A Long Time Coming

Well, It has been some time since I sat down and updated this thing, so I figured 'why the hell not?'

Since July has been and gone much has happened and much has changed. I would like to tell you all about it, provided my freakin' cat will let me control the damnable keyboard. Considering how long it's taken me to type this, I feel the short version is in order.

So... well I guess the big news is that I now have a job contracting for Liquid Animation in Brisbane. I'm working on multitudinous Flash based animations for the most part and what ever other random 'arty' assignments get thrown to the department I'm working in.

Ok, it's become apparent that the cat must control the keyboard or it will never be happy again, so I'm going to leave it there for now and bring up some more in depth reports on some of the random shite I've been up to in a later post or posts. It'll be great, totally, I swear.

In the meantime, have fun!

'RISEN' Amebix Retrospective DVD

So, it's been a while since I sat down and blogged something. I thought I'd better just throw one out there for good measure.

But what to say? I saw Batman and thought it was awesome, which you'd think too if you were any kind of thinking human being. Or maybe I could regale you all with a hate anthem dedicated to my housemate and her preponderant need to use 'post-it' notes as a means of informing me what I'm doing 'wrong'. That's too unclassy for the hour of the night that i find myself in.

Well, I think I'll just lay out an update of the Amebix DVD. The same DVD that some of my amigo's and I created an animated music video for, yeah that one.

We recently were informed by the guys at Amebix HQ that they liked the clip so much, they were going to use pieces of it throughout the main feature. How freakin' awesome is that? Not only is the full clip going to be in the special features section, but it's going to be in the feature as well! I tell you, it makes the whole thing so much more worthwhile. The DVD is going to be released internationally late this year.

So that's something exciting anyway. I should say there are many possible things in store the future that may be as awesome, if not more, than this. However, for fear of getting myself too excited at nothing but shadows and impressions, I ain't sayin' shit.

Later

The Life and Times of Me

Hiya gang, it's been a long time since I sat down and subjected myself (and you by proxy) to a session of self indulgent ranting and pseudo thought processing. It's like thinking but progressive and on my computer screen!

So, a couple weeks back i got hit by one hell of a case of glandular fever and since then I've been too fucked up to think straight... or at all really. I have spent an incredulous amount of time sleeping, resting and varying degrees of both. Normally I would have trouble getting my brain to stop ticking, but with the whole sickness thing, thinking itself consumes far too much energy and just doesn't seem to be propagating of it's own accord anyway. Which sucks, cause the power to think separates me from the bogans. That and my leet drawing skillz, like a fish!

As much as the prospect of doing sweet fuck all appeals to me (really, what isn't appealing about pay TV, reclining chairs, good food and a warm bed?) I have come to realise something; I am missing something. Firstly, it's not the remote. It's purpose, I believe. Earlier this year when I was working on the Axeman music vid (been sent off to Amebix in Ireland for editing, BOOYAH!) there was always this driving need to animate more, to get stuck in and really give it my all. There was a sense of purpose.

I think this is something that Shawn Kelly harps on about. You gotta love animating.

It's something that I feel needs some extrapolation; mostly on the word 'love'. Love is the only word we have for the sensation of the combination 'admiration, happiness, adoration' and what ever other sappy crap you can think of. I have been told that the ancient Greeks had several words for the different kinds of love found out there, be it brotherly sexually emotionally or the love of a pursuit. Whether there is an appropriate word for this or not, the kind of love that you need for a craft like animation is something more of a respect. Like a mountaineer looking at Mt Everest, you have to respect the craft for what it is and what it takes to 'conquer' it, or even rise to the challenge.

Me personally, I think it's the challenge that I love. Can I do this? Do I have what it takes to make this awesome? Am I going to give it one hell of a go? HELL YES!

I've dealt with a lot of shit in the last two years, more so than I would have thought tolerable in any other circumstance, but now I understand why I haven't relinquished my struggle and why I won't desist. I love the challenge too much. I see people building houses, selling clothes, counting beans and flying jets for hours on end and I don't envy them. I've worked a 'real' job before for several years and do you know what? IT SUCKS! It blows big time. I have animated at Tafe for 8 hours or so a day, came home and animated for another 3 or 4 before heading off to a part time job and I was happy as Larry.

