Maybe not getting fired?

Just a quick update since I have to get to bed real soon cause I've got work in the morning. So last wednesday they transferred us over to NCAA basketball to run through a list of scripts. I'm not sure what state the game is in an the moment, or what milestone, but we were just filling a work order sitting in the WWQA department for about 3 days. The first day, Wednesday, wasn't so bad although i'll admit the game was boring as shit though. We were just running through screens and testing controller pulls and the like.

Dave was pissing me off as usual and i was taking it out on donovan which made me feel bad - but come to think of it, he's also done a few things to get under my skin. doesn't matter though - i ended the day by pretty much flipping on dave and giving him a piece of my mind at the expense of looking like a bad worker to Jeff. Talked to Ding, turns out he doesn't like Dave much either, hehehe. So now that he's not my ATC, the real dirt comes out, love it.

Thursday i called in sick. the truth is I wasn't really sick - i was feeling under the weather, yes, but that's not really odd since this job is seriously robbing me of sleep. But I had a dentist appointment at 1130 but they called to make it earlier at 11. by the time i get out of the appointment it would've been too late to show up for decent hours at work anyway.

Friday i went back to work feeling a little sick for real, but decided to suck it up because it was payday! And as usual i forgot to pick up my paycheck at lunch so i went over to sanaz's office but interrupted them in the middle of deciding who to fire - which was awkward. Yavar sat us down and told me, donovan dave and rocky that we were going to be moved to NFS HD on monday as a "fresh eyes team", meaning we were to approach it as a group of end users judging the game for how it is, not tainted by any of the core team members' opinions. Too late for that, lol.

Nate also recommended me to a friend of his, the development manager for Wii tennis. I also have Ding helping to pull me into the project. If I get in on this project, that means I'm guaranteed to stay till at least summer of next year, which is quite a long time to get my nose farther into the EA art department. Here's hoping everything turns out well.

About to get fired

Or let go, i should say. The game's coming to an end. We're finalizing today. Although the contract is supposed to end in October (my guess is to make room for any errors and must-fixes), our game's been hitting its milestones on time and WWQA wasn't able to find anything that had to be fixed that we haven't already logged into the system. Jacob was able to find some compliance issues that slipped through me but I don't think they're anything too noticable.

So because everything is on time, hopefully the powers that be will see that our team is valuable to keep around, plus me since i have knowledge and experience in Nintendo compliance. However, even though that is what i'd like, I doubt they'll be keeping me on because projects are winding down. And if they do keep me on, it won't be for much longer.

It's okay though - i'm exciting to be able to dedicate lots of tome to working on my next character, complete with skin shader, YEAH! And I've made enough contacts I need over here at EAC who I plan on communicating with on a regular basis - doing those logos for nathan and updating my character progress with Brandon so hopefully if he sees enough promise in me, he'll ask me to come on as a co-op guy if the opportunity arises. Also i don't have much time left with Charina so i'll be jumping on every employment opportunity she throws at me. Dave tells me they're should be letting us know what happens to us today but i wouldn't count us that lucky.

In other news, I just got rockband 2 today - nate was nice enough to buy it for me using his discount even though i gave him my own money, lol. Can't wait to get home to play it. gonna be getting it for cody cause there's none at the EAX store.

I'll update this as soon as i find out what's going on. i have nothing better to do here at work anyway.

Updates

So I decided to start working on a new character - I started the weekend after meeting with Brandon, and I'm gonna be putting Tammy on the backburner for now. She was coming along nicely but to be frank, I'm quite sick of her. This new character isn't going to be anyone special, just your average 6 foot tall white guy with different clothes, most likely going to be a basketball player so I can apply to EA with something relevant.

Work's been more or less the same, with some interesteing twists this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday they had me working up in Phase II for a bit, doing compliance scripts there. I got to meet one of the programmers to test out the bird minigame - more specifically, testing the fixes that he made. And then there were some hair clipping isues with Romeo which was themost interesting bit.

