All these things that I've done

Today was day 2 of animation school. I was feeling some pangs of 'what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here' yesterday, but it's better today. It's not anything to do with the teachers and curriculum... more to do with my age and experience level. Most of my classmates are fresh out of high school, and still figuring out what they want to do with their lives. I'm married with three kids, I own a house, I have a university degree, I've changed careers three times already, I've animated and written for TV already. But today I'm settling in a bit more, and I'm seeing the path a bit clearer. I know what kind of learner I am, and I just can't really get much further with Maya on my own. I'm a dramatic learner; I learn from doing, and from connecting with other people. So school is right for me, even if I am more than twice the age of most other students.

We had a lecture today with the head of the 3D animation department, which also helped me get my head around this whole school thing. After listening to him, I was thinking about the ways I'm getting my name out there, and I realize that I don't really have much of a web presence. I used to have a website on Geocities, but they're shutting down. Also, it was a crappy website. I tried for this graphic interface type of deal that was too complicated to update. Now I'm looking into getting set up with a new website so I can have all my content gathered in one, easy-to-find place. 'What content' you may ask?

Boxes - A short animated film, done with stop-motion on my kitchen table using blocks and plastiscene. I did this waaay back in 2002 as a sort of demo to get a job.

Poko - A segment of a children's TV show which I animated. This is the job I wanted when I did 'Boxes'. I don't think my short film go tme the job though. Anyways, I worked on three seasons of Poko, and I think it's the best work I've done professionally.

A - B - C - These short clips are the result of my own efforts to learn Flash on my own. They are sort of Sesame Street-ish musical thingies. The music is me, playing guitar and singing.

The Overlord - I wrote and directed a musical play, which was performed at the 2009 Atlantic Fringe Festival. There is YouTube of the 5 songs: Access Denied, Shadow in the Night, Power Doesn't Care, You're Dead Wrong, and Liberté!

Hero High - This is a comic I wrote and 'directed', published by Z2H. The artwork is by Diego Simone, a very talented Argentinian artist. It's about the most normal town in the world, where superheroes from across the planet send their kids so they can learn normal human values; you know, like an honest day's work, and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, and taking your licks and all that wholesome character-building stuff that parents want for their kids. Naturally, the kids resist their parents wishes, and want to escape the oppressive regime of normality. Teenage super-hi-jinks ensue. And there's badguys too.

Kireji - This is another comic I did through Z2H, artwork by Jhomar Soriano. This one is auto-biographical, even though there's a giant robot in it.

Uuna - An 8-page comic, done as a submission to Zuda with artwork by Graeme Partridge-David. A fantasy tale in the spirit of JRR Tolkien.

Skitter - Another masterpiece by Me and Graeme, which won its way to the final round of Small Press Idol.

Alma: The Great White Beast - a 4-page comic written by William Gibson (no, not THAT William Gibson. A different one) and drawn by me.

Crackwalker - My ongoing webcomic. A morass of meta-comic material from my messy mind.

Drawings - I have some stuff on my DeviantArt site. Kilowog Vs Sinestro, Inherently Notable (a homage to Dave Simons) are some of my best pieces.

That's my stuff. I may have some more that I'm forgetting about at the moment. I will definitely have more stuff to add in the months to come.