Usually when I come across someone's blog I notice that it's very popular to write a New Year post and reflect on the good, the bad, and the interesting moments from the past year and goals for the upcoming year. In 2014 I found myself getting asked a lot of questions regarding my career, most of which were questions about what I do for a living, what all of the Hollywood and Broadcast jargon means, questions about the evolution of computer graphics and the programs used to make them, and how I got interested in animation/computer graphics/visual effects in the first place. The latter question is the easiest to answer and you can find a detailed explanation on my About page.
A lot of people, including friends and family, always ask me "what does animation entail?" and I always tell them that that is a pretty broad question. I usually respond with, "Well, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean 2D or 3D animation? Are you curious about my roles and what I contribute on a particular projects? Are you curious about what my day is like at my office? Or do you simply want me to explain the terms animation, visual effects and motion graphics to you?" I try to keep it short, sweet, and relatable so as not to confuse and/or bore my friends, family or peers, but sometimes I end up going into specifics, which may or may not make sense, and I feel like I've talked their ears off without maybe actually answering their original question after all. And because the industry itself is constantly changing (i.e. technology), so do my responses sometimes, and that is another reason why it is a difficult question to answer. However, I'd like to get better at it in 2015.
My intentions for blogging, therefore, are to help answer those types of questions more easily, explain some of the processes involved in creating 2D, 3D and visual effects graphics, give more insight into the work I create both short and long term, describe what goes into both simpler and bigger productions [sorry in advance to those who already know how the pipeline works, but hey!, I'm no expert yet and am always looking to learn new things, so I welcome your comments, too, and hope you chime in to help the conversation along], share my various works in progress including sketches, concept art, style frames and previz animatics, and hopefully share some cool design and technology articles/inspiration from time to time so you can get an idea of what's constantly going on in my head -the resources that ignite some of the concepts for a lot of the pieces you see here on my website.
Every industry has a community and I consider myself to be part of a couple of them -art, design, technology, business, etc. -and I also hope that through blogging I'll be able to add to such communities through sharing various knowledge and information and creativity, connect my peers through such conversation, and inspire fellow artists, technologists, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts of all kinds into cultivating and producing some of their own marvelous work, as well.
To my new and very first blog ever, new artwork, new knowledge, new and exciting experiences, and a wonderful New Year for everyone, here's to 2015 and all that comes with it!
Enjoy! Caroline