 (95.16%)

Game Analysis and Playability: 548/560 (97.86%)

Doing good! As a matter of fact, for my Algebra Mid term, I got a 290/300 ... I would have aced it, but I fat-fingered a "9" for a "6".

The picture I have posted is an "environment" picture. Here is what my professor had to say about it:

This is pretty solid work overall. You demonstrate a good understanding of informal composition. You also understand perspective. More refined shading would have put this over the top.

Shading always seems to be my downfall. It will definately be something that I will be working on in the future. I either leave out the shading, or it looks unnatural. So ... practice makes perfect, right?

Also ... I have my class schedule for next term. I will be taking two classes, and they are:

Advanced Drawing and Perspective for Games

In this course students will build upon their traditional drawing skills and apply them to the design of vehicles, environments, and props. Topics covered will include the techniques and materials relevant to generating game design concepts. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to develop final concept art for 3D environments, vehicles, and props.

Character Development and Design

This course will prepare students to create characters with personality. Students will design a character from scratch and carry the process through to the level of detail expected in the animation industry. Topics include brainstorming ideas, elements of character, expression, facial anatomy, ethnicity, poses, costume, accessories and human psychology. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to take a character development project from its conceptual stage to a final end product.

These classes look pretty interesting. Once again I am anxious for these to start so I can see what they are and how they will play out. I am loving school, and as much as I cannot wait to get it over with and move on to a better life with Mere and the kitties, I am really enjoying myself.

So ... that is it for now. I'll be posting one of my reports here, probably, just to show some of the writing I had to do this term.

Take care everyone!

Where has the time gone?

Wow. Here it is week 3 in my 4th term, and I haven't posted in sucha long time. Truth to tell, i've had a few migraines and ended up in the ER once again. The meds that I have been on have not helped, and the only had negative side affects on me. Mostly, I was irritable and got angry really easily, which I was told AFTER I hadbeen taking these pills that it was a possibility that this would happen. Great! So they now have me on something else now, which has a small chance of playing havok with my liver, so I a have to be tested ever 3 months to make certain that it is ok. My neurologist says that finding something that will prevent the migraines is hard because I have them so far apart. It is the severity that has him worried. My stepfather thinks I need to have something that tells doctors in the ER that I am having am igraine, not a stroke or am on drugs, and just treat the migraine as they normally would. My arguement against that is that what if I AM having a stroke, and they treat me for a migraine, as they symptoms are pretty close? Great!

Anyhoo ...

My grades so far are:

Life Drawing for Animation: 1855/1948 (95.23%)
College Algebra I: 210/220 (95.45%)
Game Analysis and Playability: 264/275 (96%)

So I am doing pretty good right now. I really enjoy the Game Analysis and Playability course. We ahve jsut formed teams and will be picking a game that is not doing so well and relaunch it ... or basically come up with ideas that would have made the game do better when it first came out. There are 7 people on the team, and there are about 4 of us that are doing all of the work, with the other 3 practically being no shows. The professor is aware of this and said this is our real world experience. So ... the game our team chose is "The Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures." It is an online game so we have a social aspect to deal with, as well as we can all hop on at the same time and try out group things together as well. We just need our professor to approve the title now, and we will be good.

So ...

The job is going well, and it has its ups and downs. I really do not like the amount of time that Meredith and I are apart, but it does give me plenty of time to get my homework done. Also, some of teh customer can be downright nasty. They are calling me to run a quote on their automobile insurance and sometimes lie about accidents and tickets hoping to get a better quote. Once we run our reports and find out that they werelieing, they get upset at US. They are the ones with the accidents and tickets, and it was our time that they wasted. Go figure.

Well ... that's it for right now. It's Easter and the wife and I are gonna spend some quality time together. I hope that you are all well and good and safe.

Love you all!

Final Grades for Term 3

Digital Illustration: 2225/2400 (92.71%) -- Final Project 625/700

Color Theory: 2789/3265 (85.42%) -- Final Project 960/1280

*sigh*

My first "B" -- made the Dean's List my first two terms, and then lost it on the third. Kinda bummed, but as Meredith says: It is still above average.

True, but I really did not like the way teh class was ran. When we got our quizzes back, none of the questions we got wrong showed wha tthe correct answer was. Furthermore, with only two huge scoring projects, it was impossible to bring your grades up when all of the other assignments scored very little. And then on my final project, I only got two sentences worth of critique fromteh professor explaining my grade. It was as if he didn't care. Oh well ... I did my project really more jsut for fun anyway, and maybe make something special for my mother. She liked it, and that is what is important to me.

