Plans for 2011

It's a new year full with new ideas and new adventures.  Looking back I see that each year has brought new opportunities and challenges that force me to break out of my mold and further define me as an artist.  Although my passion for movies and special effects really began way back in the mid 90's, my first real adventure was in 2006 when I was brought on to edit a short film.

But what's next?  If you asked me in 2006 what I would like to be doing in 2011 I'm pretty sure it would be completely different.  This whole adventure has been organic and evolving into something that I really couldn't see coming.

Right now I have two developing fields, motion graphics and visual effects.  Both have been a ton of fun an provided an extensive and unique set of challenges.  I still struggle with creating solutions to my own problems, so, learning is still a big part of 2011.  But recently I've been able to find my way out on my own a couple times.

Like with re-designing the logo on my Angler.digital website.  The challenge came from Nick Campbell over at his blog Greyscalegorilla to create a curved text, and I was able to accomplish this all by myself.  Albiet completely different and inefficient compared to Nick's methods, but I was able to do it!

And recently I've been working on a TRON logo, which the font is not available (the long T that curves into the top of the R does not exist in any available TRON font).  So I had to create it manually by outlining splines in and around the actual TRON logo that I got online and creating booleans from them and extruding them.  Texturing the logo has been a lot of work, but I believe it's very close to the actual logo.  Not to mention trying to figure out how to apply a rounded corner with splines, that was tricky!


TRON: LEGACY Logo Test from Dave Spooner on Vimeo.

Being self-reliant is extremely important to my career because it means that I am understanding the programs and being logical in my decisions and problem-solving.  I know that I will never be completely self-reliant, that would just be impossible.  But not relying 100% on online tutorials means that my creativity is blooming.  And being creative, as we all know, stems from knowing how to hide your sources :).

I just got in contact with Ryan today, and he wants a promo video to help demo his sound design.  I'm very looking forward to working with this guy because he does a lot of sound design nationally and can possibly be a source of paid work this year.  So creating a working relationship with him is important this year.

Here's to 2011, hopefully the year of the first paid gig!