A Hope Rekindled!

*starting now, every time I start I'll tell you what I'm listening to, so*
*Listening - Lord of the Rings Soundtrack, by Howard Shore, a phenomenal composer!*

DLF, a resource for Aussie Artists
Over the length of the weekend my whole idea on the world has once again skewed, in a good way I hope!

Recently I joined a mailing-list specifically for Australian CG artists (Digital Labourers Federation, site here) and after observing the posts for a few days I asked a question, and an overwhelming response!

Hello, I'm currently a Year 9 student. Been to two AEAFs (or as some of you refer to them, DMW Festivals) and have grown to love CG =)
I am using Blender (www.blender.org) and Maya PLE for my CG, and have had about 2 years experience now.

But, to my question =)
If you could restart your paths in CG and do it all over again, what would you do? What skills do you think employers would prefer to see in a prospective internship/student?

At the moment, my plan is to go on to Year 12, and then to try and pursue an internship (Rising Sun Pictures offer a 3 month paid internship which looked quite interesting). If I'm not at a high enough grade to get into an internship, I'm going to try and get tertiary education (I'm doing TAFE in my spare time at the moment) and go from there...

Anyway, I'd be thankful for any help you can give, and I'd like to say hi to you all =P

From this simple email, I got almost 20 responses, from people who do the major commercials and adverts for local TV stations and also from one of the artists at Digital Domain, who brought The Day After Tomorrow to life!

Of tertiary education
The weekend past I also went into the city to investigate one of the academies I am thinking of going to. So far it greatly interests me, as it can move from a grounding in all the essentials of a CG artist to a degree and diploma. Extremely expandable, and the institution itself is great!
The teacher himself also ended up being part of the AEAF Education Panel in 2002, and did something in 2003, although I'm not fully aware of it! =P From my short talks with him, I feel quite pleased, though in the end I do hope that I need not go down that route and merely get a job straight in the industry! lol (BTW, one of the best things he said to the group was 'And even if you don't chose to be a member of this course, I expect to see you as a fellow artist in the industry')

Of 'Art'
Occasionally I've been accused of acts of art =P Creativity, insanity, drawing, dancing (not so much, but what the hey) and the occasional form of writing *cough cough* Anyway!

This is for a short animation I'm planning! *WooT!* This is my own concept, and will feature a beautifully animated cuckoo bird as the clock's aforesaid owner.

Please note this is only a WIP, especially the base, and is more only a 3D concept of my 2D version!

And, as I promised myself, creativity exercises everytime I post (or at least every time I feel bothered!)
Today I'm going by a bit of a stranger method, go to Dictionary.com and browse the "Previous Word of the Day Archive". Grab some strange word you seem to like and go with it. I have chosen chicanery - The use of trickery or sophistry to deceive (as in matters of law)

Because of my love of Norse/Viking (both the same, just different names, prefer Norse personally) this reminds me heavy of Loki, the god of trickery! (funny old chap, quite evil and vicious in his own rights, and the cause of the worlds earthquakes [long story, don't worry] but overall lots of fun!)
I see him as a kind of crazy teen, a wicked smile on his face, with hair as if he'd been electrocuted during a 70s Disco [WooT! lol], sitting on a giant crate next to train tracks. He has one foot on the box, in a semi-crouch position, holding a rather large and important looking screw. In the background, smoke arises from a recent traincrash, obviously nothing to do with poor old Loki =P

I really like that idea =P Maybe I'll make a sketch on it! *hee hee hee*
Anyway, one more for tonight (really quick, my dad's trying to force me to bed, and is 'interested' in this... more of an annoyingly joking way of course, but hey, better than most fathers =P), one more word from Dictionary.com

didactic: conveying instruction; teaching some moral lesson

Well, my brain isn't quite kicking straight into gear with this one, so I'm going to go to strange old habbits. Now, my first idea was of a student sitting at the front of the class, feet up on a desk throwing a paper aeroplane around with a teacher stalked infront of a blackboard with the word on it 'RESPECT', but obviously that's a little too plain and simple... So, blackboard reminds me of water for some reason... (don't ask me why lol), water, dark, pain, red, sun, ... Well, I have teacher, student, blackboard, water, dark, pain, red, sun... Weird eh? lol
Okay, a teacher is standing at one side of a frame, scribbling mathematical equasions onto a blackboard, his hand a blur with speed, as all the environment to the left of the teacher begins to lose life and fades into a mere wireframe version of the world, with the formulae and equasions responsible for the beauty of nature overpowering the beauty of it all, while the student stares into a deep pond, among green plains and a beautiful sunset, avoiding all of the manifestations of the literary world and focusing specifically on the beauty infront of him, not the one found in books, written by those who have never explored it...

Well, so much for short and simple lol. Not as good as my first one personally, but it at least has a deeper philosophical grounding, although strange in the abstract =)

Good night, and remember, Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil =)
(not my own quote, but don't you love it! lol)