25Aug

Late August Homebuying and Everything Else Update

Filed in General Gabbing Leave a comment

I’m back once again. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to update my blog but here it is anyway. Nothing has changed too much for me other than the following:

1. I will be wrapping up my time with Dream Machine Studios shortly. It has been a great experience which I have learned so much from. Scott was a great guy helping me get in some work on games and helping with some R&D and rigging for some of Dream Machine’s game endeavors. I thank you Scott so much for all you have done for me in my learning in the past eight months. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been eight months already!

2. I was planning on moving out to L.A. in about a week with my friend Adam, but due to my current financial state, I will have to remain behind as I continue to better my animation skills. I wish all the best to Adam in his endeavor to find a job in modeling and I hope to be out there animating sometime in the future.

3. Since I am now having to stay in Ohio, I am looking all around for freelance work in animation and hoping to score some project in the near future (in fact there may be a good chance I’ll be working on an Imagitorium project once again).

4. Along with searching for animation positions, I am very happy to say I have been looking for opportunities to teach as well. I have done some teaching in the past and always enjoy it so much. It is truly amazing when you can help others learn something that you are so passionate about and I am currently applying for these positions that would allow me to teach 3D art and animation (which I obviously love so much)!

5. Last and probably the biggest news item from me is that Allison, my wife, and I just recently bought a new house, barring nothing major is found in the inspections. I am so excited and I know my wife is as well, to be home and property owners now. We absolutely love the house and the yard is perfect for us and our little Bella. Also, there will be garage parking for the two of us. Woohoo, no more street parking at our own place! I just can’t describe how elated we are about this new purchase. The house and yard are just beautiful! I will hopefully be able to update with pictures in the future.

Well, I think that’s it. I think that wraps up what’s been going on with me lately. Oh, one more thing. My parents and sister each got a Jack Russel terrier and they are apparently a ton of fun. I can’t wait to meet the little rascals.

Until the next update,
-James

, , , , , , , , , ,

10Apr

Our new family addition (Bella) and MvA

Filed in General Gabbing Leave a comment

Hey,  If anyone has not yet seen Dreamworks Monsters vs. Aliens, you really must go see it.  I watched it at the Imax in s3D and it was terrific!  The animation was solid, the characters were very entertaining, and the story was great.  I was super excited to go see this because my friend Jacob Gardner worked on several shots.  It is really cool to see a friend’s work on the big screen and then see his/her name in the credits at the end… Way to go Jacob!

Other news as of late is that my wife and I have just adopted a new puppy.  She is really great and so cuddly, which both my wife and I love.  We saw her last weekend at the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center when we were just walking around.  She is supposedly a German Shepard/Chow mix, although we suspect something different since she is so small (only 4 lbs. now).  We were not really expecting to get a puppy at all, but when I saw her, I fell in love with the little girl.  After filling out some paperwork Monday, we finally were able to pick her up last night.  She is so soft.  I think she was a bit of a surprise for my wife and I though, as we were up much of the night, taking her outside to use the restroom.  I’m so happy my wife was able to work from home today to take care of her on her first full day at home.  It will be an experience to see how she does with children as we take her to see Jillian, our little niece, and the rest of the extended family on my wife’s side.  I’m sure it will be so much fun.  Those little girls are so adorable.  Anyway, I have posted some images of Bella (our new dog) below.  I am so happy that our little family is now growing!

Bella the first night in my mother's arms

Bella the first night in my mother's arms

Bella in my arms the first night

Bella in my arms the first night

Bella with me at the ARC

Bella with me at the ARC

Bella's first meal at her new home

Bella's first meal at her new home

Bella face first in her food bowl

Bella face first in her food bowl

Bella staring at Allison and I while sitting in front of the couch

Bella staring at Allison and I while sitting in front of the couch

Bella sleeping between my pillow and Allison

Bella sleeping between my pillow and Allison

Bella asleep next to Allison

Bella asleep next to Allison

This is Bella playing with her bone the first night at our house (picture compliments of Jim Carroll)

This is Bella playing with her bone the first night at our house (picture compliments of Jim Carroll)

Bella with her toys the first night (picture compliments of Jim Carroll)

Bella with her toys the first night (picture compliments of Jim Carroll)

Here is Bella looking at/playing with Mary Carroll (picture compliments of Jim Carroll)

Here is Bella looking at/playing with Mary Carroll (picture compliments of Jim Carroll)

, , , , ,

20Jan

Quick January Blurb

Filed in General Gabbing Leave a comment

No posts for a while, so I thought I’d say at least a little something and try out this QuickPress on wordpress at the same time. Anyway, I’m still around. I’ve been playing a lot with this new theme (Modularity-Lite by Graph Paper Press). I have been customizing and altering the code to fit my needs. The last couple of days I have been consumed with getting up some header images and getting them to work as I want them and appear on the correct pages.  Finally I figured it out. I have three different images up as of now and hopefully will add a couple more in the near future.

Now that’s what I have been doing for the site. I have also been working a lot on my AM assignment. We are currently trying to flush out some story ideas for the short film I will create next class.  As I whittle my story down further, I probably will post a little here.

Now, a little more personal information. I am very, very happy to say that my wife and I celebrated 6 months of marriage yesterday! We went out to dinner on Sunday at a nice Irish restaurant and had some good clam chowder and pub chips, mmmm!  I can’t believe that it has been 6 months already and can’t wait to share the next 50+ years ahead with her.  She really is an amazing woman and I’m so happy to have found her!

, , , ,

07Jan

Happy New Year

Filed in General Gabbing Leave a comment

Well, we’ve finished up another year and are now excited about all of our new goals that we hope to accomplish in 2009! I hope every enjoyed their holiday season. I know I did.

I’m currently staring outside at the snow coming down in lovely Columbus and am just thinking about how beautiful it is and how much I definitely feel like its winter again. You know, its funny that a lot of us in the northern part of the states always complain about the cold winters and talk about how much we’d like to be somewhere warmer, but when I slow down and actually enjoy the winter instead of looking at it only as a nuisance standing in the way of my next destination, I recognize the softness and miracle of it. Winter brings so many magical thoughts. For many children, they dream of reindeer and Santa Clause. For me, I think about things I enjoyed as a kid. I think about the Grinch and Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas. I think about how much fun it is to roll around in the snow and go sledding. It really is something wonderful and we should all take the time to slow down and enjoy it. Instead of complaining, we should take advantage of it and do only the things we can do during the winter, like skiing. Anyway, I encourage everyone to enjoy the snow and winter as much as they can. I always enjoy a brisk walk through the snow-covered woods.

Now moving onto more relevant, animation thoughts. I started my second to last class (class 5) at AM last night. I really think I’m going to enjoy this class. It is all about story. We will be creating the story for the animated short that we will animate in class 6. I think there should be a lot of really great discussions to help flesh out ideas and contemplate reasons why some stories and story elements work and why others do not. Last night, we had a great couple of mini discussions about Kung-Fu Panda and Wall-E and I look forward to the rest of the Q&A’s being that interesting! I look forward to exploring my ideas in this class and hopefully becoming a more entertaining story-teller and animator.

By the way, I changed the look of my site. Did anyone notice? Hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll be able to find some time and tweak the look even more.

TOP

Switch to our mobile site