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About Me Member Digital Artist Shikoshen21/Male/United States Recent Activity Deviant for 4 Years
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:Between spring and fall:

Sun Jul 15, 2007, 11:33 PM
  • Mood: Sunny Mood
  • Listening to: Wavorly - Conquering the Fear of Flight
  • Reading: C.S. Lewis - The Great Divorce
  • Watching: Summer movies
  • Drinking: Lemonade and Iced Tea
Ah summer.
It's usually always so nice to me.
But I feel the need to update this thing...it kinda sucks to leave my devart journal to waste for months at a time. I hate to do that actually, but school and work always get in the way.
Well, in a rollercoaster ride of a couple months, lots of things can change. In this I specifically mean my outlook on life and the career choices i thought I really had solidified.
Funny what one class can do to really make a guy consider what he really wants to do. Long story short, instead of the straightforward computer animation career I said I would pursue until now, I've decided that a larger focus on 2d design was what I wanted. I realized that my need to physically draft and design and conceptualize was something that I could never replace with anything. Perhaps I won't completely give up on CGing, but it most likely won't be first in line.
I guess the fight between doing what you love and doing lucrative work continues...

Ecclesiastes 5:18
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot.


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Devious Info

  • Current Residence: NYC! The big rotten apple...
  • Interests: Art, Movies, Video Games, Sports, Animation
  • Favourite movie: The Matrix Trilogy, Spiderman 2, The Passion
  • Favourite genre of music: Whatever sounds good...
  • Favourite artist: God, Stanley Lau, All Final Fantasy artists, Andy Kubert
  • Favourite poet or writer: Madeline L'Engle, Terry Goodkind, C.S. Lewis
  • Favourite style of art: Line-work, Comics, digital painting and illustration
  • Operating System: A Dell dude! And Windows XP (should have a Mac, right?)
  • MP3 player of choice: Creative Zen!
  • Favourite game: Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, Sonic.... , Almost Every Final Fantasy
  • Favourite gaming platform: Playstation. Dreamcast. Gamecube. Nuff' said
  • Favourite cartoon character: Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Personal Quote: "I draw, therefore I am."
  • Tools of the Trade: Mechanical pencils, Micron pens, and a Tablet PC

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:w00t: :dance: :cake: !!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!! :cake: :dance: :w00t:

It's July 5th which means it's your special day. Hoping you have a fantastic birthday, get some nice gifts and generally get to enjoy it lots.

All the best and much love from the birthdays team to you :hug:

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Birthdays Team
This birthday greeting was brought to you by: @diamond281
Happy birthday! :D

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I am . . . me. Live with it.
:iconfurryballoonsplz: :icongigglecake: :party: Happy Birthday :party: :icongigglecake: :iconfurryballoonsplz2:
:iconblankspace-plz::iconblankspace-plz::iconblankspace-plz::iconblankspace-plz::iconweekenddanceplz:

:iconcakelickplz: :iconcarameldansenplz: :icondweebdanceplz: I wish you the best today :icondweebdanceplz: :iconcarameldansenplz: :iconcakelickplz:
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Instead of counting candles,
Or tallying the years,
Contemplate your blessings,
As your birthday nears.

Consider special people
Who love you, and who care,
And others who’ve enriched your life
Just by being there.

Think about the memories
Passing years can never mar,
Experiences great and small
That have made you who you are.

Another year is a happy gift,
So cut your cake, and say,
"Instead of counting birthdays,
I count blessings every day!"


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Love that lives in the heart cannot be so easily terminated by time. Even though the encounter is brief its impression shall last a lifetime. No one can change the direction of love that lives in the heart. If you have loved that in itself is the answer.
:wave: Hi there! And...


:spotlight-left:HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!:spotlight-right:



:excited: Hope you have a great one! :excited:

Here's some cake for you- :iconcaekplz:


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Well, SCAD's animation program isn't very good if you want to pursue feature film level character animation. It's getting better now that there are a few new professors, but I haven't seen any work that's been done here that would stop me from recommending AnimationMentor over SCAD. To me, simply seeing the extreme difference in the quality level of the work coming from the two would be enough for me to make my decision. If AM had existed before I started SCAD, I never would have come here. Lol, plus is MUCH cheaper than going to SCAD. XD

Both mediums have their pros and cons. To me, 3d animation is easier than 2d because I don't have to worry about not being able to draw something well enough to get my performance across. At the same time, I feel like 2d is much more free than 3d since you're not limited by a 3d rig. You can do whatever you want in 2d since you're drawing. Another hurdle in 3d is learning the software and how to use the graph editor. Once you've got that, I think 3d is much easier to do. Then again, if you have amazing draftsmanship then 2d might be easier. Animation is animation though, and the process is essentially the same for both mediums. They just each have their own technical challenges to overcome.