So, there it is. The confession of an animation student who loves the challenge of animating. It's the love of the challenge that makes me want to keep learning to keep producing, to practice, to perfect, to give it everything I've got. At one time I may have thought it weird to really feel a passion for something like this, but fuck it and fuck you if you have a problem with it.

Bring it the fuck on.

I Sit and Wonder

So, may is here and winter comes bearing it's chilly wrath upon the great mass of land known as Australia. I feel a tad guilty right now because I'm hanging out at my mothers place drinking beer and not animating, planning most sincerely to drink a little more than is good for me. But hey, Mothers day is this weekend and it's her own fault for giving me free rein of the beer fridge...

Ahem, right... yes, so just recently Ian posted a groovy ramble on the ARC about managing time for our second and final year of study, which I found particularly amusing. In reality the post was more about making the course your bitch, than it was about managing time itself.

Curse you space-time causality! I will have acquiescence!

Where was I, right, the beer. What? no, not about the beer? LIES! FINE, be that way. So after reading this I found myself having something of a ponder. It was mostly things of a 'where do I want to be' nature. 'Well,' I said to myself. ' CHARACTER ANIMATION, YOU D**KFACE!'

So I'm a bit hard on myself sometimes, but someone has to keep me in check. It's kinda weird, sitting here looking the business end of the proverbial barrel that is my choice of career study course, thinking about what the hell I'm gonna do with myself after all is said and done. To be perfectly frank about it, I'm a little scared. I feel like an agoraphobic contemplating the big wide open spaces just outside his safe, confining walls. Maybe I should get another beer.

But I'm on a roll here. What scares me the most is the concept of failure. Failing is supposed to be the best teacher in life, yet it can also be the most brutal of adversaries, tearing to shreds what meager scraps of strength we can procure from our small fragile egos. That is what chills me to the bone, lingering thoughts of inadequacy lurking there at the back of my mind. I know what I want and to hell with anyone who says I cant succeed, but still as always my worst enemy is the blackest depths of my own imagination.

So now it occurs to me, as I sit here at a borrowed laptop surrounded by acres of open farmland (Agoraphobia, see? Wasn't all that random at all. Not that I have it, just seemed like an apt metaphor) nutting out my own thoughts as I attempt to master the laptop keyboard, that maybe, just maybe, I'm thinking too far ahead. Maybe I should get another beer, go back to Tafe on Monday morning and stop screwing around and concentrate on the next step to getting a job in character animation. Maybe I should focus more on changing my attitude towards the hard yards of animating and gods be damned, maybe I should get another fucking beer.

Maybe I will. On all accounts, we only have to wait and see now don't we?

Oh and the picture included is of a FF8 Gunblade replica I bought recently (I took the image from the global gear ebay page) for only 10.50! I am such a bloody nerd sometimes. But then other times, I FRICKIN ROCK!

I've got comics on my mind

Heya freaks and farts!

It's been awhile but I've been busy finishing up the Axeman music video for Amebix, more on that closer to it's release.

For the now however, the autobiographical comic for my course is finished, HOORAY! Boy, who'da thunk drawin thems prudy pictures was gunna be so hard? Apart form people with half a brain, ME! but it's done and it's turned out quite well.

The story is basically about me and my decision to stop being a victim of living and do something I want to do, not what others feel I should do. So, kinda obtuse right? You'd be right to say so, but I went with a stylistic choice of telling the story like a fairy tale, condensing it down and minimising details and even adding fantastical elements to an otherwise reality based story.

On the technical side, i feel it's too fast at the start. I did try and cram a lot of info into one page. The flow of the text and even the panels could have been enhanced and lets face it, i'm shite with photoshop. But that's O.K., it's all part of the learning curve.

So, my final judgement is that I have a long way to go before I match up to my heroes like Drew Hayes, or Neil Gaiman, but who the hell does?

Anyway, as usual enjoy and feel free to comment.

Instant Infatuation

Hey there, it's me and it's time for a rant.