Oh well. My professor in Digital Theory gave me a huge paragraph explaining how things could have been better, so I fell pretty good about that.

I am really excited about school starting again, which will be on this coming Wednesday. I am curious to see how my Algebra class will be ran, especially the discussion side of things - "No, really ... prime numbers are signs from God that math can be fun!"

Anyhoo ... the pictures are from my Color Theory Final Project that I had to come up with a mock-up of a website and some banners and brochures for an event. I did a fictional garden-walk for my mother and her sister who live in two different states.

Talk to you all again soon!

Final Num-nums Draft

After getting feedback, and having to do the rest of the assignment, here is my final work for my Digital Illustration class. The bottom one is the packaging design (a treat pouch that only has 2 sides), then a marketing poster up above it (tried to make it look like a movie poster), and finally an advertising floor cling (the idea is to leave a trail of them leading up to the display).

Hope you like them!

Still waiting for grades, and ... NUM-NUMS!

My teachers are supposed to ahve our grades posted by Sunday, but alas I am still waiting for mine. Oh well.

I wanted to post my rough draft for my final project for my Illustration class. I had to come up with a fictional product and make a package for it. As we have cats and get treats for them in pouches, I decided to make a new cat treat and designed a pouch. So ... here it is! I will probably need to rework one or two items, but this should be pretty close to my final product.

Let me know what you all think!

A little glimpse ...

I am still working on my final project for Color Theory, which is to do a full spread on any event, real or fictional. A full spread is 3 pamphlets, a banner, and a webpage mock-up. I am doing a fictional gardenwalk that my mother and her sister who live in 2 different states would host simultaneously. The idea would be that they would have photo displays of each other's garden set up so that people could view the other garden in a different state as they walked through. Here is a picture of the banner that I made. The colors are sampled directly from photos of the flowers that are on display (the ones farthest to the left in the photo banners). I have the pamphlets done, and jsut need to to do the mock-up next.

A little Andy Warhol

I am a bit bummed that my Color Theory teacher only gav eme 90 out of 100 for my Audrey Hepburn picture. He said I could have used my colors better. ARRRGHH! Well, let's see how I do on this assignment: it is to be a self portrait and used colors that express our emotions. We had to write up what those emotions are, so -- I did an Andy Warhol type collage expressing how I feel/felt about migraines. Meredith read the short description and was bothered by it, and I would liek to say that it was not easy growing up with them -- for me or the people around me. I thank them all greatly, for it had to be as hard on my family as it was for me. I will always love them for all that they endured -- family past and family present (that goes double for Meredith!).

Portrait of a Migraine
Ever since I have been 2 years old, I have suffered from debilitating migraines. Sometimes they start off with wavy spots and lines before my eyes, or a tingling sensation in my extremities. Sometimes there is vomiting involves, and always there is massive pain around the eyes and in the head. The pain intensifies in direct relation to the amount of light that I am exposed to. A lot of times I get very confused and cannot verbally communicate, and this earns me a trip the emergency room, and sometimes a hospital stay. I am now 40, and on average suffer 2-4 migraines a year. This is how I see my migraines.

The first picture in the upper left with the reds, yellows, and blues is a total capture of one of my migraines. The yellow is the bright light that I become acutely sensitive to, causing me massive amounts of pain and suffering. The red is the manifestation of that pain as it permeates my head. The blue is the emotion that I feel, a depression that once again I am going to feel miserable and in great pain.

The second picture represents my hidden thoughts about the way I feel about myself and the migraines that are a part of me. As I went through elementary and high school, a migraine could be triggered by anything, even a bump on the head. Because of this, I was not allowed to play in sports, had to attend a special gym glass, regular camps would not accept me, and it all made me feel like an outcast. It was very depressing because this was a major sign of weakness, and I was the target of many bullies. I feel that I only had one true friend back then who understood what I was going through, but it was not enough to keep me from feeling lonely. The depression was to the point that at times I had considered suicide, but did not have the strength to follow through. The blue is for that depression, with the yellow being my cowardice and shame at the thoughts of suicide.

