It’s been a hectic couple of weeks. I’ve been helping out newbies as they need a place to stay while they find places of their own. This works out well for me as I don’t like the idea of roommates, however I noticed that I’m not saving anything or paying down my debt due to expenses, which means that I may very well have to bite the bullet. Or really try hard at getting commission work.

I had a serious discussion with our new director and came to the conclusion that my portfolio needs an overhaul. Pretty much everything that’s there needs to be gone. I’m sad to see all of my hard work be essentially called crap, but he seems to have loads of confidence that I can do better. I wish I had the same confidence.

Basically he left me with this. I have 8 months before I leave (or before he’ll hook me up with one of his contacts). In this time I should be able to fine tune two major skills. So he says to me – choose a Major and a Minor. Choose what you are good at and what you love to do. Versatility is great but I’ll never become a Master since I’m spreading myself too thin. If you’re good enough you don’t have to worry about work.

I chose 3D modelling (though I need to chose a secondary skill to this) and Concept Art. It’s what I WANT and what I LOVE.

Zbrush – and promptly tossed it in a corner until I get tutorials on it. I don’t find it very intuitive and I don’t think that my brain works like that of a sculptor

Maya – This is industry standard. If I can work this one I should be able to work 3ds Max. I’ve done a few things with it, but I really ought to focus on modeling instead of animation

3ds Max – got a copy just this week. No tuts on it yet, so I’ll focus on Maya

BGs – I bought a ton of books on architecture to help me not only learn, but to visualize and build my BGs (through practice of course.)

Anatomy – got a bunch of books given to me. Will follow up with that.

All in all I’m trying to put in an hour a day for drawing until it becomes a habit again.