James C. Ditmer

Just on my mind

James — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:04:43 +0000

I’m just sitting here watching Grey’s Anatomy with Allison and then Mumford and Sons comes on. I basically just wanted to ask,

After a few months of nothing here

James — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:43:46 +0000

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.

Its Spring and hot in Ohio

James — Sat, 29 May 2010 04:05:00 +0000

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!

The Old Story Axiom

James — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:41:00 +0000

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.

Late Night after a long time

James — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:36:47 +0000

Well it has been quite a while everyone. I wish this was not the case as my hope is always to keep this updated bit alas I have been slacking.
Well I have been very busy with multiple things. I thought I was going to teach at our local college here in Columbus but that did not work out so now it looks like I will once again be moving. I cannot yet say where but my hope is that it will dramatically help with getting employment in the VFX industry. And speaking of VFX I have been using and learning much more such as camera tracking and compositing and I have started modeling again which is really a lot of fun! Well that’s about it on the little update. I once again hope to keep these posts more updated. So, until next time.
- James

First IF (Illustration Friday) post

James — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:24:11 +0000

FLYing_illustration

So here is my first submission to Illustration Friday. I am so happy to have been able to post this week. I created this in Illustrator. Its the first Illustrator piece I have ever shown publicly and can’t wait to show more. I hope to have many other posts to IF as the weeks go by to help build my illustration skills. I hope you all enjoy.

Moved In

James — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:10:33 +0000

Finally, after four days of moving, my wife and I are completely moved out of the old apartment and into our new house! We went over and picked up the last item (a futon) last night and drove it over in my little Honda Civic. That was a lot of fun driving over brick roads with a trunk open and a futon matress and frame hanging out. It was actually pretty funny as we bounced over the bricks. It was also a little sad leaving what we had been calling home for over a year now, but I am so glad to be done with moving! Its great not to be moving heavy washers and dressers. I have to thank my friends Jon and Emily, who helped Allison and me so much with moving. We will have to return the favor when they move in a few weeks. Now I need to still get that hot tub cleaned up. Its starting to cool down here very quickly and I would love to use a nice warm hot tub at night after work. I was just thinking about my pal, Adam, who is out in L.A. now. I hope he is doing well and hopefully on the trail to finding a sweet 3D modeling position at a studio. There will be more on this later, I’m sure. For now I just wanted to wish him good luck.

A new house and new yard

James — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:50:11 +0000

Ah, my wife and I just closed on our house last Friday and we are so happy and love the backyard! Here is a picture taken from the backyard. http://twitpic.com/jdzjb. I have so enjoyed relaxing in the backyard the last couple of days. Its really a great house and my wife and I are so fortunate to own it now. The next project is getting that hot tub running:)

A little update

James — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:55:51 +0000

So, good news about the house. Everything that the inspector found that needed to be fixed is being fixed by the seller! So…. Allison and I should be able to move in next Friday! I can’t believe it. We’re homeowners. I can’t wait to sit back and relax in our new backyard and be able to park my car in a garage instead of on the street… a major plus. Now, its packing and heavy moving time this next week.

So one little other thing is that I just got my 1TB WD MyBook. It is awesome. There is so much disk space. Now to get all those Maya project files backed up.

Late August Homebuying and Everything Else Update

James — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:57:17 +0000

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