Work Life in Summer of '22

Last summer in July I was brought on board Gadget-Bot as an intern-level concept artist. When that was over they switched me over to a contractor position whereafter I continued to work loosely with them until the end of the year. Fast forward a little past graduation in April this year, and I reintegrating with them as a full-time contractor. Now it’s the middle of August - I’ve hit my year anniversary with them, and they are currently training me up to be a producer and senior designer as well. Some of the stuff I’ve dipped my toes into are still under NDA, but here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I’ve been involved with!

 

My very first AAA game art asset:
a Valkyrie/Giger crossover banner frame from Apex Legends S10 - Monsters Within!

When it came close to graduation, I was struggling immensely with how I was going to position myself and advance my career as a concept designer and artist. Plenty of my contemporaries are much stronger in other key talents, especially when it came to digital painting/rendering techniques that made them visually distinct. My own work diversity on the other hand made me appear on the surface as a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. My strength was much more nebulous, an almost specialist-like mindset and approach that’s informed by immense practical experience. While I’d like to believe all of my fellow designers are also critical thinkers, I think my current leadership recognized a resourcefulness, perspective, and attention to detail that was worth finding a fit for in a field with a lot of competition. But the internal team is tremendously competent, and over there they foster an environment that’s all about working out the kinks while being gracious. It definitely helped that my bosses and leads are people I’ve been pretty familiar with since my early ArtCenter days, and they’re more comfortable with having me experiment with different opportunities. I intended to reach a leadership position eventually; the folks at Gadget-Bot were lomd enough to give me a run for my money and propelled that timeline forward. Robert, Peggy, Alex, Donald, and everyone in the GB production and art team… if you guys are reading this, thank you all very much for giving me that chance.

And thanks to the rest of you for reading. Until next time my friends!

A New Office and Tower

Heya ~ Good day my friends!
Work and life is just as crazy as ever, but today, I’m giving a quick photo tour of my office!
The whole thing in general was a big multi-month project that I knew was super necessary to work on as soon as finished graduation last spring. Some of my coworkers who’ve seen my space online think my desk alone was kind of crazy, while visitors IRL were always on board with nerding out with me here. Personally, I couldn’t be any happier with it - everything here is tailored to both my needs and wants. With some minor adjustments along the way this office will have no problems fueling my productivity for the next few years.

The last 2 decades I have been operating primarily off of laptops, and while having my digital workspace be mobile with me was great, the work demands began to overpower it - especially in the last few months of school. I was asking a lot out of my previous Lenovo Yoga C9 from 2019, having frankensteined it to work with an eGPU enclosure for VR alongside multi-monitor and drawing tablet setups. The banging around it suffered as I moved between home and school probably didn’t help. My main external hard drive started to fail, the laptop itself was running as hot and loud as a jet, and Adobe apps were getting way more stalls and hiccups. The second-to-the-last night before the Gradshow went public, InDesign crashed, taking my 34 page 2022 Creative Portfolio with it into some unrecoverable void.

And ah, I really needed to leave of my bedroom - my entire life, my work, school, escapism, SLEEP…
It was all happening in that tiny space for years and it was driving me nuts.

I have never built a PC before. Initially, the plan was to go a safe route and work off a pre-built (which I found out in hindsight was also in itself already a gamble). But, me being me, I tinkered the hell out of it; there’s quite a bit of funk and a few things that are likely pretty questionable, but in contrast to what I was operating on before this machine has been soo much better. And it reminded a lot of when I used to work on cars, just as fascinating and equally as traumatizing. I initially didn’t even connect that PCs are now cooled with fans and radiators just like cars. I think I did a fairly decent job at cable management too in the tower and around the desk, especially for an amateur. Some amenities I have in my new office as well: a visitor/therapy/siesta chair, a tower fan and two air purifiers, a mini-fridge and dedicated snack cubby, extra outlets, and very importantly, my Gundam display case! The lighting is also way better both during the day and at night out here.

