Thursday, April 30, 2009
Another Job Opportunity ... maybe
It's been just over a year since i graduated and luckily I'm still here at EA. Somehow managed to miraculously survive the layoffs. Lee just got a job here as a marketing assistant tft. He gave me a heads up the other day that Artworks is looking for a head artist and I'm definitely going to apply when i can get a good head done next. Chances of me getting the job I would say, are slim to none. But I will still try. Here's hoping I can pull it off since it's been about 2 weeks since I've touched my portfolio. Lots of catchup work to do.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
So after John left, I started kicking the networking into high gear. Eric, as I mentioned in my previous post gave my portfolio a quick critique and promised to get a meeting set up with one of the directors of artworks. I had to pop by his office to remind him a few weeks after the fact - also considering around that time a bunch of artists were let go from the department so i figured lying low until the situation boiled over would be a good idea. Eric scheduled a meeting with julia, the director lady, who then gave me some insight into what working in the department was like, how they would hire me and who would be doing what evaluation. Turns out Brandon will still be reviewing my stuff, since as Eric put it, he is somewhat of an artistic gatekeeper to the department. So if he's telling me to work on hands, feet, and drapery, that's exactly what Josh's is gonna have to do!
Was talking to Dad about the English language the other day, and started telling him about all the strange words Xine, Andrew and me made up that we use regularly like tpaha and ESL. I guess not so much strange words as redefining acronyms as actual words. It got me thinking how I kinda miss them both.
Posted some of my games I never play anymore for sale on craigs list on monday. Figured I had too many video games lying around that mean nothing to me - like GTAIV which there was a big hoopla about yet after buying it, found there was very little incentive for me to keep playing. It was just boring - the characters, the environment, the music. Don't get me wrong, realistically beautiful ... but about as exciting and adventerous as real life. Actually, less so because I'm sitting in front of a TV all day.
Another was I put up on sale was Assassin's Creed. Again, beautiful graphics, excellent mood, but the gameplay was boring as ever. It pretty much consisted of 1 mission with a series of objectives to complete, after which you were rewarded with a new ability. Do that nine times with little to no story/character development each time round, and you've got the entire game.
The original Skate. That one went on sale. Mostly because I liked Skate 2 much better and can safely say I will never touch the original game again. Sorry Gord.
Bought Too Human last week. Played it about twice, both in the same day and realized I didn't give a damn about that game either. Reading about it, it sounded to me like a game I'd be all over. I liked the unique blend of Nordic mythos set in a sci-fi world.
Was talking to Dad about the English language the other day, and started telling him about all the strange words Xine, Andrew and me made up that we use regularly like tpaha and ESL. I guess not so much strange words as redefining acronyms as actual words. It got me thinking how I kinda miss them both.
Posted some of my games I never play anymore for sale on craigs list on monday. Figured I had too many video games lying around that mean nothing to me - like GTAIV which there was a big hoopla about yet after buying it, found there was very little incentive for me to keep playing. It was just boring - the characters, the environment, the music. Don't get me wrong, realistically beautiful ... but about as exciting and adventerous as real life. Actually, less so because I'm sitting in front of a TV all day.
Another was I put up on sale was Assassin's Creed. Again, beautiful graphics, excellent mood, but the gameplay was boring as ever. It pretty much consisted of 1 mission with a series of objectives to complete, after which you were rewarded with a new ability. Do that nine times with little to no story/character development each time round, and you've got the entire game.
The original Skate. That one went on sale. Mostly because I liked Skate 2 much better and can safely say I will never touch the original game again. Sorry Gord.
Bought Too Human last week. Played it about twice, both in the same day and realized I didn't give a damn about that game either. Reading about it, it sounded to me like a game I'd be all over. I liked the unique blend of Nordic mythos set in a sci-fi world.
