So I’ve been working two jobs for a while now, with little to no time for my art or a social life.  I can pay my bills and eat my dinner, then go work some more.  I’m berated daily about my life choice, my artistic career and whether or not I’ll be getting married soon.  Everyone around me seems to be looking at their watch and reminding me that I need to get a move on, lest I find myself years down the road with nothing to show for my college eduction.  Contrary to seemingly popular belief, this behavior does not help me in this struggling time.

Everyone always has the answers to the problems that are not their own.  “Why don’t you move to California and work for Pixar? Or Florida and work for Disney?”  I have applied to both aforementioned studios with no response and I highly doubt going to these places and assaulting them with my resume in person will convince them of my caliber.

But, being a persistent optimist, I find myself enjoying my work and finding artistic inspiration regardless.  A colleague and I were sweeping floors and remarking on the amount and size of the dust bunnies we happened to be evicting.  This lead us into a discussion about how cute actual dust bunnies would be and how terrified they would look at us destroying their home.  I’ve since then added the “Dust Bunny” character onto my list of things to do, since I think it would be a good challenge to make a character who is not quite solid, not quite dirt, and not quite cute.

These kinds of ideas are what keep me going.  Maybe it’s not progress, but it at least keeps reminding me that I love what I do, and that someday I’ll turn that into the best job in the world.

~Sarah Keeps the Flame Burning

A small news update, I’ve made rough boards of both Carl and Scribble.  I’ve also started rough character sketches of all of the above.  Hopefully I can get critiques and polish them to get going into more pre-production work.  I’ve also written up a rough outline of my possible thesis, which has been posted.  It’s nothing great yet, just general ideas I’ve thought about discussing in depth.  More to come, as always.

~Sarah

With winter fast upon me, I’ve begun thinking about all the projects I’ve had to put off in the recent months because of more pressing concerns.  People keep reminding me that I’ve not succeeded in my field yet, and it just serves to depress me further.  I have so much that I want to do, and no time in which to accomplish it.   I have two jobs that pay my bills and allow me to buy presents for the holiday season, but also require me to work 50+ hours a week with several 12 days.   This leaves little room for art and much room for criticism.   Regardless, I hope to have time during the holiday to start sketching out some ideas and perhaps starting putting down my Thesis on the computer.  (I have not mentioned this yet but I hope to write a thesis concerning modern media and child development)  The main thing at this point is to keep reminding myself that I will never get anything accomplished without the will to accomplish it, and to not lose hope when it comes to my dreams.  (Which may seem far more like dreams than reality at some points. ) To all those out there who are starting to feel the sting of lost hope, take heart! You must not give up on yourself, that is when you become truly lost.

~Sarah Believes

I’ve been working two retail jobs to keep up my income as of late.  Leaving me very little time for professional work of any sort.  I’ve been tooling around with my Nintendo DSi’s “Flipbook” application on my lunch break and it has inspired me to do a new animation about one of my 2D pieces.  It’s the creature titled “Carl” and I want to hand draw/animate him in flash I think.  I hope to start storyboading soon, maybe the end of this week.  Other than that, I’ve seen the movie “9″ and really loved it.  Maybe it’s just me but I really felt a connection with it.  :D  Maybe someday I can be involved with a project like that.  Here’s hoping!

~Sarah, Still At It~

The problem I’m having with my quadraped rig is that, after putting all controls under the master control, when I rotate on the Y or Z axis the entire rig does not rotate together.  I believe it has to do with the IK spline I used for the spine of the character.  Something about clusters doesn’t want them to rotate nicely.  I’m trying to add rig buffers between them, their controls and the master control, but so far I’ve had no luck.  At this rate, rebuilding the spine may be my only option.

~Sarah is rigged up~

Well it’s out there.  I’ve sent my resume and information to several small companies, medium ones and a few big wigs of the animation world.  As I suspected, none are offering full time positions at this time.  Several offered me freelance if they got some in, which is cool.   Next up is to find a regular job while I work on my projects on the side.  I was thinking of waitress for a change.  I always feel like a superhero when I do this XD  Waitress by  day, animator by night!  Silly but amusing.  Next up on the project list is to fix up Zaber and Audrey and start the modeling on Brook.  High ho silver!

~Sarah to the rescue

So the website is finally complete and up to date.  I’m doing last minute checks for spelling errors and link mess-ups, but other than that, it’s ready to go.  The next step is to contact all the places that I’d like to work at XD  I’ve got cover letters written up (which also need last minute checks) for each as well as phone numbers set up for follow up calls etc.  It’s always a little intimidating to call companies, especially when you have a lot of them to call.  But I find that calling, not to pressure, but to make a more personal touch to a resume, usually helps.  Wish me luck!

~Sarah is on the move

Whoa!  Hi there!  This is the first post for my new website; “The Next Generation Technical Designer”.  :D   My name is Sarah King-Malin, age 23, and recent graduate of Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Arts.  I’m one of those people that specializes in the things that no one else likes to do, mainly the technical side of animation.  I like to rig, the weirder the better, to weight and unwrap UV’s.  This new site is going to be where I upload my personal and professional projects (Though there’s more of the former than the latter for now XD ) so check back periodically for new content.  ^.^

~Have a great Day,

Sarah Out ~