...I'll give myself a 6/10 so far. To sum up, I finished my Advanced Diploma/Bachelor's Degree in Animation course, my 3rd short film* (as part of the course), had a go of independent game development with the guys I did Dare to be Digital last year with, bailed on it and left them to it after 5 months**, tried to start a music video project, fell through*** and have instead begun putting together a new show-reel**** to hopefully get myself a steady job leading to some much needed experience and funds.

It's been a while since I posted last so as you can see a lot has happened. Right now I'm sitting in my parent's house in Rathcoole and I couldn't be happier with the way things have turned out. But before getting all sentimental. I'll go through each of the points I put a * after.

* I've posted images from the film here and on my blog but my college also put the film on-line. So here's a link to it [link]

** So I moved down to Thurles and had a go at independent game development. After the 5 months a number of things came to my attention regarding how I was feeling about the whole situation that effectively destroyed my enthusiasm. Without the enthusiasm there I just couldn't be bothered to do the work that was needed and would cringe internally any time an event was talked about where I would potentially have to tell people how awesome we are. In the end I came to the conclusions that it wasn't fair on the rest of the guys for me to stay there, moping about the place and potentially bringing them down by being miserable and that it wasn't healthy for me to not be as happy as I should be. The whole time I was down there my carry on was that I was a funny albeit harsh office curmudgeon but as the months went on I wasn't exactly joking any more even if it seemed otherwise. Nevertheless decided I would go back to the plan I had in mind for after college before Dare to be Digital ever happened. Get job, move out closer to the city, scene missing...

*** I had the idea of basically doing a music video which would effectively be another short film. Although being a bit thick instead of picking something handy I decided to pick a 10 and a half minute Deadmau5 song, simply because I had a few scenes in my head that I would see whenever I listened to the song. I figured there wouldn't be too much intense animation and that most of it would be repeated, edited and messed about with to give the impression that there was much more done. Sadly though, aside from one or two scenes which were say a minute long with very little going on, any part of the song which I suppose could be considered drops, would have 30 to 90 seconds of just empty space after all of my ideas were in. I attempted to fill this empty space but in that time I realised that this video would essentially mean staying at home, jobless for another 4 or so months which frankly I've done enough of over the last 5 years of college.

****So here I am now, working on a new show-reel and trying to get it done before the end of the year so I can call it a 2011 reel. Filled mainly with stuff from Peripheral, and a whole heap of animations of Team Fortress 2 characters. I found all of the rigs on-line, and although they do need a small bit of cleaning up, ie. adding controllers along with some extra bones and morphs targets, they are incredible fun to pose and animate. I've got the spy ready to go so far so I expect to have a few walk cycles and such done soon.

So yeah, it's been an interesting few months. Although I have to say the last 2 and half years really have been the oddest of my life since I basically have had so much external influence guide me towards certain things. I only applied for the Bachelor Degree because a friend said to give it a go, I recall almost failing assignments in the HND course I was in trying to get a portfolio together. It worked though and I ended up getting it, meeting THE BEST people I have ever known in my life in the class itself and through a few of people in the class.
Dare to be Digital was just 5 of us giving it a go, and I only got involved because of somebody from the aforementioned HND course getting in touch because he knew I was doing animation. We ended up going to Scotland, having an awesome time, meeting more crazy cool people, and then giving it a go ourselves after. All brilliant experiences which I will never forget.
It just seems so funny to me that every opportunity I've been given, be it College or work, and everyone I've met as a result, have only been offered to me after being urged in some way to just give it a go by somebody else and having a chaotic train of events happen after. Granted said opportunities were only offered because I had some ability that showed I wasn't completely incompetent. It's just interesting that it was always somebody else that pushed me to do it.

So here I find myself, having made my own choice to effectively start from scratch again. Creating a new Showreel to show I'm not completely incompetent at what I do, and just giving it a go. Although in this case I may have spurred on this certain chain of events, my future ultimately lies in the hands of others be they friends who know of opportunities or the people who will be looking at this newer show-reel. It's all uncertain, it's all unclear, no idea where I'm going to end up but alls I can say is. I can't wait to see how 2012 is going to pan out.