Friday, February 6, 2009
New Year
Well I haven't updated this blog in awhile so I guess its time to give a rundown on what has happened since my last post. Andrew and Christine came back this christmas, the latter returning a day after the former arrived. When Andrew got back, we went for sushi with jocey at this japanese restaurant in poco called ... i don't remember but i was damn good especially for the price. New years sucked because it snowed the whole time, and it was pretty much the worst new years of my entire life. I spent midnight walking home from Andrew's house all the way uphill, but we did have some good times at St. James Well drinking and eating. Only went there twice but there will be fond memories for sure.
Got back to work on January 5th and it was pretty much the same old thing, except maybe a little busier than before. I was assigned to Tennis but although the pay for my headcount in CTU is being supplied to tennis, I'm pretty much doing whatever CTU wants me to do. Identity crisis much?
Eric from work took a look at my portfolio and gave me some useful feedback. He encouraged me to apply to whatever artist position comes up, and I'm thinking SSX is the next thing I'll try and apply for because no doubt they'll be needing modelers. Whether or not I get the job, I'm not holding my breath but I don't think I have anything to lose by trying.
Chinese New Year sucked, as usual. Attended a dinner with family and friends that I didn't want to go to in the first place. I only ate a fraction of the 300+ dollar meal and i thought it was the biggest waste of time and money. Got home and made myself some dinner made of leftovers which filled me up right away. I guess some good came out of it though, I did get 320 dollars this year.
Vamsky from ff.net finally contacted me and we had our first live conversation that didn't involve email. I never thought this day would come but I managed to convince her to download msn and now we talk on a regular basis, trading story ideas, getting more ideas for future chapters in our fanfics. It's awesome to be able to talk to one of my other big influences on writing aside from Louise.
More layoffs at work, and it was announced at a meeting that i was late for because i got lost. And when i got there, i still didn't know what was going on as I walked in on my manager saying "...and i regret to have to tell all of you that." So I'm sitting there going "what did he just tell us?" but i found out after soon enough. Katie took me aside and talked to me in private in the rockband room about the kind of shit that hit the fan. people got let go from the company that I worked with, which was a little hard to take. Later, mike came up to us and told us he was leaving too - a fact that katie conveniently left out. But i guess i would have found out sooner or later.
There's a lot to talk about, not all of which i can recall that this moment, but this has pretty much been a rundown of what's been going on the last couple of weeks. This update has probably been the quickest update I've done to this blog, and the most number of words written in such a short span of time.
OUT.
Got back to work on January 5th and it was pretty much the same old thing, except maybe a little busier than before. I was assigned to Tennis but although the pay for my headcount in CTU is being supplied to tennis, I'm pretty much doing whatever CTU wants me to do. Identity crisis much?
Eric from work took a look at my portfolio and gave me some useful feedback. He encouraged me to apply to whatever artist position comes up, and I'm thinking SSX is the next thing I'll try and apply for because no doubt they'll be needing modelers. Whether or not I get the job, I'm not holding my breath but I don't think I have anything to lose by trying.
Chinese New Year sucked, as usual. Attended a dinner with family and friends that I didn't want to go to in the first place. I only ate a fraction of the 300+ dollar meal and i thought it was the biggest waste of time and money. Got home and made myself some dinner made of leftovers which filled me up right away. I guess some good came out of it though, I did get 320 dollars this year.
Vamsky from ff.net finally contacted me and we had our first live conversation that didn't involve email. I never thought this day would come but I managed to convince her to download msn and now we talk on a regular basis, trading story ideas, getting more ideas for future chapters in our fanfics. It's awesome to be able to talk to one of my other big influences on writing aside from Louise.
More layoffs at work, and it was announced at a meeting that i was late for because i got lost. And when i got there, i still didn't know what was going on as I walked in on my manager saying "...and i regret to have to tell all of you that." So I'm sitting there going "what did he just tell us?" but i found out after soon enough. Katie took me aside and talked to me in private in the rockband room about the kind of shit that hit the fan. people got let go from the company that I worked with, which was a little hard to take. Later, mike came up to us and told us he was leaving too - a fact that katie conveniently left out. But i guess i would have found out sooner or later.
There's a lot to talk about, not all of which i can recall that this moment, but this has pretty much been a rundown of what's been going on the last couple of weeks. This update has probably been the quickest update I've done to this blog, and the most number of words written in such a short span of time.
