Details are sketchy

Ever have one of those moments when you realise just how little free time you really have. Lately I've been having a lot of these. Looking through my 3rd year Univeristy timetable, I have a total of 12 hours in lectures and semesters each week, which really doesn't sound like a lot but I can assure you it's exhausting. They say that you are meant to do two hours of work outside of Uni for every hour in so that's 36 hours in total. Yeah, a lot, but i'm probably (well definitey) not doing this much and I really should be.

I don't mean to say this isn't fun in any way because I'm enjoying every minute of it but honestly, with my leap into the industry only two years away and my level of knowledge in Animation still so limited, it's a little daunting.

Alongside this, I'm currently studying French, which is going great. I'm starting to be able to understand whole chunks of writing and listen to tv shows and films and good grip on what's happening. I've honestly been slacking a bit when it comes to this though, with my inteded amount being an hour of French exercises a day, but lately i've been too swamped to do this. So I make do with listening to Smallville or a movie in French language in the background or with English subtitles when I'm having a break. It's a really fun way to do it and has helped the speed of my comprehension, to say I can understand things that before were much too fast to follow.
This blog seems really rushed and I'll probably hate how it sounds in the morning but it's gone midnight and I'm tired, been to see The Social Network (which by the way is a great movie) with my friends after class and I just want to sleep. Another thing I've been going crazy for lately is the Animation Podcast, which everyone who's a fan of aniamtion should check out. Animators for Disney and other great studios talking about their experiences in some of the best animated films of all time. Great listen. Ok, I'm going to listen to some more of these and go to sleep, up early for more work (on my day off) wooo!

Back again. So recently I followed a user on Twitter that tweets quotes that are by people who meant them to be inspirational and the majority of them are. Some are not so. But one in particular stood out to me and really made me think a day or two ago.

"You are what you think about all day long." - Dr. Robert Schuller

Then it occured to me. I've always had my heart set on working in the games industry and it was probably in agreat part due to my uncle's career. He has always worked in the video games industry and is now the president of Rockstar Leeds. I have been there for work experience over the years and really enjoyed the small amount of time I had there; the people are great and the place they work has such an atmosphere with people workin together and all getting along. I aimed my work in the direction of the arts and always used computers, always getting good grades in my other subjects but for most of my school time doing much better at art and design. Although my uncle found his way into the indusrty fairly easy, making some lucky breaks without any of the necessary qualifications you have to attain nowadays, I was always told and figured out for myself that I needed to work hard to get to the place he was at. Money, accomplished in the field and he had everything that I wanted to have to. It never really occured to me that there was another path I wanted to go down and as I was such a big fan of computer games I focused on this. I took Animation (which I am currently studying) as I was told that the broad set of skills they would teach me would translate into many fields (they haven't taught us these skills yet...). But this is one thing I am really glad of. If I had taken Games Design I would have limited myself to a career that I have recently had doubts about. I would never say never to working in the Games industry as there are some incredible artists and animators working in that field and their advice and that experience would be invaluable, and I would love doing this for a few years. But since I have drifted more and more away from games and more towards my love of Television and film, TV in particular, I have realised Games are not the way I want to go in life. This quote really resonated with me, made me think.

If "You are what you think about all day long." then I am film, television, animation.

I am films. The writing; scripts, ideas and even the philosophies and depths behing the ideas in these series. Even more so the visual effects, the CG modelling, texturing, integration of the whole process and above all the opportunity to work on a long running project that allows for a new piece of work each few weeks to work on. This is where I really want to work and from now on I have decided to put everything into finding out about this career choice and doing everything I can to make myself employable in this industry. Films and television are my biggest hobby and I have a never-ending list of shows I am watching, analysing and wanting to work on.

I've decided to get organised and it's working! I'm making strides in learning French, finally understanding it much better and alhough slowly, my 3D modelling work is coming along too. But a real downside to this week is that my boss (oh how I hate her sometimes..) has given my so many shifts that I have barely any time to do all this work. I don't like working there but hey, I have to start saving for next semester so I can live now my rent's going up.. It'll be worth is one day! I'm sure of it :) But for now, I'm going to relax and draw a picture of Jessica from True Blood, should look awesome.

Night all