Disney and other large studios have stopped producing 2d animation for the most part because the suits in charge believe 2d is dead. They think people want to see 3d films simply for the sake of it being 3d, which isn't true. People stopped going to see 2d because the stories for the last few Disney films weren't up to par with their previous films, whereas Toy Story had a great plot and thus attracted more people. Now that Lasseter is in charge of Disney, they've reopened their 2d department. Disney is currently working on Princess and the Frog, which is being done in 2d. Hopefully the 2d department is here to stay, as 2d has a level of charm that 3d lacks. Plus 2d animation is a beautiful art form which would be terrible to lose.

SCAD has 2d and 3d, whereas AM is mainly 3d. Like I said, animation is animation though. I'd go to AM if you want to do 3d and if you really want to do 2d I highly recommend going to CalArts instead of SCAD. The majority of the artists working at Disney have come from CalArts.

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-Jocelyn

Visit my portfolio site, please: [link]
sry for takin so long to reply!

Thanks for all your help in getting my priorities straight art school-wise. You rock, ms. elipse! I saw the Princess and The Frog trailer and i must say, it looks beautiful. Thank Lasseter indeed. Well, I gotta say im really starting to lean towards 2d in terms of what I want to focus on. Particularly since you mentioned amazing draftmanship, which is my first and foremost strength in art, i wanna do it! But at the same time im wondering if its possible to study both...
cuz man, what about everything else out there, game character art and animation, motion picture f/x,etc...
anyways thanks again for all ur help..CalArts huh? and im still considering scad only cuz its just so darn appealing! I mean, i dunno if u know about other art schools, but i haven't seen any other schools out there that have as much of a student life that scad offers. Its actually a real university with a real campus and everything...:drool:

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:highfive:
No problem. I'm glad I could help. You can study 2d and 3d animation at SCAD. It really is the same thing, just different mediums though. I believe if you can do one, you can do the other once you learn the technical aspects (software or drawing). What student life are you talking about that SCAD has? I ask because CalArts, Ringling, and AAU all have campuses as well. I'm just wondering why SCAD's is so appealing. The school doesn't have an actual campus either, all of the buildings are spread throughout the city.

What kind of animation you get to do in the industry is up to you and how good your work is. Feature film and film vfx are the most difficult to get into since the work is so good. Most people usually start off at a commercial, television, or game studio and work their way up. It all depends on you want to do. I personally dont want to work in anything but feature animation, so I've been focusing on things feature studios look for. That's one reason why AM's so great. They really focus on acting and creating feature quality work. Lots of SCAD animators end up going to game studios, or broadcast studios like Cartoon Network. A few get into Rhythm&Hues, but most SCAD 3d animators end up in games and work their way up.

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-Jocelyn

Visit my portfolio site, please: [link]
Oh, are you at Atlanta or Savannah? I'm wondering which one I should apply to...also, CalArts doesn't appear to have an actual animation program, but it just shows an "Art" Degree program...and i saw that scad had intervarsity sports teams as well. But i definetly will check out Ringling in florida and AAU. I am into saving money if i can. I would really love to have a campus with things to do when you aren't studying and practicing course material.
Yeah i definetly share the same sentiments on that...i would want to work on nothing less than feature animation. Am I wrong to assume that those are the studios that pay the most? :D

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:highfive:
Sorry for the slow replies. It's crunch time with my senior project as this quarter draws to an end. I'm at the Savannah campus. The Atlanta campus is all in one building, whereas in Savannah the city is the campus. Calarts offers a BFA in character animation. [link] You can check out also check out a bunch of the student's work on their school of film and video page. SCAD has some sports teams. I know it has equestrian, lacrosse, baseball, and I think basketball. There isn't any football though. They don't have football because they don't want students to get hurt and sue the school, though I imagine getting kicked by a horse would do more damage than getting tackled, lol. Once you start your animation classes you wont have very much free time anymore. The successful animation students (there are a lot of slackers) pretty much live at Montgomery Hall (animation building).

Animation is very demanding, especially if you want t be good enough for feature work upon graduation, which in itself is rare. There's a huge amount of competition for jobs, especially feature film work. At one point, Pixar received over 11,000 reels when they posted a position for three animators. Remember that your work will be up against work from AnimationMentor, Ringling, AAU, Goeblins, CalArts and thousands of other schools in addition to other professionals once you start applying for full time work.

I'm not sure if feature animation pays the most. I've heard junior animators can start with $30k-$50k salaries depending on where you work. I do know, that animators aren't rich. People seem to think they make a lot of money but that's not the case. They make enough to live comfortably, but they're not payed any more than a "normal" career. Lol, if you want lots of money become a lawyer. =P Anyway, doing animation for the money if the wrong thing to do. You'll get burned out very quickly if that's why you're doing it because of the huge amount of work that the field requires. You can expect to be in crunch times that require you to work anywhere from 80-150(150 being the most extreme case) hours a week for at least a month. So if you're not animating out of real passion for the art, then you'll definitely be burned out.

I'm not trying to sound harsh or mean, but I'm just letting you know how the industry works so you'll know what to expect.

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-Jocelyn

Visit my portfolio site, please: [link]

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