OUT.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The New Job ...
So yeah, working up on the 4th floor now - pretty exciting concept, being embedded with the artists. But since I share a cubicle with Katie, we're kinda cut off from everyone else (as they are all cut off from each other) via the cubicle walls. There's this one guy who i pass by, and everytime i walk by, he's always doing some kind of character work in maya and it takes all the effort in me not to go up and be all like "Hey, i love your stuff. show me some tricks!"
There are these meetings every morning where the technical artists from every project get together and update each other what is going on and what they need to get done that day. I was thrown in without any knowledge of what was going on, but after 2 weeks of daily scrums, i've pretty much got the idea how its run and perhaps some ideas what I can contribute in the future, if its even my place.
The first week was spent mostly testing the online software development kit, or the website because there simply wasn't work being delivered to the artworks section. I got to know the guys sitting in octo pretty well. And i like them all. corbett gave me his opinion on the ihoq guys and there seemed to be alot of tension going on between development and contracted qa. I made a passing comment the next day to katie about what corbett said and she told me to just ignore him, which is the best i can do if i didn't want to get involved in any of the politics.
last friday the entire CTU team got together to play dodgeball, which was pretty fun. I don't know how many times they did that before i joined in on it, but this was my first time and i got nailed pretty bad in the face by Chris once, and another time by Craig. The jerk tossed a ball in the air to confuse me and nailed me with the other ones he had in his hands, while i was trying to figure out what was going on. But i realized as the ball struck ...
All in all, I have to say the CTU team is pretty fun to work on. Usually I work up in the artworks section with Katie, but every once in awhile, we'll get togetehr with the rest of the team, since we're scattered throughout the office building. Last week we went for sushi, and there's another dodgeball event planned this upcoming week.
There are these meetings every morning where the technical artists from every project get together and update each other what is going on and what they need to get done that day. I was thrown in without any knowledge of what was going on, but after 2 weeks of daily scrums, i've pretty much got the idea how its run and perhaps some ideas what I can contribute in the future, if its even my place.
The first week was spent mostly testing the online software development kit, or the website because there simply wasn't work being delivered to the artworks section. I got to know the guys sitting in octo pretty well. And i like them all. corbett gave me his opinion on the ihoq guys and there seemed to be alot of tension going on between development and contracted qa. I made a passing comment the next day to katie about what corbett said and she told me to just ignore him, which is the best i can do if i didn't want to get involved in any of the politics.
last friday the entire CTU team got together to play dodgeball, which was pretty fun. I don't know how many times they did that before i joined in on it, but this was my first time and i got nailed pretty bad in the face by Chris once, and another time by Craig. The jerk tossed a ball in the air to confuse me and nailed me with the other ones he had in his hands, while i was trying to figure out what was going on. But i realized as the ball struck ...
All in all, I have to say the CTU team is pretty fun to work on. Usually I work up in the artworks section with Katie, but every once in awhile, we'll get togetehr with the rest of the team, since we're scattered throughout the office building. Last week we went for sushi, and there's another dodgeball event planned this upcoming week.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
New Job
Yeah, I didn't see it coming at all. In fact today started out like any other ordinary day with me waking up at the crack of dawn heavily considering calling in sick just so i can sleep in. I was so tired this morning that i canceled any overtime shifts i had scheduled for myself this week. At least i was working for the day - and i'm so glad i was. Where do i start ...
After 3:30 break, Alex was saying how HR was harassing him about transferring him to EAX but he didn't want to go because it was inconvenient for him. I wondered why they wanted to move him when he filled out our 6 person online team, otherwise we'd have to go find someone else to replace him. And he was adamant about not going so I offered to take his place at EAX on the repro team - that way i'd be working alongside the developers and me and jeff could go on smoke breaks together, lol.
