Onward and Awkward

Happy Holidays! Though belated, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.

I've gone through a few goodbyes recently that I wasn't expecting nor prepared for. Comings and goings, however, are by their nature subjective. No story has truly ended to all of the players. Ultimately, I have confidence that everyone involved will go on and continue to do great things. Doors close, windows open, and those with wisdom find the way forward. As Einstein said, "in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

I used much of this past holiday to reset. I've never been one to sit idly for too long, however, so resetting has given way to new projects. I'm practicing C++ with a calendar program (good regex practice), painting some 40K minis on commission (slowly), and catching up on some C.G. Jung. Joseph Campbell was my introduction to Jung, so it's only fitting that he edited the collection I've chosen to review: The Portable Jung. Any fiction writer would benefit from this book. The insights into the human experience, the resonance of childhood, the shared symbols of mythology, feel strikingly true and powerful. Once I finish with Jung, I plan to move on to Marie-Louise Von Franz's The Interpretation of Fairy Tales. Yeah. We're gonna get all archetypal up-ins.

At work, I've been thinking about the problem of balancing planning versus implementation. I'm a big fan of "failing fast:" don't worry if your solution is optimal. Implement, see where you erred, then correct. This mentality saves you from the trap of indecision and infinite postponement of implementation. The problem is that, honestly, I'm not the best implementer. I'm focusing on improving my CS chops because I tend to get muddled up on syntax and data structure. I may be working towards failing fast. Until then, I have faith that proper planning and support of my team members will carry us through. As we've said before, weighing principle versus pragmatism will lead you to the best solution.

I've gotten some very positive feedback regarding my Maya 2012 review in Game Developer Magazine, which is fantastic. I hope to find more writing opportunities soon. Speaking of opportunities: if you are a talented Maya Character Rigger and are looking for work, please let me know! Riot Games and I would very much like to hear from you. :)

Cheers, and here's looking forward to the new year.

def HelloWorld(newContext):

Hello internet! Since I last posted here, many things have happened... most of them incredible.

I not only had a fantastic internship at Riot Games, but since became a full-time technical animator. I have seen our product, League of Legends, evolve from a pretty popular online game to a multi-award-winning, international, multi-million-player sensation. I have a GDC award sitting on my desk. I love my job. Everything went... way better than expected.

I also had a bit of a career re-focusing. When I last posted here, I listed my skills as "animator and concept artist." While I still love to draw and animate, my career path has strayed almost entirely into technical art. This is actually awesome. For the past year, I've become involved with a very smart and passionate group of people focused on helping others on their teams be effective. Though I've animated a few characters for LoL (Swain, Urgot, and Jarvan IV!), I've touched every character in the game by re-making their rigs, fixing problems, making tools, and generally filling that all-important support role. I'm learning more about rigging and programing (so far, mostly Python with a smidgen of C++) and a lot about game production. I'm really excited to see what sorts of problems I try to solve next!

The switch from student to industry professional happens incredibly fast. It was bizarre for me to go back and read my first couple of post on this blog; I was totally focused on the goal of getting hired and, as soon as it happened, I needed to totally re-contextualize my idea of success. I'm sure most Rioters who have been part of this ride from the beginning are stunned constantly by how far the company has come.

I'm excited to say I've had a few opportunities to help other students make the switch to industry professional as well. I've looked at dozens (hundreds?) of portfolios at GDC and SIGGRAPH. I've made a presentation with my co-workers to student volunteers just a year after I was sitting right where they were. Next week, I'm going to have the incredibly surreal experience of making a "how to get into the industry" talk at Ringling, speaking to many of the people I've known as a student! I'm incredibly excited for this trip. I've got my slides ready and a follow up Q&A lined up with the Game Design Club. It's going to be sweet.

I don't know how often I'll update this blog. Ideally, I start posting some work related to tech art; none of my internet presence currently suggests what I actually do. This is terribly hypocritical, seeing as I encourage every student I speak with to demonstrate their work and thought processes through blogs or websites. Historically my interests have been incredibly fickle; I start and stop side projects all the time. Within the last couple months I've started D&D campaigns, Warhammer 40K leagues, music jam sessions, indie games... tonight alone I painted miniatures for a co-worker, edited an article that'll be coming out soon in Game Developer magazine (super excited!), watched SoloMid livestreams, and wrote this blog post. I'm not sure I'll be able to stuff everything I want to do into the nights and weekends, so expect updates to be sporadic as usual.

For most of my life, I've felt guilty about the projects I keep starting and stopping. I'm starting to think, however, that it doesn't really matter; all of this is valuable. Even if I can't maintain focus on one problem for months on end, it's exactly this desire to stick my hands into everything that's allowed me to grow into a support role across many different projects. I'm excited for seeing where it all goes next.

Hey guys I'm still alive! <:U

Time to dump some art on y'all! These were all done for my digital illustration class.

 

  

  

(Valve logo and L4D2 © Valve and all that)

Last Semester!