The third picture with the red and green is how I was made to feel by the rest of the world because of my migraines. There were times when I literally felt like the Joker character from the Batman comics. When I was at school and started to get a migraine, there were times I was told to go lay down in the hallway and wait for my parents to pick me up. As I would lie there, students going to lunch or gym would be paraded past me, all looking and pointing at me, not understanding my plight. To them, I was a freak. The color scheme itself represents me feeling like that freak, but the colors mean other things individually. The green represents the envy that I felt towards the other children who did not suffer the way that I did, that led normal lives. The red is for the anger that I felt, not at them, but at myself for being so different. Even to this day, I still feel a bit of that anger, especially after being in the hospital and wonder “What did I do to deserve this?”

The final picture goes through the steps of a migraine as I perceive it. The squiggles and the lines are what I see when a migraine starts to attack me. The yellows and the whites are the bright lights that will be my antagonist for the next several hours. The red is the intense pain that will pound against my head. Green represents the illness itself, and the orange represents how I feel different from the rest of the world.

A little help ...

I had a person at work "hire" me to make a logo for her. It was nothing too serious, just needed what you see here. She asked me what the name of my company was for her paperwork that she needed to turn in, and so I have been thinking about it for a few days now. At first, I was thinking along the lines of "Mad Scientist Graphic Design" or "Evil Genius Graphic Design" because of what I want to do with Frankenstein XIII. Meredith on the other hand was thinking about Taking the first two letters of my first and last name, and that became "DaMo Graphic Design." I shot that down real quick because 1) my sister's nickname is "CaMo" for the same reason, and I wanted my own name, and 2) what the heck kidn of graphic would you make for a "DaMo"? I then realized that using the first two letters of each of our names (DAvid and MEredith), you get "Dame", which is slang for "woman". but is defined as the wife of a knight. So at work tonight I was tossing around ideas and was thinking of some nice fonts (ones that kind of flowed and had some nice curves to them), and thatthe name could be "The Classy Dame Graphic Design Company". I could then have a mascot (a classy looking dame) sitting on the "D" in "Dame" ... be it on top of the "D" or inside of it ... or maybe even standing with her back to the spine of it.

Anyhoo ... that was just something I was tossing around. I would like to have a side business to do stuff like this, and to get my name out there. This way when I finally do get to go to a Game Designer's Conference, I will have a nice portfolio and a list of accomplishments that I can show to potential employers. Not to mention a little extra cash would be nice.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Classes for next term

I know I jsut posted, but I jsut found out that my next term's schedule is up. I will be taking:

Life Drawing for Animation (7 credits)
This course covers advanced drawing concepts as they relate to character modeling and animation.Topics include basic human anatomy and form as it relates to the surrounding environment, spatial relationships and introductory sculpting techniques. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to effectively capture and develop gestures and motion in various media (pencil, pen, watercolor, clay, and sculpey) for use in 2D and 3D animation.

Game Analysis and Playability (4 credits)
This course introduces students to the concepts behind the development of games, conceptual reflection, genres, and the determination of what actually defines a game’s playability. During this course, students will play games, investigate code or sample aspects of existing games, and document and critique the effectiveness, efficiency, and aesthetic qualities of the sample games. Upon completion of this course, students should have played several games and documented the playability by critically analyzing the graphics, sound, artificial intelligence, and intended audience.

And I will be taking a course in Algebra (3 credits) as well. All sounds exciting ... especially the Game Analysis. I'll keep you all posted on how that goes!

Grades for Week 5, a new picture, and a migraine

My apologies for being late with my grades this week. One of my two teachers seems to like and wait until Sunday to post grades. That is somewhat annoying. Added to it that Meredith and I went to a nice hotel for our anniversary (3rd), and then had teh strangest of migraines on Wednesday night. It was as if the migraines was having problems starting up. I was at work and I was reading a book when I started to get the spot in my eye. I looked up and the spot tracked, and so I was going to leave when it went away. I decided to stay. I went on break a little later, and got a massive headache that almost made me fall over, but instantly went away. When I went on lunch, my entire leg went numb in an instant and so I went home and went to bed. That was the worst of it and slept through the night. I have been to teh doctor, and he feels that I suffer from migralepsy ... migraines triggered by a form of epilepsy. He has put me on Keppra, which is an anti-seizure medicine. So ... let's see how that works out for us.

