It's really been over a year ..... criminy

Well, it's been a year since I've updated this blog. Nothing much really to tell. I was a QA tester at EA for almost 10 months. Then my contract expired (thank you California for assinine laws that cause people to lose their jobs instead of keep them). Anyway, I've been on downtime since the first of May. I've been working on my portfolio, or at least trying to. A collapsing desk can really take a week out of your time. Especially when you have to build the new one yourself. Anyway, I'm getting some new work together for my reel. I've got some blocking I've done on one shot I didn't get to finish last year before I started at EA, and I've got animatics up for a couple of other shots I have ideas for. Check em out (for whoever reads this, and let me know what you think. My email is on my website. And the shots can be found here .... http://www.brettdavisanimator.com/BD_Anim_Portfolio_Anim_WIP.html ... and take a look around at the rest of my site and also let me know what you think. I'm going to get some more drawings up here soon. And by soon, after I get the animation done which will hopefully be towards the end of July.

Job .... FOUND!

Well, people's, since it's been a while since I last posted, but I finally found myself a job. It's not the dream animation job yet, but hopefully it will open some doors that way.

Last monday I started training as a QA Tester at EA. And this week I started my first week as a tester. I was put on the Sims 3 project for PC, but was quickly moved an hour later to My Sims: Kingdom on the Wii. HA HA.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to it. I think it will be tons of fun. It's cool to get to be a part of something big. To be part of it's creation. Cool stuff.

And like I said, hopefully it opens up that door to animation. If I have to do a little prying I will. Not be annoying though.

Later

Job hunting ...

So, for those that do drop by and read stuff about me every once in a while. I'm doing the job hunt thing right now. That's the gist of it. I've applied at several places. Actually I've applied for several positions at EA. Which they just changed their Job board page and none of the positions I have applied for are on the new page. That may change though, because there's a lot of stuff from the old EA Job board that didn't translate over to the new board yet. Who knows. Basically I've applied for like 6 positions at EA. 4 Animator positions, Assistant Designer, and QA Tester. The last one is an in the meantime job. Hopefully that pans out if nothing else does because at least I'm around what I love doing.

I also applied for Pixar's summer internship, I submitted my resume to Dreamworks, Crystal Dynamics, The Orphanage and accidentally applied for a Character Artists at LuscasArts ... that one was accidental as I was just trying to create a profile on their job board page and clicked the wrong button without realizing it. So, that's where I'm at right now.

I've not heard from anyone really at the moment. Which seems normal and yet, in some way is still discouraging. Even though some positions I applied for about a week ago. And I'm saying this to myself as much as others. Keep your chin up cause it will happen. It may take awhile. Because we're the fortunate/unfortunate ones of wanting to work when stuff is much more specialized. Fortunate because then we get to focus on what we love doing and we really don't have to "know" it all. We don't have to be able to model, texture, rig, animate and tweak renders. And that's a good thing, because it allows us to focus on what we want to do. It's also unfortunate because so do 35,000 other people.

As I've been told it's a small community, and close knit. So make friends. Anyone I've made friends with so far are good guys and they lay it to you straight. But it's small. And hopefully it continues to grow. Because as it remains small the more competitive it is. Which is a good thing, it's not bad that it's competitive because it keeps us all on our toes trying to do our best.

So again, as I type this to myself and others. Keep going. If this is truly your dream, then you'll succeed at it at some point. The best animators and storytellers all started in the same place.

So NOW I'm really up and running ... *crosses fingers*

Alright, so if you're reading my post, you've probably clicked on the link and saw a bright white page that said domain name for sale $246 ... contact me.

Well, obviously, the guy I tapped to design my website decided to pull my site down. It's a long story, and to paraphrase it ... moral of the story, be very careful about working with friends of friends or their siblings. It often does not work out. And in my case it didn't. I'm not going to broadcast all the details, but I feel I got the short end of the stick on this deal.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, NOW ... I am up and running. Links and everything seem to be working on my end. If you visit my blog please check out my site and let me know what you think. Thanks.

The NEW address is .... www.brettdavisanimator.com ... that's animator ... not animation.

Thanks again. :)

Well now we're starting to cook with some gas

Ok, so my new and improved website is finally up and runng. Check it out and let me know what you think. Those of you that read this blog. Hopefully someone out there in the wide world of animation or just the wide world period reads it. HA HA HA

Anyway, I basically redid the site myself. I'd not used Dreamweaver before and was suprised at how easily I picked it up. For those of you animators out there, I strongly recommend, if you are in school, get an educational version of Dreamweaver or Studio MX .... it will save you many hassles in the long run, especially having someone other than you design your website, and then decide it's not all that important to have it up and running when you need it up and running. It's easy. Work in design view, and make use of layers.

The website is ... http://www.brettdavisanimation.com/ .... check it out. Let me know what you think. Thanks alot.

... P.S. .... I know I changed my image up top and it's huge and obnoxious. Bear with me while I change it. :)