From out of nowhere, I got an email from Matt York with the subject "Please come and see me". The email was blank, and I'm thinking shit, I'm in trouble. So I reluctantly walk over to his office and ask him whats up. At this point my mind is racing wondering what it was he had to tell me, was in trouble, what did I do ... So the first thing he said was
"It's looks like we're going to have to let you go on Monday." Swore i felt my heart break, but all I managed to do was nod and let him continue talking. And then he adds something about me getting the artworks job I applied for last week, the job that Stacey forwarded my name to. He briefly explained what the job was about - quality control stuff in the artworks department, how i'd be embedded with the developers. And the whole time, i couldn't stop smiling. My body was shaking and all I could say was thank you. He said how I mentioned to HR that i wanted this and this was my chance and not to fuck it up. And I'm said "no, i will do everything in my power not to fuck this one up!" I'm not sure if he knows how much this opportunity means to me.
I don't remember much after that. i was still shaking, mind was racing, remember Trish hugging me, hahaha, and Duane asking "Oh, so you are an artist?" So i go back to the team and tell them the news - first i told Alex i wouldn't be able to take his spot at EAX anymore and he says it doesn't matter to him because he was not coming into work tomorrow. Stacey had threatened to fire him. Then I explained what had happened to me which was a little awkward after hearing what Stacey had told him. So our cozy online team had been brought down from 6 to 4 in 5 minutes.
Then I got an email from Stacey to come to the office but by this point i pretty much knew what to expect. So both HR ladies congratulated me - even clapped, which had me blushing pretty bad - and I profusely thanked them both for what they did for me. So they dismissed me and i headed back to my desk, only to have Yavar come up some minutes later and fill me in on the details of this new job.
He explained that it was going to be a 3 week contract with VMC, with the possibility of being kept on for longer. But that would be up for my performance, and EA to decide, based on their needs. Freakin told everyone on MSN, Cody and gurn seemed pretty supportive ... so we'll see what happens next. I guess theh rest is up to me huh ...
After 3:30 break, Alex was saying how HR was harassing him about transferring him to EAX but he didn't want to go because it was inconvenient for him. I wondered why they wanted to move him when he filled out our 6 person online team, otherwise we'd have to go find someone else to replace him. And he was adamant about not going so I offered to take his place at EAX on the repro team - that way i'd be working alongside the developers and me and jeff could go on smoke breaks together, lol.
From out of nowhere, I got an email from Matt York with the subject "Please come and see me". The email was blank, and I'm thinking shit, I'm in trouble. So I reluctantly walk over to his office and ask him whats up. At this point my mind is racing wondering what it was he had to tell me, was in trouble, what did I do ... So the first thing he said was
"It's looks like we're going to have to let you go on Monday." Swore i felt my heart break, but all I managed to do was nod and let him continue talking. And then he adds something about me getting the artworks job I applied for last week, the job that Stacey forwarded my name to. He briefly explained what the job was about - quality control stuff in the artworks department, how i'd be embedded with the developers. And the whole time, i couldn't stop smiling. My body was shaking and all I could say was thank you. He said how I mentioned to HR that i wanted this and this was my chance and not to fuck it up. And I'm said "no, i will do everything in my power not to fuck this one up!" I'm not sure if he knows how much this opportunity means to me.
I don't remember much after that. i was still shaking, mind was racing, remember Trish hugging me, hahaha, and Duane asking "Oh, so you are an artist?" So i go back to the team and tell them the news - first i told Alex i wouldn't be able to take his spot at EAX anymore and he says it doesn't matter to him because he was not coming into work tomorrow. Stacey had threatened to fire him. Then I explained what had happened to me which was a little awkward after hearing what Stacey had told him. So our cozy online team had been brought down from 6 to 4 in 5 minutes.
Then I got an email from Stacey to come to the office but by this point i pretty much knew what to expect. So both HR ladies congratulated me - even clapped, which had me blushing pretty bad - and I profusely thanked them both for what they did for me. So they dismissed me and i headed back to my desk, only to have Yavar come up some minutes later and fill me in on the details of this new job.
He explained that it was going to be a 3 week contract with VMC, with the possibility of being kept on for longer. But that would be up for my performance, and EA to decide, based on their needs. Freakin told everyone on MSN, Cody and gurn seemed pretty supportive ... so we'll see what happens next. I guess theh rest is up to me huh ...
