Just wanted to give a quick update. I finally started at Bethesda Game Studios, but I have yet to set up my apt. I think I will finally be able to spend more time on my own work and post more often. It was a key factor for me coming here and I think it will hold true. On the other hand, Mother Nature made sure that I couldn’t move my furniture last week. I should have my workspace at home setup up soon and postings to follow.
Peace!
I was holding off until I had official confirmation, but I wanted to announce that I have just accepted a full-time position at Bethesda Softworks as a character artist. My primary job will be animation, but I will be doing other aspects of production like rigging.
For those who aren’t as familiar with game studios, Bethesda is the amazing studio responsible for game of the year (2008) Fallout 3 and of course one of my all time favorite games of the year (2006) OBLIVION!!! Anyone who knows me well, knows my addiction to video games. To be able to work for one of the studios I admire is an amazing opportunity. I am also grateful for the chance to contribute to a studio with such great history.
I have met a ton of great artist here in NYC (links are on the sidebar), but I am ready to move on from commercials. I originally studied computer art at the SVA with the dream of working in video games but was sidetracked coming out of school. This new position and career track change is great because it is going to allow me more time to pursue my personal work and enjoy time with my family.
Commercials have been grueling and I can’t say I will miss it, but I did learn a lot from the intense nature of the business. Once I settle in at my new home and job, I hope to really start posting (no jokes) new work a couple of times a month.
Peace!
Change is coming. That is literally my attitude right now with my work. After animating my latest test animation “Eat”, I was felt burned out and unsatisfied. I learned a lot on the shot, but I learned something more from the frustration. I want to share this little story because maybe you share a similar situation to mine and this posting can let you know that you aren’t the only one.
Anyone close to me knows my love for animation and the arts in general. I am obsessed. My wife knows this better than anyone. I have been working after hours to try to build a portfolio to land myself a staff job at a studio where I can animate high quality shots all the time. Commercials rarely allow that kind of schedule, so in order to improve, I animate after hours. What does “after hours” mean? Well, I get out of work on average at 8pm – 10pm. I get home an hour later, and spend at least an hour with my family until they go to sleep. This is my “after hours” time. When its about 11pm or later I try to do some sort of work. Either animation, illustration or just learn something new to help at work. I can only put in two hours or so because I have to wake up at 7am or so. My weekends end up becoming work days. I have basically given up my social life for a long time to pursue this desire I have for visual storytelling.
Back to the story…My wife, being the amazing person that she is, noticed that I was feeling particularly down after finishing the test shot. We spoke about it and tackled the root of the problem. (Enter moment of clarity). For years now, I have been making work that is geared to appeal to a very specific audience. I spent my entire time trying to figure out the perfect performance, the perfect audio, the perfect design, etc to appeal to some unknown artists who decides my fate. Take it from me, this is the wrong way to go about it. I realize this now, and I wish I would have seen this earlier. I watch schools like Goeblins and I am blown away by their ability to create such fresh and new styles year to year. Nothing that looks even close in style to the cg style we have come to see from each feature film studio. This animation business is competitive and the pressure to produce constantly is overwhelming. This is multiplied in commercials, where the expectations are extremely high but the deadlines are unbelievably short (this is another posting all together). It was only natural that trying to appeal to others would leave me unsatisfied and not confident in my work.
This lead me to my new outlook. Last week, I decided to start from scratch. I started doing the work I like to do. Trusting my perspective on what I find entertaining and interesting. If the people respond to it, awesome! If they don’t, that’s ok too! How many times have you LOVED something you saw and yet your best friend HATED it? That’s what makes art so great! Your experience and interpretation is unique. It’s yours. So this is the beginning of something new for me. I have literally started with animating a bouncing ball in 2D. I am also going back to learning about values in the traditional 2D, so I can take my illustrations to a new level. Back to basics. I hope this new attitude and perspective will shine through on what I work on from now on. I already feel liberated and my obsession has hit a new high.
Peace
-Rick
I am extremely excited to remind everyone that Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs is coming next week on July 1st! I had the pleasure of working with the extremely talented crew over at Blue Sky Studios for almost 6 months. It was grueling but I learned so much from everyone there. Please head out next week and support the amazing crew for all our hard work! Here is a poster for the movie in case you haven’t seen it yet. Click it to head on over to the site:
Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs
I’m not sure if this is good or bad news. There is definitely a ton of talented artist in Canada. I hope they continue to maintain the same standard of excellence that the California studio continues to hold. Apparently they will create all of the studios short films there. Here is a link to the article:
I am currently changing the complete look and feel of my site. My old site was way to complicated to update and I decided to switch to a Word Press site after talking to fellow animator Richard Fournier. This new format should make life easier to show new work so keep checking back to see the site evolve. If you need to contact me please feel free to email me at rvicens@ricardovicens.com
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