As an aninmation student at SBIT I check in fairly reguarly with the blog kept by one of my teachers. He posts a few rants, links to animated clips and some helpful sites. Recently though he linked to this clip;

http://www.videology-tv.com/viewclip.php?id=100 (be warned, it may take some time to load)
Tais-Toi Mon Coeur. It is simply beautiful.

I am in awe of this music video, the whole thing makes me feel all warm and tingly inside. To me it's a sure sign that even contemporary 3D productions dont have to be the disney/pixar cartoony style to be incredibly awesome. Ian (the teacher who runs the blog) has often said that 3d doesnt have to have a certain preset 'look' and I agree.

The way that the animators have imitated stop motion for this clip is amazing. Everything that I have ever liked in a film is packed in here; meaningfull camera work, backgrounds aiding in the storytelling, A STORY (that's right, music vids dont have to be bikini girls gyrating to the latest pop hit!) and incredibily effiecint and effective character designs as well as superb acting and use of timing.

The only thing I can fault is the pacing. The clip starts gorgeously, by the first chorus the film is moving quite swiftly. After that though, it does slow down a tad too much. When the chorus rocks around again though, its back to full swing. I think if the director had found a better way to depict the transformation of the male character, ie; faster pacing, less of the 'lingering' shots ( one or two is more than enough and decreasing the amount may even increase the potency of such shots), the peice could have been as close to perfect as I would ever admit.

Overall, I have found an example of 3D animation that is inspiring to me, seeing it makes me want to get up and scream 'HELL YES, 3D KICKS ARSE!'. So now back I go to my major project for this year, a 3d peice that I will strive to make as worthy a rival that of 'Tais-toi mon coeur' (be silent my heart, in english) as I can.

Thank you and good night.

More Fuel for the Fires!

Well, I've been hard at work procrastinating my arse off. That failed horribly. So I actually did some animating and that worked out much better. Now without much more ado, my dialogue piece.

It's a sound clip from Monty Python's 'Holy Grail'. I wanted the character to be contemplative then as he speaks, agree with whatever thought was in his mind.

As always enjoy, and if you have any comments, feel free to post. Adios!



Dialogue practice from Zac Seaton on Vimeo.

It's been and gone...

Every body who missed my 22nd, raise your hand.

You officially suck.

But yes, my party was absolutely bitchin', yeah that's right, bitchin'. There was heavy metal, drinking, lots more drinking and even a brief spurt of violence. Oh, and minor propery damage, can't forget that now. The celebration of me went down a treat and everybody woke up the next day sore (freaking hangovers) and happy. lots of photos were taken and i've decided to share some, just so you can see what you missed out on. Winner = me!

As I look upon damnation

Alright net space, eat animation!

Don't actually, just watch it, cause I like this piece.

Another Tafe exercise, a character looking and reacting. I wanted him to be surprised , then calm down as he looks.



easyman look and react from Zac Seaton on Vimeo.

Dialogue with the Devil

Greetings, one and all!

For your entertainment this evening I have a special treat, a small insight on working for a large brisbane studio.

This is something that a friend of mine was awesome enough to help me out with. Originally used in a group presentation for TAFE, it was suggested that I post this on my blog. Seemed like a good idea to me, so here it is.

By-the-by, this is in no way related to any projects being worked on at this studio, simply the dynamics of the studio environment.


An interview on working within a studio

- How long have you been working in the Animation industry?

A bit over 4 years

- How did you come to work at this studio?

I worked for another company that was contracting to this studio. At the end of the contract I decided to make the jump to working for them directly and they were happy to have me.

- How much do you know about their’s history?

Not a great deal, It started as a small games company 12 or so people working on original ip, and just grew over time.

- What’s it like working for a company like that?

Enjoyable for the most part, you are in a relaxed environment, doing work that you like with people who also like and take pride in their work

- What kind of work ethic do they keep?

The question is a bit obtuse, I would say that the work ethic is solid due to the milestone schedule and the pride of ownership in the ‘products’ we create. But the environment is also quite social, its more like a group of people pulling together to get something done, then someone standing over your telling you to do your work.

