Total Artist Makeover 1.1 -- Intro
posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 12:16 PM
Quite simply I want....
no, scratch that...
I need to be doing the thing I love to do as much as possible.
Right now, I manage squeeze my art time into the five minute little spaces of my life, which has led to some small success if The Low Poly Coop is any indication. But, it's not enough, and it hasn't been enough for a long time. Up to this point, I have taken a methodical, patient and planful approach to achieving this goal. Over this time, though, something has changed. I no longer just dream or wish or plan about making this transition. It has become such a deep, core-level need that I spend every minute I can working on my art. I have waited long enough. The time has come to kick it up. I am attacking this with focus and verve. I am determined that a year from now I will be where I want to be. And you all are going to get to watch me stumble and claw my towards the top of this mountain. Hopefully you will learn something from my journey. Maybe some of you will even join me someday. Hold on to your hats, here we go.
When Terry and I started this project we both, I think, had a strong impulse to educate at the same time as we create. Naturally, I can't stand up and say I am an expert at many things, so a big part of the imparting of wisdom that we do here is to allow you all to follow along as we learn and explore. You can learn from our triumphs, gaffes and mistakes and watch it all unfold as it happens.
As part of this goal Emily and I have started a new initiative of teaching how to turn your preoccupation into your occupation (which does not necessarily mean working for a game company, mind you). For my part I will doing something I have been meaning to do for a long time. I am going to take you all along with me as I complete the last leg of my transformation into a full time game artist.
For starters, I have narrowed down my plan of attack to five main areas. Since getting serious about this two years ago, I have managed to put a lot of pieces in place. I know how to model. I know how to texture. I can help a team reach a goal. I have real game art to show off. I have a resume (maybe a little too long) that does the work of making people look at my portfolio. But, still...
Still, there are some puzzle pieces missing. I think these are the things that have so far kept me from being able to take the next step. My skillset and portfolio may not be enough to get someone to hire me full time. My energy levels and time availability are not enough to allow me to build a solo business on the side. My finances are not solid enough to let me start at a true entry level job that will let me build my skills and reputation. They're all little pieces, but they do add up.
So, here is the plan of attack. I will be concentrating on five main areas of development -- most of what I need to accomplish will fit within these categories. I will be creating a separate thread for each one here in our forums so that you can follow along as I do this, and I will also be summarizing my experiences here on this page every Wednesday or two.
1. Health and Well-Being
I am out of shape in general (WAY out of shape) and beaten up from the "Year of Baby #3". I need to make a serious turnaround here if I am to have the energy to excite people to work with me, to have the stamina to conquer the mountain of work ahead, and to have the clarity of consciousness needed to maintain a balanced life with my family and within myself. This is long overdue.
2. Skills Upgrade
I love the tools I work with now (Blender in particular), but I know that I must learn the tools that employers and clients demand, it's as simple as that. I need to do some learning, and given my past experience, this should be the easiest and most enjoyable part of this process.
3. Presentation
My resume could always use some work. My portfolio could definitely use some work. And, probably the biggest challenge I face, I need to turn what could be perceived as my main disadvantage, my age, into a huge positive in other people's eyes.
4. Relevant Experience
The coop here has been my bread and butter on this. And, through the most physically demanding parts of this year, this has been a mainstay of consistent development for me. I will continue to push this as far as it can go, but I will also begin to expand out again as I find more time and energy in my schedule.
5. Finances
Higher education, three kids, and the second-most expensive place to live in the USA has left me with a huge burden to carry around and it has been locking me into my gilded cube at work for too long. Getting on top of this will open up my options and start me on the path to more freedom as an artist.
Well, that's it. I hope some of you will want to take this journey along with me. I would be sincerely touched if some of you help me build myself up as I tear myself down so that I can become a stronger person and a better artist. I would be thankful and humbled.
Let's see where this takes me. Shall we?
Stay free.
~shs~
Something snapped. Something has changed in me. I can't pinpoint exactly when it happened, but it was sometime during the past year. Transitioning over to becoming a game artist has long been my passion, but due to various short term demands, which I will get to in detail at some point, my path has followed a somewhat different direction over the past ten years. I have been at this for, depending on how you look at it, 2 years or 5 years or 16 years, but the goal has always remained pretty clear.
Quite simply I want....
no, scratch that...
I need to be doing the thing I love to do as much as possible.
Right now, I manage squeeze my art time into the five minute little spaces of my life, which has led to some small success if The Low Poly Coop is any indication. But, it's not enough, and it hasn't been enough for a long time. Up to this point, I have taken a methodical, patient and planful approach to achieving this goal. Over this time, though, something has changed. I no longer just dream or wish or plan about making this transition. It has become such a deep, core-level need that I spend every minute I can working on my art. I have waited long enough. The time has come to kick it up. I am attacking this with focus and verve. I am determined that a year from now I will be where I want to be. And you all are going to get to watch me stumble and claw my towards the top of this mountain. Hopefully you will learn something from my journey. Maybe some of you will even join me someday. Hold on to your hats, here we go.
