It’s time for a new beginning!
Interesting thing happened to me recently. At SIGGRAPH2008, I won a copy of Cinema 4D Release 10.5 in the Student Volunteer giveaways. Awesome. But unfortunately, because of my work load and the hectic nature of finishing up my schooling for the foreseeable future, I didn’t get a chance to install it.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I crack open the box and look for a serial during installation. Uh oh. No serial, and I needed to register within 90 days to get a valid code for installation. Great. Now I’m out $900 of free software because I didn’t install it in time.
So I send off the registration anyway, hoping that the people at Maxon could find it in their hearts to spare a key anyway. I hear nothing for about a week. I figure that they just ignored me because my code was expired anyway. It’s understandable I guess.
Then I stumbled over a package left on the front step of my apartment complex as I left for the night. Out of chance I checked the name on it (I wasn’t expecting anything) and saw “Brian Lee” on there. Weird. I opened it up and found a new commercial copy of Cinema 4D Release 11!
So not only did Maxon go out of their way and respond to my late request, they sent me the newest version! What great people. I wonder if they know what a boon this is to me; I’m going to be starting out with my motion graphics career this year and this is going to be a huge asset.
So thanks to you Maxon, and the SIGGRAPH2008 committee as well for awarding me this amazing prize.
So this is my first blog posting in a while. A few things happened since here and there: I graduated with my 2nd degree (BA in Communication with a Digital Media focus) from NCSU, signed up with The Creative Group, and have been job/freelance hunting ever since December. Oh, and I just updated the theme on my blog here, so some of my old postings may be a little broken.
At any rate, it’s a great time for a lot of new beginnings: new software, new careers, new position in life, no class, no homework… Lots of interesting changes. And hopefully I’ll get a chance to post and update here more often.
Macgyver’d
I brought Guitar Hero 3 into CapStrat today, along with my PS2 and one guitar controller. After hooking it up to one of the widescreen monitors, Carson warned me that the audio input/output didn’t work on the monitor. Essentially, we needed to get the audio signal directly to the speakers, from two male RCAs to a standard miniplug. We found an adapter which would turn the miniplug into another two male RCAs, but that didn’t get us anywhere… So I cooked this up.
Front view
Top view
Using nothing but a paper clamp and the clip from a Pilot Uniball, I was able to get one channel going for Guitar Hero. Needless to say, I’m pretty happy with the solution… Because it was free and it works.
We’re All Producers
My friend Ben, producing his own media.
We’re getting way too focused. Over dinner with a friend the other day, we discussed that as far as human beings go, we’re getting pretty specialized. It’s generally accepted by [most of industrialized] society that as we grow up, we go to school, and eventually settle into a profession (or a handful of them). Very few people actually do everything for themselves; these professions allow us to become interdependent and concentrate on our own slice of the work. It’s a great way to make sure quality services and products are developed, but there are obvious trade-offs.
When did entertainment become one of those slices? I see people eat food they didn’t make, live places they didn’t build, and use goods they didn’t craft. So why not apply the same principle to how we relax and enjoy ourselves?
Maybe I’m a little biased. Right now I’m working as a digital media designer, and as a result, work with many of the same tools that the mass media use. Among other things, I write/remix/play music, make animations, and write stories for myself. As a result, I look at the mass media not just as a consumer, but as a student and competitor. I love watching a well directed story, but at the same time a little voice in my head says “When are you going to do that?”
A lot more people these days seem to be asking the same question. With the advent of YouTube, Newgrounds, and similar sites that are based on user created content, a culture of media literacy and homegrown entertainment is being nurtured. You’ve heard it all before, everyone’s a director, animator, performer now, with an audience that reaches most corners of the civilized globe. It’s a great creative outlet, and the potential is enormous. I heard from a friend that the writer’s strike is actually causing people to depend on YouTube for entertainment. Pretty amazing if you ask me.
But is this the voice of all the people that were producing media anyway? Or have we gotten to the point where people who wouldn’t normally produce are doing so? Is the next step revisiting the days when families had at least one piano player in the house? I wonder if families might even become amateur production studios, and take home movies to a new level. Dad handles the A/V, junior writes and performs the soundtrack, mom does the writing, and sis takes on the lead role.
I’m all for anything that takes our dependence off the mass media. I know we still tend to get our news through the usual channels, and nothing amazes quite like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster. I just hope that despite the huge entertainment industry, more people are realizing the value and satisfaction of homegrown media. Not to mention that instead of listening to homogenized and carefully calculated beliefs and values, people could dodge mass media hegemony long enough to learn for themselves.
Maybe it’s because of my profession, but I see entertainment as one of the great opportunities for expression this society isn’t taking advantage of. We have the means, technology, and tools, why isn’t this second nature? Don’t we all have this incredible urge to create, tell our stories, and perform our songs?
I write this, of course, while smelling food that someone else is cooking, on a computer I didn’t assemble, in a house I didn’t build. I’m sure all of those things are just as important to other people as the aforementioned media are to me… Does that make me short-sighted? Maybe.
Living Sustainably as a Design Student
A friend of mine recently pointed me to this article, and I can’t think of something I need more right now than some pointers on how to sustain myself as a creative student.
Living Sustainably as a Design Student
It really is true that the schedules are hectic and demanding, often times draining the rest of your life with only the promise that someday you’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Learning to enjoy things and keep an active balance right now are more important to me than anything, and my inspiration absolutely depends on it.
I mean, it isn’t just a non-stop string of staying up all night, furiously drawing and sweating bullets out of the passion for the idea. If you keep pouring your soul into things, eventually you’re going to run out.
Capstrat, other things on the mind
I purposefully made this site really simple to update and maintain in the hopes that I’d actually do it. And if I actually do it, that means my goal of having a nice, updatable portfolio site approaches fruition. Anyway, a little about what’s going on in life right now:
I’ve got an internship going on at CapStrat. Mostly After Effects animation work with some Final Cut and other editing thrown in. I get to work with Carson Mataxis and Nathan Rittenhouse, the Dynamic Media team there, as well as Anson Burtch, the producer.
I’m also working at DELTA at NCSU as an Information Technology Specialist/Intern. Doing a lot of flash stuff over there, as well as video and sound editing, graphic design, hardware, whatever is needed.