JoeyGates

Bad news / good news

Ya know, I'm terrible at using this site like everyone else. It's been a year since my last journal entry. lol

I've been a little bitter lately. So.. a couple weeks ago..I got laid off my job. I was working as a designer for a internet company. I was full time there for more than 4 years and I'm going to miss the people that I worked with on a daily basis. They became like family to me. At first I was sad that the company had to let some employees go. Not for performance reasons.. just the usual corporations trying to cut cost and make there earnings look better. But honestly... look at my stuff on this site. Do I look like a designer to you? All the stuff up here on this site is art I've done for myself.. not for an employer. The art on this site best represents who I am, more so than the design work I've done for the past 18 years. I took design work 18 years ago because I could not find illustration work. (no experience at the time) And as of a couple weeks ago I was still doing design work full time for those 18 years, with the occasional freelance illustration job. But that's now changing.

I have 6 months left at Animation Mentor. I just signed a book deal to illustrate about 30 spot illustrations for a book and I'm beating the streets and hitting up the local Ad agencies for illustration work. I've decided to go freelance for awhile since I have money coming in, but holy crap it's kinda scary. So the good news is being laid off has forced me to jump start the career I've always wanted. Unfortantely it doesn't automatically make me a better illustrator or animator, but that will come with experience and more time. On top of all that I turn 41 this week. 41! When did I get old?! How did that happen? Anyway....

So here is the plan. Finish Animation Mentor with style and get my demo reel ready. Do illustration freelance and when there is down time work on my "OddLock" book. Sounds simple enough. Since I really don't have a life right now, I can chew an all that stuff. Since I don't have the day job to screw with my artistic focus, I think it's going to be ok. Look for more uploads from me.

And last but not least... thank you. Thanks to those who have commented on my work and who have encouraged me to keep going. There are some amazing artist on this site. DA community wise, i'm not that social. I stay in my corner of the world and create and venture out ... um... not very often. I'll try to say hi and comment more often. The talent of people here just blows me away.

Thanks

I'm beginning my professional animation training!

I've been playing with animation for along time. It feels like it's the thing that drives me and motivates me. Story telling and expression of character are what I keep coming back to time and time again. I applied to AnimationMentor.com a while back. I was accepted and I just started this week. I'm so freak'n excited to learn the basics of animation and to hone in on the process. The training is about a year and a half long and it starts with a 12 week basic training and moves into body mechanics and staging, acting, blocking, and so on. By the end of it all I should have a very choice demo reel and since all the classes are taught by professional animators that are currently working in the industry at major studios, with at least 5 years of experience... I'm hopeful that I will make a few friends along the way. I can post the animations I do in the class up on my site.. which will be done in Maya. Since they are not flash I can't post them here, but I will post my sketches and 2d flash planning animations here with link to my site to see the quicktime stuff. This is a dream starting to come true for me.

About OddLock: The trailer is now officially on hold, however the site and the story are not on hold. Which are really the most important things anyway. I will still put it up as page boards, character bios and plot-line explanations, sketches and drawings. I'm getting a great deal of enjoyment sketching out the story in panels. I feel like its developing nicely. I have found that if i force myself to write out the story in novel form, then I translate that into a visual layout.. it gives me a more cohesive and richer visual direction for my characters. It's easier to not forget the motivations and conflicts in the story and to add in extra visual elements that help support the story and move it along.

Anyway, I've cut out my freelance. I sold my house and moved into a little condo, sold off most of my useless possessions and simplified my surroundings, just to be able to afford school without freelance. So besides my full time salary job as a web designer, I'll just have school and OddLock updates. This is exactly the position I wanted to be in and it was a long time coming. I've been divorced for over 6 years now. My 3 children live in NY with their mom and their step dad. Besides my wonderful children, art and animation are all that I have in this life to hold on to. I know that might sound kinda sad, but art is my mistress, and she has never treated me badly.