Into the frying pan ...

Wow, what an intense few weeks ...

Studio Opportunity

So I spent the last three weeks or so in a studio (which I won't name yet just because I haven't run it past them if they are okay about me blogging!). It was amazing and a great learning experience; I was definitely in at the deep end.

The experience was very helpful in clarifying where I am skills-wise and where I need to get to. Working in a production environment, with real timescales, pressures, clients, etc, really helped highlight the differences between the software and creative industries as well.

The key things that stood out boiled down into:

1. Basic practical things - e.g. learning on the latest version of a software package is not always the smart move as studios are generally not running on the bleeding edge.
2. Skills/speed - there's definitely a set of key skills which you need to be able to apply at speed in a production environment, some of which I need to polish.
3. Production timescales - creative industry project timescales are very very compressed compared to the software equivalent, making time management a totally different ball-game.

It was uber hectic last week, so there was no time for a proper debrief. But I should be catching up with them next week to talk through how it went. I've definitely got a lot to reflect and work on.

Micro-projects

The micro-projects were obviously on the back-burner whilst I was in the studio.

Since coming out of the studio, I've taken some time to revisit my previous V-Ray training and make sure I'm up to speed with multi-pass, matte shadows, linear workflows, etc, in V-Ray, as it's all slightly different from Mental Ray.

I'm currently reworking the 'Blobby' micro-project, in V-Ray, just to bed all the training in.

Houdini

I've decided to put all my Houdini training on-hold for the moment, in favour of rounding out my CG Generalist skills as much as possible.

That said, the first weeks of the GC Workshop Destruction in Houdini have been amazing. Really impressed with the quality of the teaching and tutor interaction. It's a real shame I won't be able to participate as much as I'd hoped.