And suddenly we're in the home stretch.

It's been a really awesome ride at Ringling. I know I've learned tons, and I'm mostly happy with the things I've accomplished here. Thesis and the job hunt are the final big hurdles, and I am optimistic that I'll cross the finish line just fine.

This semester I'll be taking digital painting, a great opportunity for me to develop my concept portfolio alongside my animation portfolio. I'm going to guess that I'll be hired into animation, however... I don't know if my concept art abilities are quite up to competing with the legions of illustrators out there.

I'm also feeling like I have a bit of wiggle-room this semester to get some life-things back in order. I'm trying to exercise, and my lower back is currently really sore from Tuesday's Capoeira class. I'm studying Islam and film as side courses. I'm doing occasional RPing with friends (though I've relinquished my DM/GM role for now). I'm exploring indie games, such as The Path by Tale of Tales.

To summarize, things feel balanced and unless I'm grossly underestimating the path ahead of me, the worst of the work load is behind me.

Cheers to 2010! Happy trails.

Between Conquest and Discovery

Sorry for how seldom I've been posting of late; thesis is still chugging along, as well as a bit of table top gaming on the side. I'm trying to dial down the side-gaming these coming weeks, as I'm finding it rather exhausting. Still playing Ragnarok a bit tho...

In any case, here's a digital painting I did while feeling braindead in the labs. More to follow, I think. (Forgot to time this one, about an hour or something..?)

Dear iRO: are you serious?

I have reasons to both thank Gravity and reasons to curse them. On the one hand, they made Ragnarok Online, which I regard lovingly as the first MMO I ever played. I spent many hours in Rune Midgard in high school, grinding away to level my spear-based Knight, and I look on those hours fondly. For this I thank them.

They also, however, made a free-to-play server during my senior year... this is a seriously unfortunate development.

The worst may be over, however: though I spent about 11 hours the past few days gaming rather than working (please, I know how dumb this is, no need to berate me), I may have shaken the MMO bug thanks to a design flaw! Designers take note: if your going to implement a cool new Gunslinger class in your MMO, please make sure there's more than one freaking merchant in the entire game world who sells bullets. Making low-level players glued to a lonely town miles away from anything else because it's the only place they can get supplies is remarkably ill conceived.

But again, I suppose I must give credit where it's due. Thank you, Gravity, for giving me a good reason to stop playing your game and go back to work. <3

Demo Reel and Things

It occurred to me I might post a bit of my work here so you could see what I do. Below is the demo reel I made while applying to internships this past spring:



You can view my other work on my website. Whee.

That aside, I've been torn between thesis and revamping my portfolio the past week or two. Portfolio materials are due for a critique Wednesday, but I also must keep moving forward with my animation. I've also been trying to keep in touch with various industry contacts, hanging with my folks this weekend, and GMing a Mutants and Masterminds campaign with a large, rambunctious party of my friends. I'm running the good ol' "I was a teenage mutant" style setting. It seems most people are really enjoying it. All things considered, life is both exciting and exhausting.

Kobolds!

So, today I procrastinated a bit: I did some website work, some scripting, and some lounging. I really need to get some momentum going on the next phase of animation, however, so I will be getting into that right after this post.

BUT, I was also thinking about a question that may seem odd at first: why are there so many humans in video games? Particularly, I've been thinking about the MMO market. I don't feel that the possibilities for style and world concept are being pushed far enough, and humans are one of the biggest limiting factors. I understand that marketability often directs these decisions, and there's evidence to support the human-PC: despite all of the unique, flavorful races in Wow (like Tauren, Orc, Gobbo, etc.), human is still the most popular (followed closely by undead and blood elves... thanks Meta [ link]).

I attribute this to humanity's status as the "non-decision," the default, the neutral. But really, defaults and neutrals are something I would hope to avoid when creating an original setting. True, you need contrast to make the bizarre seem bizarre: A monster is only as hideous as the hero is beautiful. This does not mean, however, that the world is only as interesting as your PC is boring. Would Little Big Planet have been better with Poser models standing in for the Sackboys? Sackboy is the heart of that game's charm. There are plenty of design options to create a believable PC that allows for a lot of diversity, wonder, and delicious flavor in the rest of the world.

Given a hypothetical realm where I could make any MMO I wanted, I might make something like this. Kobolds Ate My Baby! Super Deluxx Edition, coming from Dork Storm and 9th Level, is a simple, "Beer and Pretzels" style table top. Kobolds are adorable, flavorful, and rich with pre-established fantasy culture, so the world is really easy to step into. Play as a small, reptilian (or furry, depending on your view) creature trying to scavenge for supplies and food in a world much too big for you. Be selfish, stupid and fool-hearty! Die gruesomely a thousand times in the face of ridiculous odds! Doesn't that sound like fun?

I'm losing my original point. To summarize, I'd rather play something with some flavor than another cookie-cutter Knight-Valiant hero.

"I'm an avenger!"