In case anyone has missed the announcements for the Gnomon Master Class workshops:
http://www.gnomonschool.com/master/
Many great looking workshops there. They even lost their minds and let me create two mental ray / 3ds Max workshops. (seriously, I feel completely out of place there with such "real" talent).
FWIW, here are a few renders from my workshop scenes:
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I was very fortunate in that
http://toddd.cgsociety.org/gallery/ allowed me to use two of his scenes for the class (the restaurant interior & the antler/lemons scenes). He really saved me some time as all I had to do was texture/light those puppies, so a huge "THANK YOU" to Todd.
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With that out of the way, I wanted to give an update to my August 27th blog entry. In that entry I mentioned how I may have to walk away from 3d due to the piss-poor economy. Well, obviously I'm still hanging around.
I wanted to first say THANK YOU to everyone that has offered their support & kind words. As we all know, the economy certainly isn't any better today than it was back in August. I've been able to pick up a few jobs here and there that has kept me going longer than I expected. Also, I'm thankful to the guys (Ryan & Alex) at Gnomon/Gnomonology for allowing me to create videos for Gnomonology and including me in the Master Classes/workshops.
Several younger artists fresh out of college or still in college (damn, that made me sound old!) have contacted me since my August 27th post saying things like "I guess there's no hope for a new artists then?"...I'd like to make sure I'm not discouraging ANYONE from pursuing their passion/dreams here. Do NOT be discouraged, there ARE jobs out there for artists of all kinds.
My situation is somewhat unique to me because at this point in my life I'm simply not able to relocate to where there are job opportunities for me. Of course the economy also played a huge role in my situation, but if I were able to relocate...things would be fine.
Why can't I relocate? I have a family to consider. My wife truly enjoys her job, my daughter likes the area here and she's still in grade school. My parents are getting older and I want to be close by to help them out however I can. In a nutshell, I have to consider more than just my own wants/desires. Perhaps that's too much personal info, but it is what it is.
At any rate, don't be discouraged by my situation. Keep following those dreams and IMHO if you're a capable artist that is able to relocate to where the opportunities are, you shouldn't have any problems finding work these days.
