I’m just sitting here watching Grey’s Anatomy with Allison and then Mumford and Sons comes on. I basically just wanted to ask,
16Sep
After a few months of nothing here
Filed in General Gabbing Leave a comment
I have been neglecting my Blog here so I figured I better write something. I have been so busy with home improvements and working at my new job, yes my new job as of June, which I am loving. I am finally working full-time as a designer. I am not animating just yet, but being able to do some work in a creative field right now truly is a blessing.
I have been spending a lot of time trying to learn from my fellow designers and finding out proper design and how some elements work themselves into layouts. For example, I have learned a lot about how different designing emails are from web layout. I look forward to my continued learning, as that is what I believe really drives me in everything – LEARNING.
In other news, Allison and I have been working hard to improve the condition of our house. I spent a lot of Spring and Summer adding new plants to the yard, and now we are working on painting another room, as we painted one bathroom earlier in the Summer. I am looking forward to checking if our hot tub was fixed too. I am supposed to check it tonight.
Now, for some random things I have stumbled upon. I love music, especially while I work. I have been listening to a lot of Grooveshark lately and I just today found StereoMood, a new streaming music service that is great. It lets you pick the mood you are in and then finds music appropriate for that mood – Genius!
Alright, that’s it for now. If you would like to follow more of my ramblings, in a more consistent manner, check me out on twitter, @diegosocart12.
28May
Its Spring and hot in Ohio
Filed in General Gabbing Leave a comment
Wow, has it been a long time since I last posted on here! So much has happened since the last time. Let’s see, I went out to California ( which was a cross-country drive). I lived out there for a month. My great friend, Adam gave me a place to live while I tried to get a start in the visual effects scene in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, that never really came to light. Instead while I was out there something else happened. I kept working as a freelance web/graphic designer. I found that I really enjoy this work. The fast pace and much faster turn-around sucked me in. I have found that I actually have a love for design and learning design.
Anyhow, after spending the month out there and loving all of the time. It is gorgeous out there. Here is some advice. If you want to get into the movie/commercial/tv animation industry and you don’t live around LA, move there. Dont worry about not having work yet. It will come if you are there and putting yourself out there. Just find a way to survive financially. That’s all. Anyway, I figured out I wanted to be with my wife back in Ohio much more than living in LA without her, so I decided to come back to Ohio and pursue motion graphics/animation and graphic design to survive in Ohio with my beautiful wife instead of trying to break into animation in LA alone.
I’m so glad I did. I have been able to enjoy our beautiful yard. We’ve planted so many plants and the yard looks amazing. Plus, I’ve had the chance to pursue graphic design and web design, which right now seems to be working out very well for me. After a few months of searching and uncertainty, I believe I am on my way to inner peace and happiness and this time it’s all alongside my amazing wife. Oh, and I can’t leave Bella out. It’s made me so happy to be home with her too where we can go play in the yard or go for a walk.
Life truly is amazing. You never know what God will throw your way next. That is what makes it worth living!
24Feb
The Old Story Axiom
Filed in Animation Specific Leave a comment
I was reading through my Google Reader feeds this morning, as I usually do each day, and I came across an article that another friend of mine had shared. It was an article written by Kevin Koch and posted on his site SynchroLux. It is a great read about the old saying that Story is King in animation.
He makes some very valid points that story is important, but it is not everything when it comes to film, which I have to agree. A large part of film is visual, so it is hard to say that you could have some really bad visual elements, but a great story and still have a wonderful film. Kevin makes a great point when he mentions the number of remakes that have been done. He asks the question, how many times have you seen a movie redone (i.e. Planet of the Apes or Psycho), and do the remakes have the same success just because the story is the same? The short answer is no, because although the story is basically the same, the director and very importantly, the acting is different, along with many other parts of the film such as sound and cinematography.
This is very important to keep in mind especially as it pertains to animation. The story can be the same but the quality of the visuals can vary dramatically, which really changes a person’s opinon of a film. Story is not necessarilly king. Take the recent film Avatar for instance. It has proven to be a very successful film and a film that I myself love. Although, this is the case, I would argue that the reason for its success is not due to story. The story is pretty good, but it is the visuals which make this movie stand out and is what brought so many people to the theaters to watch it.
To conclude, I just liked that someone brought up this topic and supported the claim so well. I eagerly await what he will be writing for his continuation of this subject as it moves into how important quality animation is to the success of a film.