2004 YEAR END REVIEW 03
(scroll down to see previous posts)

July was not off to a serious start. I continued to takes days off, but I wrote this:

I've been thinking about a lot of things over the last few days. My direction being one of them, but chiefly thinking about rushing. Am I in a hurry to get somewhere? Pulling of Understanding Chaos in about a month was quite an accomplishment. I often find myself thinking, If I were doing something full time, how much more could be done? Really, though, how much faster do I need to be?

I think this line of thinking led me to create impossible schedules which leads to impossible goals. What's the rush? It's not like World War III is about to happen and the world is going to end right? :)

Seriously, I think its time to think about settling down, slowing down, and pounding out something long term.

Remember that theme I kept saying would pop up during the course of this year? One would think I should realize the error of my ways and stat following my own advice right? Well, instead I spent the next two weeks watching about 90 episodes of Naruto. This was quickly followed by Fullmetal Alchemist and maybe some other shows before I came to my senses.

Around July 20th, I posted the Daniel trailer. I claimed that I would be doing an new anime demo reel and that even my services page would be returning. Those two tings never happened. The were no more posts for that month.

August began with a post about Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, so I was clearly still "studying" anime. That show was not science fiction or anything out of the ordinary. What it did was make me realize just how much I missed Japan. At this point, it was just over two years since I had been there. My life had changed incredibly since I went. I still lived in Vegas back then. Everything was just different. I guess it was just part of that desire to "go back" in more ways than one. That desire has not entirely left me. At this time I was really focusing on doing a project for Japan.

I did a short review at that time because I was unsatisifed with my progress. I wrote:

Honestly, I think I should have had a project done by now. Even a big project. It's time to find out why that is not the case.

I happened upon Makoto Shinkai's web page after nothaving visited in ages. His latest project had balooned from what was a 50 mintue direct to DVD project, last time I checked, to a full blown feature that was getting limited theatrical release in Japan! Here was a guy who was sitting around thinking about doing stuff. He was doing stuff.

After watching several entire anime series, such as Wolf's Rain, E's Otherwise, Gilgamesh, Peacemaker Kurogane, Tsukihime and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, not to mention six seasons of Buffy, season five of Highlander, Season five of Stargate and all the Superman movies, I hit the books to start researching for my projects, one of which was called "truth Explorers.

That month ended with the release of the Canon XL2, a true 16x9 24P DV camera. The world of indie film was about to be forever changed!

September began with me fixing up one of my characters for Truth Explorers. While Madhouse was gettign set to do an anime Highlander film, I was going Tablet PC crazy again! I wrote this:

I just read on the Mirage forums of how an artist worked on a 2D animated, theatrically released commercial using Mirage and a tablet PC. That is amazing news. My dreams of sitting in a five star hotel in China, drawing manga or anime on my tablet while hooked wirelessly to the supplied DSL in the room are not just a vain fantasy. It could actually happen! What a world we live in!

Tablet PC models weren't the only thing. The very tablet was using at the time, the WACOM Intuos 2 tablet was being used by my favorite studio, Prodcution I.G., ona brand new series. This show, though I have not actually seen it, has impacted me greatly from what I have seen on the net in different galleries. There's a lot to learn here, but more on that next year.

I completed sketching the characters for Truth Explorers and began storyboarding a "proof of concept" trailer. I was also thinking a lot about people wanting to get their projects made, but following what I feel is the old studio path. I wrote this:

Of course you know the chances of success on this path are slim. The chances that the large studios will invest the kind of money and rescources needed to get a major anime project off the ground into a total unknown is next to nothing. This biz just like any other aspect of showbiz, even Hollywood is all about who you know. Even then nothing is sure. That last thing you want to do is spend years of your life shopping scripts around and pitching ideas to exectuives who wouldn't know a good anime if it ran over them in Jaguar! I know people who have done this.

As I began to feel some fo the projects I was doing were too big for me, I started writing a new schedule to try and fit everything in. Coupled with my thoughts on the previous issue, I wrote this:

Remember this images that I posted about. This guy went out with his friends on weekends for over a year to get his movie made. He got it done. He went on to do the popular film Memento. It goes to show where a little perseverance will get you. Even if just an hour per day...

Around that time, the Luxology modelling packge modo was released and I was finally able to talk about the tool I was using for most of the work on Daniel: Visions and Dreams.

In the last post of that month, a tire blew out on my car, and I was left stranded on the side of the road.

Comments?