Sunday, November 16, 2008
RPD
i wasn't sure if i could ever look at another picture of the Raccoon City police department's main hall. It was probably 2 years ago around this time that i started working on one of my earliest 3D projects. I've gone back before to try and clean up the scene but cleaning it up was taking way longer than I expected, and it'd be faster to just start over a new one. I wanted to start over but decided that i'd had enough of looking at the reference pictures and just leave it be.
And now, two years later, I decided that i want to get back to it again. I've just started working on a new RPD today, which could also stand as a testament to my environment modeling abilities despite the fact i've stuck the character label on myself. And surprisingly, in four short hours, I've gotten the main shapes of hte station down pat. I jsut need to add the finer details like doors, props and railings (which I estimate are going to take awhile.) I love the fact that now i have a laptop, i can take my work around with me wherever I go. I can finally get started on all those projects I always wanted to work on but couldn't because i wasn't at home on my computer.
There's Shaniqua who still needs to be made as well, and i need to finish off the bust of Cranky's head - I'm not sure how much farter I want to take that piece actually, it might be better to just start over but i haven't decided yet.
And now, two years later, I decided that i want to get back to it again. I've just started working on a new RPD today, which could also stand as a testament to my environment modeling abilities despite the fact i've stuck the character label on myself. And surprisingly, in four short hours, I've gotten the main shapes of hte station down pat. I jsut need to add the finer details like doors, props and railings (which I estimate are going to take awhile.) I love the fact that now i have a laptop, i can take my work around with me wherever I go. I can finally get started on all those projects I always wanted to work on but couldn't because i wasn't at home on my computer.
There's Shaniqua who still needs to be made as well, and i need to finish off the bust of Cranky's head - I'm not sure how much farter I want to take that piece actually, it might be better to just start over but i haven't decided yet.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
New Laptop
Yeah, first post on my new laptop. Just bought it yesterday and I'm trying to get used to the controls. The keys are a little more flat and closer together than what I'm used to but as I'm writing this, I'm starting to get a good feel of just how to work this thing. Also there's no mouse yet but i plan on getting that fixed tomorrow when i go buy some accessories for this thing.
There's not much to update on the work front. managed to land another meeting with a lead artist but this time it's going to be focused on environment art. so hopefully if EA is looking for any prop artists, they will be looking to hire me. Or at the very least, consider me.
skate.2 is really eating up alot of time. working overtime 3-4 times a week (except this last week because of the whole laptop fiasco, cause the bank wouldn't let me purchase it because of my debit limit so i had to go back the next day, thus missing a second day of OT, and pick it up). Thursday night - the night i got the laptop, they decided to reward us at work with free beer and pizza with all the progress we've made in knocking out the QA issues with the game.
And then i had one more beer tonight when i went out for dinner with matt and nicole. the last time i saw them was just after i got hired at this job - sometime in april i think. we went to gleneagle after and watched 2 of dixons metfest plays, and i gotta say, it was definitely nice seeing dixon again even though i was apprehensive at first, because its been so long since i stepped foot onto the grounds of my old highschool.
There's not much to update on the work front. managed to land another meeting with a lead artist but this time it's going to be focused on environment art. so hopefully if EA is looking for any prop artists, they will be looking to hire me. Or at the very least, consider me.
skate.2 is really eating up alot of time. working overtime 3-4 times a week (except this last week because of the whole laptop fiasco, cause the bank wouldn't let me purchase it because of my debit limit so i had to go back the next day, thus missing a second day of OT, and pick it up). Thursday night - the night i got the laptop, they decided to reward us at work with free beer and pizza with all the progress we've made in knocking out the QA issues with the game.
And then i had one more beer tonight when i went out for dinner with matt and nicole. the last time i saw them was just after i got hired at this job - sometime in april i think. we went to gleneagle after and watched 2 of dixons metfest plays, and i gotta say, it was definitely nice seeing dixon again even though i was apprehensive at first, because its been so long since i stepped foot onto the grounds of my old highschool.
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