Reg came up to me and told me they needed some help up at the artworks department which was pretty exciting because I get to actually walk into the artwork station! I didn't realize who i'd be talking to until they led me to a workstation and Tam was there. Then he introduced me to Colleen, who i've seen on the list of employees before and knew she was a modeler that way. But I didn't realize she was a character modeler. So some changes were made to teh build and while we were waiting for it to load, I figured it'd be a good time to ask Colleen some questions about character modeling but didn't want to come off as being too forward.

Then Tam stepped in and told me now was a great time to ask some questions and then that's what Colleen realized what was going on, so I started talking to her about modeling, meshflow, z brush and what not. the other guy who was there - the one was helping with the hair clipping issue started giving his own tips too. Said he was a teacher at BCIT, teaching Maya. Asked him to check out my website when he had the time and told me his name was Elliott - the art lead for the team. I couldn't believe my luck!

Elliott promised to check out my site and get back to me on it. He hasn't done so yet as of this writing but I hope he will soon. I also forwarded the same email to Colleen and she hasn't got back to me either. That's okay, while I'm waiting I'll be working on Frank - my new default basketball player, lol. Almost done modeling him, just got to get his clothes on there, ears, feet, and then I'm ready to UV. Hopefully I'll be done by early next week so I can start applying to EA.

Probably among the worst days of my life

Well this week was probably one of the more depressing ones. First off it poured pretty much all week - gray, cloudy and cold. Alex left on Thursday to go back to school for a few semesters. He's hoping to come back next year as a programmer and I wish him all the luck. He was a great ATC. Ding's gonna be taking over for Alex in managing our team. I notice he's a little bit more of a hardass but not enough to warrant me hating him. I'm actually quite partial to Ding, he's a nice guy.

I finally had the meeting with Brandon Jackson - an Asian guy, which was kind of surprising but not really important I guess. More important was what he had to say about my work. Pretty much told me i wasn't good enough to land a character artist job.

Funny that's the first thing I remember because he gave me a lot of compliments where he felt they were due. But for some reason, maybe it's in my nature, but I only remember the negative. But it's a pretty big blow when you have your dreams swiped right out from under you. Getting into the character artist field, I understand it is really competitive. And I realize that I have a lot to learn especially when I've only really been doing 3D for 2 and a half years when I've been drawing my whole life. He said I had a lot of things going right in my drawing but i'm keeping too much to my safe zone, not to be afraid to do more exploration. More importantly is to do more life drawing which I admit I haven't been doing enough of.

Looking back at my character models, they clearly aren't anywhere near the quality of professional realistic models. I shouldn't feel as disappointed as I do because everything makes sense, really. I just have to hunker down and get better. Practice, practice. It's easier said than done. But I have to really want it, and I do - and I can't get discouraged. Part of the desperation is to be independent and I guess i'm trying to get better for the wrong reasons as a result. But I feel i can do this. I look at the professional models and it's like ... I FEEL i can do it. But for some reason the work I pump out isn't reflecting that.

I have to prove it to myself first before I can hope to convince other people of what i can do. Maybe that's what's stopping me. there's alot to consider as to the reason of my short comings. Or maybe, I shouldn't even bother thinking about it. Just keep doing it and it will come to me naturally. After all that's what I've been doing my whole life, right?

Hmm ... i think i'm onto something here. That kind of reflects what Jackson was saying to me earlier about drawing. Just draw. Kind of like modeling, texturing and everything else I love doing. Don't think, just do. That's advice i can follow. I mean as it is, he says he sees potential. I may not see it myself, but the fact that someone that accomplished sees it, I can have faith in what they say. Believe in myself - at the risk of making this entry sound incredibly corny.

Sure I can do it now. But I can do it tomorrow. And if not that, then the day after that. It's like quitting smoking. I'll do it tomorrow, or the day after that, and if not, then the day after that. There's no reason I can't apply that to my artwork as well. YEAH.

Suddenly I'm starting to feel better. Not today, but tomorrow. Everyday is a new day, and a new chance to improve.

I'm going to be okay.

Yet another Dev meeting! WOOT!

