In which I have the urge to animate. In 3d. And realize I don't have any 3d software.

So I went to school and graduated a few years ago with a degree in Computer Animation. But I never did anything with it other than land jobs doing graphic design/illustration with short bouts of web animation.  Though I enjoy that, I miss telling stories and working on really big creative projects. Sure, I am working on becoming a children's book illustrator and developing my portfolio. I still miss all the 3d animation stuff I used to work on with others, and working with other artists.

I used to animate in Maya and Softimage, and even Lightwave - but when you don't touch the software for five years, you get super rusty. I don't have access to any of those so I'm downloading blender, which has been around for a while now. Its also opensource and there are LOTs of tutorials and rigged models to practice on.

Tonight, after doing all my other projects, I took time to read and watch some tutorials, download the software, and try to animate and render a really simple object. I'm happy to say that my little laptop managed to survive rendering (which has claimed many other computers I've used). At a 100 frames, with no story, it's not much to look at but it is a start.

I made an mpeg4 and converted it to a gif with some free software I found online. It sadly adds a watermark, but it doesn't matter in this case. Below is squaretest. Enjoy. It does get hypnotic if you watch it long enough.

Lent

It's that time of year when I focus on living life to the fullest, fasting, charity, and doing good in the world. I'd like to think I do this all the time but it helps having 40 days dedicated to it with a group of strangers and/or friends who are also sacrificing things and looking to do good in the world that they are part of.

This year I'm trying something really hard- giving up coffee. I've done this once before,a long time ago. I've come to rely on coffee for my day-to-day life. It's part of my daily routine, so ill be replacing it with water, and sometimes hot tea.

Next on my list is to do more productive things during Lent, and that includes dedicating myself to the things that I have a passion for or wanted to do. I have a tendency to get excited about an idea, start, and never finish.

During lent I'm going to amp up my routine to include 30 minutes of exercise daily.
I will animate something that I find fun and will share it.
I will work on a painting for a few weeks in a row.
I will finish unravelling my old scarf.
I will finish paintings that I got stuck on.

& I will do this all without coffee & share them as I progress through my project ideas.

Oh and since I'm trying to get ready for a marathon, I thought that today would be a great day to stop eating sweets. Gummy anything is my favorite, so I filled up today.

As for charity, I've set up my repeat donations for the year, and I'll try to spread the word about various charities and events that support my favorite charities as I hear about them.

Here's hoping that Lent will be productive!

Skiing weekend

Nick took me for a skiing weekend that turned out to be near Lake Geneva. I had mentioned wanting to go skiing a few times and we had an open weekend so we went. It was a lot of fun but its been a long time since I skied so I'm really sore. It was nice showing him all my favorite places in town. We went to kilwin's for ice cream the first day. Went to dinner at Tuscan (not soo tasty), went to the Grand Geneva for a crab leg buffet, and finished off with breakfast at Simple ( local source food and absolutely delish). Overall we enjoyed the weather and skiing, most of the food was awesome, and the people were really nice. Neat detail: the meters text you when your parking time is almost done and you can text them back if you need to add time! How cool is that?

I think my husband has a little OCD

This is what he does with tater tots...

7 Steps to a better mood

Some days it's harder to smile than others. Today I thought I was in a good mood but I was a super-ball of negativity and it quickly dragged me down.

Steps to get in a better mood:

1. Realize that what you're saying/doing is negative. STOP IMMEDIATELY. (this part is difficult)

2. Listen to happy music (I choose classical, and then the soundtrack to Amelie)

3. Figure out what might have caused bad mood. Learn and change it or change how you're perceiving it.
(still not determined, skip ahead)

4. Go for a walk. It is proven that exercise is not only good for you, but can improve your mood.

5. Do something you enjoy. And if possible, make it 'happy'. I chose to draw, and instead of drawing a sad bear, I drew a happy bear.

6. Do something productive. I figured out what I was going to do for mothers day. I figured out some more invitation paper we need and also ordered a bunch of tulle circles for the wedding.

7. Have some 'alone' time or 'friends' time. You'll know which you need, depending on your personality. In my case, sometimes its just best if I have some quiet time. If you need a friend though, make sure that you don't project your bad mood on them.

blogger/google change

Well then. It appears time doesn't stand still and everything changes eventually. Not sure how much I like this new update to blogger but I'm willing to adapt. I drew today, I walked 2 miles today, I even did some work AFTER work today. I feel like I've accomplished a bit - but still feel I can do MORE. Im not sure what that more is though. Hoping tomorrow's weather is better than today. Happy thoughts: 1. On my walk to work I saw a lot of nature, of the pleasant kind. It was like the sound of the wind in the trees was just for me. Seeing backlit clouds and dandelion puffs really wakes my imagination. 2. I read a bit more from one of my library books - the topic wasn't that much of interest to me today but I kept at it. (I'm always determined to read through a story even if I don't find it interesting or even if I find the subject kind - of revolting. What was the topic? Well, it was about fox hunting. Not many hunters in my family, but the one thing I've been disappointed to see dead is a fox. I'd like to see them more, with their bright red fur and white tuft of a tail. Much more interesting than coyotes. Sure they eat chickens, but they're creative about it, and they're not cruel about it like rats.) 3. I managed to wake up at 530 AM and feel rested. This is an improvement over the last few weeks. 4. This american life's episode today was touching. 5. I turned my frown upside down today 6. Mac'n cheese from a box is no longer sufficient, it DOES taste like cardboard. Think I'll stick to ramen noodles when I need a fix for junk-dinner-food.

Easter Part 2

Every family has it's own way of celebrating holidays. I get three different celebrations for EVERY holiday. One's full of kids, one's full of dogs, and the final one is full of old-world foods. All of them share one thing in common-family drama. This year's holidays were pretty good, food was plentiful, and nothing went too wrong.

The best part of Friday was finding a magazine all about Chicago at the doctor's office called "ECHO". Turns out it's produced by my alma matter. They had an article about a record store with an arcade museum in the back. I CANNOT wait to find time to go. If you want a preview of the types of games they have (free to play) check out this vimeo they posted:

Logan Hardware Teaser from Logan Hardware on Vimeo.

I've also found myself reading an online magazine that I came across accidentally a little bit ago called "The Hairpin". It's managed to sit itself in my browser toolbar. It's full of fun little articles ranging from personal recounts of daily life, fun makeovers, and opinions. You should read it now!