I gotta bet back the grind. I gotta stay in the cave. My talent needs to be developed. Much of my free time will be spent on honing my craft. Starting with the fundamentals and moving into more complex ideologies of images creation. My dream is to work as a film director. In particular, an animation film director. When Brad Bird won the Oscar for The Incredibles with tears in my eyes I said, "Me too, me too." And, it's possible. There are many great artists out there who can draw circles around me but, I'm gonna keep plugging away at it and never stop improving my artistic skills. I mean this not only for creative endeavors but, for other areas of my life as well. I've been a slacker for far, far too long and I never want to go back to what I used to be. In the past, I had a down and out attitude about life. Someone I consider a close friend helped me to overcome some really paralyzing obstacles that I will forever be grateful for. She really doesn't understand what she's done for me. I hope I can help her in some way in the future to overcome whatever she's facing that needs to be overcome by her. Now, I'm working on getting and staying motivated because, I know there's a lot of work I need to do. The fundamentals of art are just the beginning. If I believe it, I can achieve it. By this time next week I will have a much better understanding of human anatomy than I do now. This begins today. NO MORE MEDIOCRITY!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EGWEUf9Xr8
What You Might Wanna Know About Me
- Cyber Six
- All artwork and animation in this blog unless otherwise stated is Copyright © 2015 Eric R. Watson 'AKA' Cyber Six (Cyber Six is not intended to be a play on words. It is in fact a comic book and animation. You may read about them if you'd like by following this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Six) All Rights Reserved. All artwork and content on this blog are property of the artist unless otherwise indicated. Do not use, reproduce, post, copy, or distribute any image or media without permission. I'm an artist and flash animator. Recently, I've begun learning Maya 8.5. Okay, my avatar is not a picture of me. In fact, it is a picture of a famous Japanese singer who sang in an all girl pop group named SPEED during the mid to late 90s. Her name is Hiroko Shimabukuro. Hiro for short. Unfortunately, they disbanded several years ago. I recently found out they are back together and singing as SPEED. Freelance Union Article: 5 Tips for Preventing Procrastination. "Prolific people don’t wait to be moved, they begin the work, and the work moves them to create more." ~ Jonathon Kastner
Saturday, December 28, 2013
I'm Posting this as a Reminder for Myself
I think all creative people have at some point in their lives had to deal with this issue. And, I am no exception. Procrastination is a problem I don't need and I am adamant to get rid of it from my life. My intention is not to plagiarize the writer of this original post but, to have access to this from my own blog if the original post ever gets deleted or moved to another server sometime in the future. The original link is: http://www.freelancersunion.org/blog/2013/01/15/five-tips-preventing-procrastination/ This post is ©2013 Freelancers Union. I don't not own the content of this post. I have posted it here for educational purposes. (As of the time of this writing this post I have not checked Jonathan Kastner's website so, I can not endorse anything else except this post.)
Editor's Note: Guest blogger Jonathan Kastner, LCSW, a psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and Brooklyn, helps people work towards achieving their personal and professional goals through cognitive-behavioral therapy and solution-focused therapy. www.JonathanKastner.com
We all know that the work of a freelancer can be incredibly fulfilling, and the lifestyle has many benefits. But sometimes, even for the most productive of freelancers, starting a project can seem overwhelming – and we delay for so long that it makes the job less fun and less rewarding. This can be called many things (blowing it off, messing around, taking a nap, puttering), but at its core, we're talking about procrastination. Procrastination is the bête noir of the motivated freelancer.
But fear not. By identifying and confronting some common dysfunctional thoughts that perpetuate procrastination, we can change the way we respond. The following suggestions are adapted from Dr. David Burns’ The Feeling Good Handbook.
Don't wait for the mood to strike. Let’s start at the beginning. Literally. Just starting a project can be a monumental task. Why? Because work is work (as opposed to play) and work sucks, or it can feel that way in comparison to more exciting things such as shopping, going to the gym, napping, getting coffee, or checking Twitter. So, rather than sitting down and getting to business, we may instead decide to wait for when the mood strikes, unannounced, and then respond by creating/building/writing. It doesn’t happen that way. Waiting for such inspiration is more likely to result in panic than product. Prolific people don’t wait to be moved, they begin the work, and the work moves them to create more.