Went in to talk to mr. chandler the other day, following reg's advice. Chandler told me to come back in september and I wasn't planning on another HR visit until then but reg said it'd be a good idea to stop by and see if he's heard anything new as to a character artist position. As aspected, he hadn't heard anything new and admitted to me he wouldn't know anything until the bodyshop decided they needed character artists. And even then he wouldn't know how many and other specifics until the head of the department contacted him. The positions on EA's website are currently open but they don't plan on filling them till around fall.

He suggested in contact someone named brandon jackson who is apparently some kind of lead artist in the bodyshop. so I said okay, and emailed brandon to see if he wanted to meet me so I had a chance to show him some of my work. Not expecting anything to come out of it, really. But then 2 days later I got an email back from him saying "it would be his pleasure" to go over my work. You know what this means - POTENTIAL job!! I'm pretty stoked about it.

That was the same day I got into a verbal showdown with dave. I can't even begin to describe the level of his ass kissing. He's got his nose so far up alex's ass, alex is coughing up dave's snot. dave decided to check up on the new guy, Adam asking if his regression was coming along okay, and adam said yes. Dave stayed and pressed him on his regression, making sure he was doing everything right, so I politely leaned over and told dave to get back to work. Adam is experienced in QA testing and didnt' need him hovering over his shoulder.

Dave took it as an attack against him and told me to stop talking and to get back to what i was doing. He was doing some kind of soak which left him with little else to do and that I should mind my own business. He turned around to get back to work but I wasn't quite finished with him yet.

So i turned to face him and said we didn't need him checking up on us and that alex was doing a fine job running the team by himself. "No thanks to you." he retorts back - which is the saddest comeback ever seeing has how i LET alex do his job.

Donovan told me afte that ALex talked to dave about it, and said it sounded like dave was the one who was pissed off and not me. Probably because alex saw in the truth in what i said but is just too damn nice to say anything about it to dave. whatever, like alex cares anyway. he's gone next thursday - going back to school.

This Last Week

2 overtime shifts this week, Wednesday and Thursday. Our team has grown from 4 to 7 with the introduction of Adam and Jesse from NBA which has recently shipped. Also, another Dave was introduced to the team, the ATC that will be replacing Alex when he leaves.

Adam caught me drawing during break and starting questions about what my plans were in the company. He told me he was using this QA as an opportunity into the company, hoping to be a character modeler or an animator. He asked to see my sketchbook and I wanted to say no since I just took it from a heap of unused books and realized i hadn't drawn in it since grade 12 and there were alot of old ugly drawings in there. But I let him take a look anyway with the forewarning, lol.

Wednesday OT was the first OT shift ever for our team. It was Alex, me, Dave and Jesse testing out one of the game modes. Nate and Kasey joined us too. AFter break, the two of them headed back upstairs leaving the rest of us to finish off the modes. Don was sick that morning with something nobody could pinpoint. He told us Thursday that the doctors couldn't figure it out either, but managed to relate it to something with his galbladder. He's supposed to stay away from fatty foods an alcohol. So we don't know what's wrong with him still, but he's probably gonna be fine.

During OT break, I gathered the nerve to show Alex my portfolio website, following Tams advice to keep talking to people and getting my name out there. Kasey and Nate also walked in on it and they seemed to really enjoy looking at my work. Kasey noted to keep writing up bugs showing my knowledge (he used the anatomy bug as an example) and Nate advised also to keep working hard at QA because QA support could "go a long way" as he put it.

For Thursday's OT, met up with the dev QA team for dinner, wanted to sit with Reggie, Nate and Kasey and talk to them about my plans. Unfortunately I wasn't expecting Donovan and Sarah to join us. Not that I don't like hanging out with them but I hadn't planned on them to join us. Regardless, I pursued anyway, and Reggie said he liked my work, gave me some advice on how to approach HR and just be chill about everything. Even though I want a character artist job pretty bad. But after the meeting, Donovan and Sarah told me I seemed pretty chill with them, not like an ass-kisser dave style, which makes me feel good.