Anyhoo ... my grades are:

Digital Illustration: 587/630 for a total of 1036/1100 (94.18%)

Color Theory: 151/155 for a total of 1349/1475 (91.46%)

My comic book cover got a B (87.5%) because I could have shaded more, and I accept that. The new picture that I have up I had to do for Color Theory. It is Audrey Hepburn. I ahd to take a black and white photo and paint it with one color and any shades of it to try and express the emotion of the picture. Purple is considered teh color of royalty, nobility, and is often considered to be an erotic color, and I felt that it best described Audrey. Hope you like it!

Grades for Week 5

I am sorry that I did not post this last week, but I had a trip to the hospital for a massive migraine. I am feeling much better now, but it was one of the worst two migraines I have ever had. I ended up with an MRI, a spinal tap, 3 shots for nausea, blood tests, and who knows what else. I will be seeing a neurologist next week and will see if there is anything new out there for me.

Anyhoo ...

Digital Illustration: 83/90 for a total of 449/470 (95.53%)

Color Theory: 703/795 for a total of 1198/1320 (90.76%)

I took a hit in my Color Theory class because my report was too short. He liked the colors I used for the "Jaws" movie poster and liked my ideas in my report, it was jsut too short. Oh well. I can still pull an "A" out of the class.

The picture that I have up was my first project in Digital Illustration. We had to come up with a comic book cover with a super-hero of our own creation. So ... here is my first incarnation of Frankie!

An interesting assignment

In color theory class this week we had to do a painting of something nature related using as true a color as we could. So, as my mother is a master gardener and has a buku load of flowers in her garden, I used one of her photos from my assignment. It took me about 8 hours to paint using the tablet that my wife got me for my birthday (I love all three ... my wife, my mother and my tablet!)

Another week done ...

Another week done and now into week 4. Almost halfway done with the new term. I am still enjoying it all very immensely, and even got to give my new tablet a huge workout on this week's assignment. I had to make a picture completely of colored dots, and the dots are supposed to "mix" in the picture to give you the different colors. So ... can you tell what it is? And how well do the dots mix for the colors?

Anyway ... for my grades for last week --

Digital Illustration: 149/150 for a total of 366/380 (96.32%)
Color Theory: 131/155 for a total of 495/525 (94.29%)

Still going strong!

I am really enjoying my school work and the way that the school itself works. I have talked to many different people outside of school telling them how excited and thrilled I am with the whole thing, that one of my friends is now starting classes in March. He is going for a Visual Arts degree and is very anxious to get started. He has said that his initial start-up has been as good an experience as mine was, so I am happy that I had recommended it for him. too bad I don't get a commission for that.

I have started working my normal hours at work now, which is 3:30-11:30 Mon, Wed, and Fri, and 9-5 on Saturdays. On the week days we sometimes go 30 minutes between calls, so this will give me a chance to get my homework done ahead of time.

Well ... that is it for now. I am going to get to work on one of my assignments, so ... will write more later!

It's about time ...

I now have my grades for my first two weeks of school this term. The delay was that because school started on a Friday, we didn't have to have our first week's work turned in until the end of the second week. That meant that our grades didn't come through until the end of week 3. So ...

Week 1

Digital Illustration: 97/100 for a total of 97/100 (97%)

Color Theory: 112/115 for a total of 112/115 (97.39%)

Week 2

Digital Illustration: 110/120 for a total of 217/230 (94.35%)

Color Theory: 252/255 for a total of 364/370 (98.38%)

The courses are interesting and fun, and so I am enjoying this term quite a bit. The discussions are fun and my projects that I have ahead of me are exciting. Even the smalll assignements are pretty cool, such as making a design that seems/feels like it is vibrating. To help me out, I have requested a mentor from work in the Creative Services department. Once I receive one, I will meet with them about once a month and go over how I am doing in school, and see what I have learned can translate into real world experience. I submitted my request earlier this week, so now I just have to wait and see what happens.

For my 40th birthday, Meredith and I had a nice quiet dinner at Red Lobster and then came home. For my present, she got me a Wacom tablet that lets me draw directly to the computer. I am still learning to use it, so I don't have anything to show for it yet, but I will in the near future. It is really amazing, especially when used with the right software. I have tried it in a trial version of Corel Painter X, and the way it uses it pressure sensative screen is AMAZING. Of course, the realistic nature of Corel Painter is also pretty amazing, the way it emulates real paint, it just blows me away.

Yes ... I feel and believe that I made the right choice getting into this career field. I cannot wait to see what the next 12 terms have ahead of me.