It's official my finals week. Completely random, but I'm sure there are people who feel that their lives have more meaning when they're productive, right?
I feel like it's a benefit to feel this way, but also a sort of curse because if we're enjoying down time for an extended amount of time we feel unproductive and lazy. I'll say I certainly don't feel like I work TOO hard, but I don't like feeling as if I'm going to waste.
I find that my down time are simple times, or even a day where I would watch my favorite cartoon or movie, read a book or playing a video game. Things like learning a language can feel like a task to me! Actually, would that even be considered a leisure event? I guess the leisure comes from being able to communicate with people from different countries right? Also being able to enjoy the country in all it's luxuries could be nice if you understood what was being said.
Anyway, as I said it's finals week! What does this mean for my school and being an animation student? Well, throughout the week we are given either small assignments (such as modeling an item in 3D) which could lead to an even bigger project (a full scene using lots of modeled objects to populate the scene). It doesn't sound like a lot, but the workload can get crazy if a person decides to overdo it. Me? Well, I never overdo it. I guess that's why I don't feel as insane and sleep deprived as some of my classmates express in frustration. They're literally like bottles being tossed around until they're ready to explode and their minds spill over the top. I learned that this does not help me because I understand my limits. Some days I don't feel like doing much work, other days I have a lot of energy. I dedicate this working on small assignments.
I read this also in a book teaching how to write webcomics. The author mentioned taking on only as much as you can chew. So I decided to keep things simple.
So anyways, my finals consisted of 6 animations shorts, pretty simple but I still haven't completed them all, two of the animations are finals. The other final is completing objects for a game. I'm not all to crazy about the props in the game, but it's cool. It was a team project so I enjoyed that the most.
For the summer, omg, my head is going to explode because of all the possibilities, but I will literally tell myself to focus on one thing at a time. It has come to me that I'm a flip-flopper. I may never see something through in it's entirety because I'll move from one thing to another. So I decided to finish up the chapter I started for my webcomic this summer.
Then I'd like to focus on improving my 3D modeling skills. I'm shooting for the stars when I say to myself "and then I'll model a character! Then I'll rig it! Then I'll make this game, and oh man, it's gonna be awesome!!" because I can be a huge dreamer and an optimistic. I'd take on more than I can chew.
I've spent a lot of time not typing blogs because I've been re-evaluating myself and I've been wondering how I can improve myself by means of being able to keep things simple, but also do what I enjoy doing. I think it takes time to find an approach that can mend into old habits and improve them, but it's not impossible. So I've been doing that and the thought of typing a blog seemed more like a chore than a pasttime.
So I decided to stick to modeling very very basic characters. One thing I'd like to do is to become a better texture artist. Texturing objects is an art I haven't quite grasped yet. I'm trying to look at 3D modeling as an art form, rather than a strain on my brain. You see, at my school, often our assignments require us to do multiple things that a full production of different teams would do separately. So there would be a team of texture artist, a team of 3D modeler, a team of animators and so on and so forth, but for us students, we are required to do them all. I find this to be a very flawed way to do thing and it can even cause unnecessary pressure on certain students because they're trying to do something they just aren't capable of doing.
It's like putting a paralyzed person in a race.
Back to the point, even though I have all these things I'd like to do, I think I should stick to maybe 2 or three of them at most. No more than three. That way I can reap the complete benefit of the experience. Besides, I don't have to rush anything. If I can gain an 100 percent benefit of something, it will likely stay embedded in my mind rather than if I were to gain only 65 percent or less or the true benefit. It would be like taking piano class but not learning to read the sheet music or learn the sheet music without the piano. It defeats the purpose of the whole.
Whelps! I gotta get to work. :)
Mon
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