Welcome

This past year I've felt stagnant.  I've been in video games at the same company (Double Fine Productions) for 7 and a half years.  I started when I was 19 and haven't really done anything else.  It has always been exciting and fulfilling but it has started feeling a lot more like a job.  Like work.  I equate it to feeling like I'm not growing, or not working on my own ideas and always putting my soul into the visions of others. Not to mention that I feel like everyone around me loves video games a lot more than I do.  It could also be that I've always wanted to work on music videos or films (short or feature length).  In short, I need a change.  I've decided to start on some projects that I've been ignoring for years.  I figure if I'm still interested in working on an idea that inspired me several years ago, it's a good sign that I need to push toward it.  My hope is that with some initial documented momentum I'll be less prone to listen to that part of me that gives up.  That's where this blog comes in.


This blog is a progress diary for a music video I've had in mind for the song "This Could Be Beautiful (It Is)" by Metronomy.  I haven't touched this for over 2 years, and all I have from back then is a few sketches and a writeup of the idea.  I can see 90% of the video in my head already, clear as day.  I'll dig those pages up and post them as a starting point, but the next thing I want to do is plan out the work involved and the time I think it will take to complete each task.


The other thing I'd like to do is make the switch from Maya to Blender.  Mainly because it's free and open source, but also because it looks like an amazing piece of software and it's growing so quickly these days.  I've been using Maya for almost 10 years now and it's the only 3D package I've ever really worked in. There are things in blender that make SO much sense to me, and others that make me wonder wtf they were thinking making software that ignores the way other software packages have been doing things for years.  Which, maybe it's for the best, but right now learning blender for me is like relearning how to walk.  It's extremely frustrating to know that you can do something in Maya so fast, and you have to take a step back and relearn that muscle memory for every single tiny operation.  I guess I haven't done much of this relearning a massive 3D program yet.  While I think it's extremely valuable to add a free 3D package to my skill set, it's going make jumping in and being creative really difficult.  I'll be tracking my progress with thoughts and suggestions for blender, coming from my Maya background.