- What prior knowledge do you need?

Skill in your particular field is really the main thing, in the end the piece of paper you get from uni / tafe etc isn’t worth much compared to the quality of your folio (but where else are you going to get the skills to make a quality folio). Other then that a basic understanding of computers and their operations, good communication / interpretation skills and at least a modicum of social grace. The image of socially ill equipped computer nerds making games is not the norm in a modern games company. You have to work closely with these people often on a heavy overtime basis. Working with a rude, smelly, arrogant person would get old real quick, and as a consequence they don’t get hired.

- Is there any in-house training/courses?

Usually only for new in-house software, or to update you on new tech and development advances. Although there is some general additional classes, like life drawing which the company offers on an optional basis.

- How do they feel about interactions with animation educational facilities and similar courses?

I believe they are generally welcoming and forthcoming with information and the like, but ultimately the interaction is limited due to practicality. With very few exceptions everyone is hired for specific skills and tasks. Animators animate, coders code etc. The company is about making games, although there are PR people and the like, the people an education institution and its students would most like to hear from / interact with, are usually too busy doing their job. A better bet would probably be trying to interact with individuals outside of work rather then attempting to reach them through their work.



- Has within a studio taught you anything new, ie: skill sets, animation techniques/processes or interpersonal qualities?

Taught and honed. In a company as large as this but with individual projects having tight teams you are exposed to a great many people with a great many skills. It would be almost impossible to work in such an environment without constantly, sometimes almost osmotically learning new skills, techniques and procedures. To frame it in a personal perspective I entered this industry 4 years ago as a junior with a basic skill set. In that time I advanced through mid and recently became a senior artist without any additional external training. Its all about not just showing up and doing your job, but keeping your eyes and ears open and learning from those around you, almost everyone has at least a few things to impart and in this kind of environment you can soak it up and learn a great deal. Of course there is also something to be said for practicing your art as a 9 to 5 job, its inevitable that you will get better.

He's here... SLAUGHTER!

Hellish greetings, web-lurkers.

I was just in the neighbourhood and I figured I might stop in and share a little something with you.

Late last month a friend of mine, who goes by the alias of Atronach, asked me if I'd be interested in joining an animation project that he and another friend of mine, Marquis H.K. by way of name, were working on. It's a music video clip for the song 'Axeman' by an old punk band 'Amebix'. Atronach and Marquis both liked the song and I think it's quite awesome too. This is a great project for me, as we are using Flash and a limited style of animation so i feel it's a good way to get to know the software.

I just wish they had brought me in sooner. Atronach was originally animating by drawing pictures and then finishing them in Photoshop. Basically, he was using the 'paint on glass' technique, but with Photoshop. Excruciatingly painful I thought, so I 'suggested' we stop that and use flash instead, because it is frankly smarter. That and the deadline is fast approaching.

On the upside though, the piece will be included in retrospective DVD for Amebix and we get to keep the rights to the animation. I thought that was pretty frigging rockin.

Well, now it's late and I have Tafe in the morning. So good night all, and don't let the bed Christians bite. (seriously, that shit hurts!)

IT HAS BEGUN!

And I said unto the masses; LET THERE BE ANIMATION!

uhh.... yeah, it felt appropriate to shout just now. Something about late nights and the internet.

So, a short premise about this peice. It was an exercise for Tafe and we animated 'Easy Man' (unfortunate name, yes) jumping in the air from the stand still. I wanted to go for some kinda 'ninja-esque' jump and that's why I had the initial one-foot landing. Anyway, if there is any feedback for this, lemme know.

Untill next time kids, adios!




Jumping excercise from Zac Seaton on Vimeo.

HELLo from HELL

WELCOME ONE AND ALL, to the very first post of my up and coming blog. This a project spawning from the depths of my current TAFE program and one I am somewhat enthusiastic about. I like this idea of leaving the animation students out in the virtual cold of the vast net-space with nothing but their animations to defend themselves. So far, I'm fighting unarmed...

Stay tuned for more idiosyncratic ramblings from this powerhouse of chaotic crap as I eventually post some damnable animation!