When Terry and I started this project we both, I think, had a strong impulse to educate at the same time as we create. Naturally, I can't stand up and say I am an expert at many things, so a big part of the imparting of wisdom that we do here is to allow you all to follow along as we learn and explore. You can learn from our triumphs, gaffes and mistakes and watch it all unfold as it happens.
As part of this goal Emily and I have started a new initiative of teaching how to turn your preoccupation into your occupation (which does not necessarily mean working for a game company, mind you). For my part I will doing something I have been meaning to do for a long time. I am going to take you all along with me as I complete the last leg of my transformation into a full time game artist.
For starters, I have narrowed down my plan of attack to five main areas. Since getting serious about this two years ago, I have managed to put a lot of pieces in place. I know how to model. I know how to texture. I can help a team reach a goal. I have real game art to show off. I have a resume (maybe a little too long) that does the work of making people look at my portfolio. But, still...
Still, there are some puzzle pieces missing. I think these are the things that have so far kept me from being able to take the next step. My skillset and portfolio may not be enough to get someone to hire me full time. My energy levels and time availability are not enough to allow me to build a solo business on the side. My finances are not solid enough to let me start at a true entry level job that will let me build my skills and reputation. They're all little pieces, but they do add up.
So, here is the plan of attack. I will be concentrating on five main areas of development -- most of what I need to accomplish will fit within these categories. I will be creating a separate thread for each one here in our forums so that you can follow along as I do this, and I will also be summarizing my experiences here on this page every Wednesday or two.
1. Health and Well-Being
I am out of shape in general (WAY out of shape) and beaten up from the "Year of Baby #3". I need to make a serious turnaround here if I am to have the energy to excite people to work with me, to have the stamina to conquer the mountain of work ahead, and to have the clarity of consciousness needed to maintain a balanced life with my family and within myself. This is long overdue.
2. Skills Upgrade
I love the tools I work with now (Blender in particular), but I know that I must learn the tools that employers and clients demand, it's as simple as that. I need to do some learning, and given my past experience, this should be the easiest and most enjoyable part of this process.
3. Presentation
My resume could always use some work. My portfolio could definitely use some work. And, probably the biggest challenge I face, I need to turn what could be perceived as my main disadvantage, my age, into a huge positive in other people's eyes.
4. Relevant Experience
The coop here has been my bread and butter on this. And, through the most physically demanding parts of this year, this has been a mainstay of consistent development for me. I will continue to push this as far as it can go, but I will also begin to expand out again as I find more time and energy in my schedule.
5. Finances
Higher education, three kids, and the second-most expensive place to live in the USA has left me with a huge burden to carry around and it has been locking me into my gilded cube at work for too long. Getting on top of this will open up my options and start me on the path to more freedom as an artist.
Well, that's it. I hope some of you will want to take this journey along with me. I would be sincerely touched if some of you help me build myself up as I tear myself down so that I can become a stronger person and a better artist. I would be thankful and humbled.
Let's see where this takes me. Shall we?
Stay free.
~shs~
posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 12:16 PM
6 Comments:
This sounds similar to something i'd like to do for myself. Only i'd like to do a total transformation, not focused specifically one one thing. There are several areas of my life I wish to improve, some, shall we say, bad habits I wish to kick. In short where to another person I appear to be totally different than my old self.
Where you chose 5 areas, I choose only 3 but with multiple subcatagories, or rather different areas in each of those 3. Spirtual, Mental, Physical. I'm generally out of shape in those 3 areas. I won't go into details, but it just reminded me. The point being that I need to start acting and doing completely opposite of how I act and what I do now. So far I haven't been very successful. But in time maybe i'll have made some progress.
I guess I will try to keep track in your forums, although there's so many blogs and forums to keep up with.
Good Luck, Scott!
Keith
2:10 PM
Awesome! Go for it. I'll be reading your stuff. Subscribe to our feed if you haven't already.
2:52 PM
How do I do that anyways. I have firefox, but I don't know how to set up for rss feeds or how it works. Any direction you could point me in would be greatly appreciated.
11:02 AM
I'm happy to see you taking this so seriously and with such a definitive plan.
Good luck for sure, Scott. I know you can bust into the industry. Let me know if I can help out at all.
-Chris
11:05 PM
@Keith, the easiest is to just go to bloglines, sign up for an account, and then click on the blogline icon in our sidebar. As for setting your own site up with feeds, you already are because you have a blogspot account.
@Bunnies, Oh, just you wait. I will def. be asking you, Emily, Paul and Nibbuls for Max tips.
11:25 PM
Actually i'm just using wordpress.
2:27 PM
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