I can save the hardware specifics another time, but the images above left are there if you’re interested in what the office progression looked like. For the next post I’ll give a work-related update - in the meantime, the very last image is a quick peek at another personal project.

See you next time!

Functionality-wise, it offers me this combination of a triple monitor setup with two drawing tablets as well as easy Oculus Rift S accessibility. I also have an interesting camera angle for online calls and live streams! As a newbie, I could’ve def used some hard and software troubleshooting help. xD

 
 

Middle O' June Summer Update

Hey friends!
I haven’t really caught a break post-grad, and I can’t believe two months have already swung by;
I have been extremely occupied! I’ll share some pictures but the short of it is:
- I graduated!
- I renovated a space at home into a real snazzy office.
- Built my very first mid/high-end desktop PC.
- I’m reacclimating with Bullet Journaling…
- And I am reintegrating into Gadget-Bot and doing much more!

ACCD SP2022 GRAD SHOW

It was great having a gallery show in person - check out my friend’s coverage of the event below!

Everything went by in such a blur; life is full of missed opportunities sure, and this is one I am grateful and glad to finally have been able to make happen for myself. Some may see some elements of live, physical presentation as a pain, but I was excited to revisit and print art, to cut foam core, to edit a video and to speak, all of it - to curate a sort of experience and vision. As soon as I began taking my wall down, I had the solemn realization that many of us may never get a chance like this again - a chance to host a show of their own work and design. I’m honored to have been able to share this pride with such an immensely talented group of graduates, to have been able to share such a personal time together.

Beyond these milestones lay more challenges,
and recent struggles made me painfully aware that I really needed to re-evaluate my working conditions.
Here’s a sneak peek of my new home office!

The next post will hopefully, really, come sooner than later! I’ll dive a bit into how I set up my brand-used space, some of the new things I’m working on (personal and at GB), and how I’m keeping it all together. I’m thankful for the support I received leading up to and after grad. My amazing ENT Dept leadership and faculty, teachers, friends, and compatriots, I thank you and miss you all dearly.

Here too especially - I got a lot more eye traffic which made me happy. I just wish in the future I saved a little bit of that effort to let you know ahead of time that I had big things coming my way, and that I also really, really encourage you all to feel free and engage with me here! My comment box and mind are open.

Until next time friends! :]

I'M ACTUALLY GRADUATING!

It’s all happening this week!

Check out our short online presentations about the Entertainment Design Department at ArtCenter!
Watch2Gether

ArtCenter Grad Show Site Spring 2022
ArtCenter Entertainment Design Website

In-person Grad Show Gallery will be open Thursday night for industry professionals the ACCD community and available to the public this Saturday afternoon at the Pasadena Convention Center!

Me in 2 Minutes!

2 Weeks From the Finish!

Hey friends!

Quick announcement: sorry time swept me under the rug again - now another few months have passed and I am less than two weeks away from being finally done with my undergrad! It’s been a decade-long journey since I started my first term, and I can’t wait to show off my recent body of work. Definitely don’t be alarmed by the drastic changes to the site these next few weeks as well - I’m temporarily restructuring it for outreach purposes, and most of the content will be readily accessible again soon!

Check it out online: Wednesday, April 20th, 2020 @ 10am PST

Make sure to RSVP here for the Zoom event!

That’s all for now, wish me luck, and I hope you’re all doing well! See and talk to you again real soon.

Hello 2022

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? It sure has been hard the past year, but that’s fine, I’m back and I’m good!

So, two real big news. First and very briefly, my dear friends at Gadget-Bot welcomed me into their team over the previous summer, and it has been a great time working with them! Second, this Spring is going to mark my final undergrad semester at ArtCenter. It’s been a real long time coming - my indoctrination into ACCD began all the way back in 2007. In the middle of my drop-out years, I feared never going back and finishing at all. I’m 30 now and still struggling, but I know it, I’m nearly over this next hurdle

For tonight, enjoy this small sample of work I’ve done since the quarantine. For the next few months, expect some big changes and additional content here as I prepare myself and this site for graduation!

Hope you’re all off to a great start this new year! Talk to you again real soon. :]