You're not lazy, but you might be scared. Procrastinators are not lazy people. Lazy people simply don’t care. Procrastinators often care too much and this can be an obstacle to productivity. The fear of failure can be paralyzing, and the simplest of decisions can feel like life or death. We are creative people, and this usually comes in handy, except when we allow our creativity to intersect with fear. Have you ever thought of all the ways that things could go wrong? Has this ever been of any help? Probably not. Unfortunately, we never allow ourselves to think of all the ways that things might go right. Halting the imagined worst-case scenarios, and injecting some optimism (or just realism) can do wonders.
Work isn’t easy. Work is only difficult for you. …Wrong! It only feels that way. When you believe that professional achievement comes easy to everyone else, you may conclude that something is wrong with you. That’s BS. Success doesn’t come easy to anyone. This is something you probably already know, but you might forget when you hit an obstacle. When you are in the midst of a block, or some other hurdle, it is important to remember back to the past when you successfully made it through to the other side. Reassurance that “this too shall pass” can sometimes be enough to provide enough breathing room to find a way through.
For the first pass, good enough is good enough. The desire for success is healthy. Even the aim for perfection can be healthy, but the constant demand for perfection is daunting, self-defeating, and ultimately unrewarding. I must complete this project perfectly. I need to do it all by myself. I have to make everyone happy. Albert Ellis, the father of cognitive therapy, describes this pattern of thinking as MUSTerbation. Wanting to be great is what inspires us to tackle formidable challenges, but to demand that we must do so perfectly is too much to bear. When we lower our standards (just a bit – we don’t need you in sweatpants all day) we can free ourselves to enjoy greater satisfaction and facilitate creativity.
Give yourself a little credit. Getting paid is nice, but it won't help with procrastination. It can be helpful to have little payoffs along the way to stay motivated. Otherwise, the promised rewards at the completion of a project may not be enough to keep you going. Work can be a slog, and if you provide a few incentives along the way, the marathon can feel more like several rewarding jogs.
We have all struggled with procrastination. By developing new patterns of thinking, it’s possible to avoid the pit-falls that have stalled us all at one point.
Editor's Note: Guest blogger Jonathan Kastner, LCSW, a psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and Brooklyn, helps people work towards achieving their personal and professional goals through cognitive-behavioral therapy and solution-focused therapy. www.JonathanKastner.com
We all know that the work of a freelancer can be incredibly fulfilling, and the lifestyle has many benefits. But sometimes, even for the most productive of freelancers, starting a project can seem overwhelming – and we delay for so long that it makes the job less fun and less rewarding. This can be called many things (blowing it off, messing around, taking a nap, puttering), but at its core, we're talking about procrastination. Procrastination is the bête noir of the motivated freelancer.
But fear not. By identifying and confronting some common dysfunctional thoughts that perpetuate procrastination, we can change the way we respond. The following suggestions are adapted from Dr. David Burns’ The Feeling Good Handbook.
Don't wait for the mood to strike. Let’s start at the beginning. Literally. Just starting a project can be a monumental task. Why? Because work is work (as opposed to play) and work sucks, or it can feel that way in comparison to more exciting things such as shopping, going to the gym, napping, getting coffee, or checking Twitter. So, rather than sitting down and getting to business, we may instead decide to wait for when the mood strikes, unannounced, and then respond by creating/building/writing. It doesn’t happen that way. Waiting for such inspiration is more likely to result in panic than product. Prolific people don’t wait to be moved, they begin the work, and the work moves them to create more.
You're not lazy, but you might be scared. Procrastinators are not lazy people. Lazy people simply don’t care. Procrastinators often care too much and this can be an obstacle to productivity. The fear of failure can be paralyzing, and the simplest of decisions can feel like life or death. We are creative people, and this usually comes in handy, except when we allow our creativity to intersect with fear. Have you ever thought of all the ways that things could go wrong? Has this ever been of any help? Probably not. Unfortunately, we never allow ourselves to think of all the ways that things might go right. Halting the imagined worst-case scenarios, and injecting some optimism (or just realism) can do wonders.
Work isn’t easy. Work is only difficult for you. …Wrong! It only feels that way. When you believe that professional achievement comes easy to everyone else, you may conclude that something is wrong with you. That’s BS. Success doesn’t come easy to anyone. This is something you probably already know, but you might forget when you hit an obstacle. When you are in the midst of a block, or some other hurdle, it is important to remember back to the past when you successfully made it through to the other side. Reassurance that “this too shall pass” can sometimes be enough to provide enough breathing room to find a way through.