OH, and today I found out something pretty interesting - Trish is friends with the one and only Mocha Only. Not that I've ever been a huge fan of his, but I'm familiar with some music he's done in the past and have some form of respect for him. Turns out she was in one of his videos. As of this writing, I haven't seen it yet, but Dave swears he saw her in it. The link was on her facebook but I went and wasn't able to find anything.

After work, headed to BPs as the usual Friday habit, with Donovan, Tricia and Mike. Naubert joined us shortly after and Geoff too. Mike and I left around 9 cause I was going to his house for him to show me some of his 3D models he's done. My personal opinion, his character modeling in Maya is a little on the weak side as far as mesh flow and proportions are concerned but his Z brush skills are way better than mine could probably ever hope to be.

More Developments at Work

So this week was spent mostly trying to secure a position for myself at EA. I think overall it went pretty well but I wouldn't say I'm guaranteed a position with the company since i still have over a month to go before my contract ends with VMC.

I emailed Trey sometime last week, asking if it was possible for me to sit down with an artist from the team and just talk about art related stuff, how to get into the industry. He responded and told me one of the artists Tam (whose name I've actually come across before) was willing to meet with me over lunch. We planned for our meeting to be last Wednesday but he had to postpone twice on me and ended up meeting on Friday. He felt bad and offered to buy him lunch, which I planned to turn down and just buy my own but stupid me, I forgot my debit card in my backpack and he ended up buying me lunch anyway.

Tam didn't really tell me anything new - don't give up, be persistant, it will happen. But coming from someone of his status at EA, I took it quite seriously. And I don't plan on giving up - not that it was ever in planned in the first place. He told me a bit about how he got in, what he went through and that it wasn't at all different than what I'm going through now. Just the biggest thing was to keep it honest, what my plans are in the company and keep talking to as many people as possible to try and promote myself. Shortly after the meeting when we got back to work, I wrote him and email and gave him the URL to my portfolio website. He said he'd take a look and get back to me on it. I've yet to receive his response, but we'll find out sooner or later.

Also, Adrian was fired from work this week. We just found out for sure on Wednesday at the weekly team meeting. Reg asked if we had any questions as the team was dead silent without anything to say. I'm pretty familiar with what Don and Dave's opinion of him, and I have my own too of course, but I never expected they'd actually fire him outright seeing as how he's been this way all along and has still managed to hold the job. I didn't have anything to say and just replied with a no-comment. But at the back of my mind, I couldn't shake the feeling that justice had been served. And even as I write this, I kind of feel guilty for admitting it. Reg also told us that he would be replaced by two people (and I think now that maybe one is meant to replace Adrian, and the other would replace Alex when he leaves at the end of the month).


And speaking of Reg, I also emailed him asking if he'd mind being a reference for me when I formally apply for the character artist position with EA in September. The HR guy told me that's around when the positions would be filled. I was nervous about the emailing Reg because I didn't know how appropriate it would be but thankfully he encouraged me to be more forward about these things and to not "beat around the bush." He also said (much to my relief) that he and the rest of the quality assurance team had been happy with my performance and he'd be pleased to be a personal reference for me.
So that's Tam and Reg who I've got rooting for me so far. I'm not sure if they're enough to secure me a position since Cody's led me to believe I'm up against Gurn who works with development. If Gurn gets the job over me, I won't mind because I think he has more knowledge of the kinds of games EA makes. If anyone deserves the job more than me, it'd be him. But still, I'm hoping I get it, lol.
And it looks like things have been shaking up at Blackbox. In our daily spam, Ken told us that Friday was his last day at Blackbox because the company wanted to cut down on employees. So I emailed Cody the next day and asked him if he was still with the company. He said yes, but he wasn't convinced they would be renewing the contract. Seems he was aware that the company was downsizing too. But knowing him, I wouldn't be surprised if he was just being pessimistic so that if they renewed his contract, he'd be happy. I still hope everything works out well for him though, whether or not they decide to keep him.

That's about all the noteworthy development things this week. Except I forgot to mention the Beijing Olympics started on Friday! Meh, nothing worth mentioning really, since I don't really care too much about the Olympics.