Summarizing a lifetime is no easy task, thank goodness my passion was linear.
Cable TV was my religion and my preacher was Mtv. The media arts was a strong field and digital arts was booming. As an aspiring young artist I always wondered how most of the magic was done. Internet wasn't a thing yet, VHS cassette was the only way to get behind the scenes footage and see the tricks of the trade, watching how involved prop building and VFX we're, I realized it would take a lifetime of dedication to be as good as the pro's. In hindsight, It was very discouraging looking at large budget productions at the time knowing I most likely would never be stepping foot in a large production myself.
My parents new nothing of this industry and both urged me to continue with high school and work a normal job to find an occupational skill with some form of financial stability. I knew the beaten path was not my direction. In high school, I would draw in all my classes to get my illustration skills up. as a result, my grades would suffer. All my free time was dedicated to art and I would also draw during detention. Both parents where opposed to my dreams and goals, in high school my parents pretty much gave up on my education since punishing me in any conceivable way wouldn't work. I don't blame them. There was no amount of summer school that would make up for my grades...
Video games became the new dominating media, from transition from digital cartridges to cd roms, memory was cheap and gamers were paying. At this point I realized the demand for art was huge. Artist may have been a dime a dozen, but a lot of artists were now employed. I knew I had to be a part of this industry, "BUT HOW!"
Teaching an old dog new tricks...
Anime, Graphic Novels, and Music was my muse. It kept my drive to pursue my passion. After joining the military as a Machinery Repairman, working civilian machinist jobs as well as regular laborious factory jobs and had a decade of hard knock life under my belt, I found myself at the age of 34. I realized I still yearned for artistic release. I finally decided to go to a school of arts, spoiler alert, It's a waste of money. The five main things I took out of game arts was
To learn
How to draw, kind of fundamentally unavoidable if you are creating a characters. Fortunately I knew how to draw before I got in.
Use of a graphic editor, it is a time saver for quick alterations on character development. You can use Photoshop which will cost you some greenbacks and is primarily used for photo manipulation
Or you can go the open source way and use www.krita.org ( Your welcome ) Krita is an art program forged with the artist in mind. So if you do a lot of hand drawings you may find Krita to be a bit more useful.
Can't learn without the tools, CGI tools are expensive, unless you are in an institution that pays a license or monthly subscription for the use of such programs or just straight out rich and can afford to learn on renowned top tier programs! You will not be able to take the stairway to heaven, with exception of one open source program called "BLENDER" from www.blender.org ( your welcome again ) although Blender is free, do not underestimate the power nor the tools this program possesses. Sponsored and utilized by deep pocket businesses and studios, a lot of companies in the industry are recognizing blender as an industry standard. Not to mention has a huge following and community of dedicated users.
YouTube.com is your professor, You will have endless tutorials and several personalities more than willing to show you the use of your programs. All that is needed is for you to type the question you are looking for and bam!! Scroll till you find what you're looking for, guaranteed satisfaction!!! And if you are feeling charitable, maybe you yourself will contribute some know how to the collective noobs and produce a YouTube video or two.
Drawing tablets saves wrists, and time. Wacom makes some nice high quality yet inexpensive drawing tablets currently that include Bluetooth tech so you don't have to trip over a chord and bust your investment up and curse the art gods "OHHH the HUMANITY!!!". There are other art tablets out there. but I have never used them. So for now I am kind of biased till another brand happens to drop in my hand and wins me over.
Now you have saved yourself $80,000.00 (your very welcome)
After gathering resources and knowledge it was only a matter of time that I would be able to navigate blender with an inquisitive proficiency and discover things that YouTube tutors wouldn't cover. Mind you this is with dry periods off and on the program managing family life and job.
When I started using Blender, I always wanted to do something original for myself, but! My idea became a back burner Idea after watching AKIRA! something in my bones told me to revisit this era of Anime and to revitalize this movie, keep it current and true. From the words of Katsuhiro Otomo from an interview, I was inspired to bring his Idea full circle into an actual reality.
I will go more in depth in the future and give time lines and cross references. (Hopefully in a video)
The current project I am working on is based on everything AKIRA, I'm currently building models through Blender, I would like to bring AKIRA to current times with the use of modern tech in animation. My idea is to bring in an updated version of the same movie with an artistic spin on some of the time line. Outside references are welcome.
I understand that some of you may say "No no no no no!!! Leave it the same!!" I assure you, I will leave it as true to the movie as possible... my artistic intervention will be the construction of the model's, some props from the background and visual effects. I have been thinking of looking for some new songs for the soundtrack and possibly upgrading the original soundtrack as well. I am confident that most fans will approve of the minimal changes.
No one is commissioning or sponsoring me to do this project, it is done for the love of the movie and is fan inspired with my artistic interpretation. But If supporters help with small or large contributions, I will be able to put more time and to speed up this production and post even more results as progress continues.
Thank you all, especially my supporters that allow me to continue to making content for all of you.
And remember
Be Well.