First paid animation gig!

So yeah. I started my first animation gig yesterday. My good friend Becky showed me around yesterday and I got my feet wet rather gently. Today, though, I was in charge of rigging all by myself. Woo! Whirlwind second day...

So far all the animators are awesome. Kate, the puppet hospital person reminds me so much of Nancy, the one in Burbank, it's uncanny. Also, Dick is like them too. The three of them are very fun to talk to once you show them how interested you are in what they're doing. They're very eager to teach and share things.

Everyone has been very approachable and helpful. Which is good because I haven't hit the ground running as fast as I wanted to. It's still going well though and I'm happy to be there. Luckily I don't have to work the hotel job tomorrow too. My first couple of days at the animation studio included three shifts at the hotel. Luckily my schedule will change now to accommodate this job.

Now to get a little sleep. Bluh. Perhaps I'll get a normal amount of food tomorrow. I've been eating very little, because I keep not having time and preferring to sleep when I get a chance instead. It's all been a challenge, but I'm still having a blast.

Duuude...

I got my first professional animation gig!  I'm going to be a rigger/assistant animator on a stop motion production.  YES!

...now to figure out when I'm going to sleep.

Summer...

So I was supposed to graduate this quarter, but I decided to take the term off.  This is in part because I did an animation test at a Portland studio... but haven't heard anything.  I figured if they needed me I'd have the time this way, considering I have to keep my hotel job.  Worst case, I get a break. It was funny; I was soooo nervous for the test for 24 hours before, but once I got in there and started animating, I felt all relaxed and mellow.

In the mean time, I'm filling my "spare" time with video game work.  This is sometimes successful, and other times not; for when the client hates what I do it just makes me cranky.  I end up in the "I suck" mode that all artists go through periodically.  It never lasts too long though, since I have a pretty good support system in place.  I'm working on a project I think is really cool though, and would like to play once it's finished, so that's a good thing too.

I've taken a few moments here and there to thumbnail my comic.  I'll publish it on the web somewhere... once I get some pages drawn and can keep some kind of schedule.  There's always a lot going on, it seems, but I don't think I'd have it any other way.  It seems that's the life of an animator... animate when you can, and work like crazy on everything else when you can't.  I seem to be happy most days though, so that's probably a good thing.  In my "me" time, I played a little Fallout: New Vegas, too... which I like, in spite of everything (bugs, the 'not as coolness' as its predecessor that people talk about, etc.).

And here I should get back to work.  Deadlines don't meet themselves.