For the first pass, good enough is good enough. The desire for success is healthy. Even the aim for perfection can be healthy, but the constant demand for perfection is daunting, self-defeating, and ultimately unrewarding. I must complete this project perfectly. I need to do it all by myself. I have to make everyone happy. Albert Ellis, the father of cognitive therapy, describes this pattern of thinking as MUSTerbation. Wanting to be great is what inspires us to tackle formidable challenges, but to demand that we must do so perfectly is too much to bear. When we lower our standards (just a bit – we don’t need you in sweatpants all day) we can free ourselves to enjoy greater satisfaction and facilitate creativity.
Give yourself a little credit. Getting paid is nice, but it won't help with procrastination. It can be helpful to have little payoffs along the way to stay motivated. Otherwise, the promised rewards at the completion of a project may not be enough to keep you going. Work can be a slog, and if you provide a few incentives along the way, the marathon can feel more like several rewarding jogs.
We have all struggled with procrastination. By developing new patterns of thinking, it’s possible to avoid the pit-falls that have stalled us all at one point.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
One of the Links Sites to See is a Dead Link
"Animation Archive Composition Tutorials" is the link in question. Which I'm about to delete from the list of "Sites To See."I've looked up an alternative for this broken link. And, here it is: http://theanimationarchive.com/ From what I've gleaned from this site it's a lot like the other one. Also, I'll look up the actual website the other content was hosted on if it still exists. I hope it does.
Friday, December 13, 2013
TRON Fan Art
FlashCS5p5Pro.jpg)
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Concept Art Portfolio Process
I'm working on a Concept Artist Portfolio for entrance into the video game, animation and film industries. Here's what I have so far. This painting was started a while ago for a friend's laptop computer but, I will take it into a new direction. There are three more paintings I'd like to finish by this weekend. I have the time so, it's doable. After they're done, I'll post them on my professional website and lo-rez versions here with a link to the professional site. I've got a lot of work ahead of me so I may not get the animated Gif images done this week. Have a great Holiday Season! Ciao. :-)
All artwork and other content posted on this blog is © 2013 Eric R. Watson unless otherwise indicated. Do not use, reproduce, post, re-post, copy, or redistribute any images or other media posted to this blog without my written permission.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
A Gif Animation of a Bouncing Ball
The other animation is a lot more involved than this one. Even though this seems simple; it really is the foundation for all character animated movement. Animating a ball can be as complex or, as simple as an artist wants it to be. It came out better than I thought it would. I used frame by frame symbolized vector animation for this. Next time, I'll upload some screen grabs from the animation session.
The animation itself is twenty-six frames long with two layers. One layer holds the horizon line and the lines that visually describe the ball's bouncing path. The ball is a symbol that I squashed and stretched to give it the illusion of life. This was animated using an antiquated version of Flash. Macromedia Flash MX.
All artwork and other content posted on this blog is © 2013 Eric R. Watson unless otherwise indicated. Do not use, reproduce, post, re-post, copy, or redistribute any images or other media posted to this blog without my written permission.
The animation itself is twenty-six frames long with two layers. One layer holds the horizon line and the lines that visually describe the ball's bouncing path. The ball is a symbol that I squashed and stretched to give it the illusion of life. This was animated using an antiquated version of Flash. Macromedia Flash MX.
All artwork and other content posted on this blog is © 2013 Eric R. Watson unless otherwise indicated. Do not use, reproduce, post, re-post, copy, or redistribute any images or other media posted to this blog without my written permission.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Gif Animation in Macromedia Flash MX
These three sketches are extreme drawings in a short Gif animation I started working on today. I've wanted to play around with making Gif animations since I first found out about them many years ago. Flash is a superb animation software to create these little mini movies. Back in the day, I started using Macromedia Flash 5. At the time, I thought it was too complicated to learn. Now, I've got Adobe Flash CS 5 but, I'm not as familiar with it as I am Macromedia Flash MX. Although it's antiquated, it's a solid piece of animation software that I fully intend to push to create some pretty dazzling animated art. I'm keeping this very loose so I don't over work anything and to work quickly. The third drawing is a mirror image of the first drawing and it will need to be redrawn for more consistency. I'll color this and post both the line art and color versions later. I think I may start animating something every week and post it here.
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