Has it been, so long?? or so long (ya big jerk)?
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Gentle ladies and Gentle men,
Greetings again. I have been away for quite some time, and I think I owe you all an explanation. Let me back up first to just say: I don't know how "back" I am, but I clicked through to the old Sketucation forums for the first time in a long time (maybe since November?) today and found that we are at a new forum. I have registered and hope to contribute some valuable information or help, or perhaps content - but it seems that my hopes are replaced on these design forums by many corner bar posts. They come in one of the following forms: stupid humor, encouragement, discussion on religion or philosophy and more stupid humor. We'll see what this fresh start does for my "content"
I would like to thank all the friends that I have met here: Ross, Alan, Coen, Chuck, Tom, Andrija, Ivica, Fletch, Jackson and many many more that I can't remember at the moment, and wouldn't want to leave out.. I suspect my list would be at least 100 names long if I had the time. (of course Coen for bringing the "original" place
)
I want to apologize for dropping off the earth (except to Ross, who thinks I'm too apologetic, I say stick it, my man, stick it)Hmm. Well, there we go..that's out of the way.
In the summer my wife and I sold our condo, and bought a house, this meant that I had to close up shop for a while before, so that our condo could sell (looks nicer to buyers when a condo doesn't have such a huge "command centre" 15 computers etc.) When we bought the place, it needed a lot of work too, and I foolishly thought 2 months would do it. To further complicate things, the renters of the house didn't move out when they were supposed to and took an additional month and a half to leave, all things considered, we moved in right before Christmas. I have now put in about 700 hours worth of work, and have more to do. The computers/office are not set up yet either, as Christmas came to a standstill, and then.. the most AWESOME event... my wife and I had our first baby!!
Dec 27. Add a horrendous cold to the mix in January, and I'm just now starting to see the light of day... I expect to be up and running in February, and perhaps back into the content and new projects.I'm looking forward to finding out about quite a bit while I was gone, and re-connecting with all y'all too, but still I won't have tonnes of time to do this,
Planning to slip in like an assassin,
Shaun -
Shaun! Mazel Tov! What a wonderful addition to your family.
I actally e-mailed you a couple of times but I guess you weren't receiving.
So very nice to have you back. I know what a move can be like. When I moved in 2002 it took 5 months out of my life. Packing on one end. Unpacking on the other and painting and renovations so I could rent the basement. I got no work done at all.Really really great to have you back.
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Congrats!
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Woo Hoo man, congratulations on the new baby. Nothing like it ever!
Welcome back and I look forward to your every word... ok maybe every other word
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Congratulations on bringing life into this world Shaun! How wonderfully exciting
I missed your Jack Handey quote birthday wishes and witty insights. Good to have you back (albeit like an assassin). And it will make transferring your posts easier too.
lata
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Well, it's about damn time!
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Congratulations and welcome to fatherhood. Kiss all your hobbies good buy for a while. Looks like you have a wonderful and healthy baby. Enjoy every moment because it goes fast.
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Welcome back 'Big Daddy'!
Good to see you back in the mix.
- CraigD -
Congrats! Glad to have you back
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Shaun!
Great to see you back here- congrats on the new house and HUGE CONGRATS on the little one... and good timing too... Capricorns are the best!
Now get some sleep!
p.s. BTW... just to show that we can pick up where we left off... are you still using Vue? I've all by given it up for Vray for SU... SO much faster and better workflow. Funnily enough I still use Vue for doing spherical sky backgrounds though.
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Ha!
Welcome Shaun and big congrats! I'm doing the "attributing" thing right away (long pages of Mr. "not registered yet" will now disappear...)
Edit- done the attributing...
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Hi Shaun
Welcome back and congratulations.
cheers
Alan -
Congrats on the new arrival, SU will still take a second place to baby poop for a while.
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Cheers to you and your wife on the birth of your baby! That is wonderful news! You are such an accomplished photographer I hope you'll share a pic or two with us.
And cheers for becoming home-owners! That's also a lot of fun. I hope work and your other activities are going well too. You are a great guy and you deserve lots of blessings!
And cheers for returning here to share all the great news! I join the others in hoping you'll have time to participate more. And you're right I do think you have nothing to feel sorry for.
Stay Cool!Regards, Ross
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Welcome back Shaun
congrats on being a new dadmike d
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So Daddy...boy or girl wonderous gift?
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Thanks all for the warm re-welcome and all the congrats.
I spent some time yesterday setting up my desk and office a bit last night, I'm getting a little antsy to continue where I left off. Speaking of which - Jackson, no I haven't used Vue for a long time... but then I haven't used any 3D programs for a long time - I suspect that I will likely still be using VUE, but then I don't know how much things have changed in 3D while I've been away. I can tell you this though, I got a PS3 just before Christmas, and seeing what is being rendered real time on games like Uncharted Grand Turismo and Call Of Duty honestly makes me want to quit. Or at least stop trying for realism - it would take me hours even with the properly set up scene to come up with some of that magic - and it's rendered real time..Nick, these are just for you:
%(#004040)[I guess I kinda lost control, because in the middle of the play I ran up and lit the evil puppet villain on fire. No, I didn't. Just kidding. I just said that to help illustrate one of the human emotions, which is freaking out. Another emotion is greed, as when you kill someone for money, or something like that. Another emotion is generosity, as when you pay someone double what he paid for his stupid puppet.
A man doesn't automatically get my respect. He has to get down in the dirt and beg for it.
It's funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure, and they never realized that the real treasure was the fond memories they were creating.
Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey]
I will post a couple of thumbnails I have here of our little girl!
She's such a little darling, and already gained a pound in 2 weeks - takes after her dad - likes to eat!
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Hey Shaun! Congratulations! How awesome and exciting for you two.
Sorry to hear that the remodel has taken longer than expected; of course, remodels lasting longer than originally expected should be expected.
I am sure you are getting excited to be done. It is a brave man indeed who starts a major remodel with his first child on the way. My hat is off to you.I completely hear you about seeing what video games are looking like these days versus what I am able to generate on my own. It can be frustrating, for sure. The worst part, ion my mind, is that our audience has come to subconsciously expect product that looks like Shrek, or Lord of the Rings, or HD video games without any clue as to how much effort/time/money it takes to accomplish something like that.
I generally start my animation conversations with prospective clients in this general way: As far as animations go, there is an incredible gamut of possibilities. On the one hand, I can spend 10 minutes with a pad of post-it notes and a pencil and draw you a fabulous flip book; this will take about $30 and is uneditable. On the other hand, we could orchestrate a group of 75 people, working for 2.5 years, at a cost of $100 million to provide you with an animation that is of a Shrek quality. With this being defined as the range of quality and effort available, every client's sweetspot of time/cost/quality is somewhere in between the two. My task is to figure out that sweetspot, which changes for each client.
Frustration in not being able to construct a HD video game like drive-through of a huge development on my side is more than likely similar to the frustration of client in not being able to afford Shrek like quality. When I start explaining to people that it is easily possible for a 3.5 min animation to take 35-40 DAYS to raytrace render
, they begin to understand the playing field.That being said, it is my job as a designer/artist to be able to provide useful, dynamic, exciting, and provocative product to any client, no matter the budget (within reason, of course). Once defining the mission, one can either say f$# it, I can't downsize my modeling ambition to satisfy a middle of the road client, or, one can decide to embrace the challenge.
As I don't for one minute miss building custom homes, and I really don't miss having to work outside during the winter, which it was my pleasure (not really) to do for 16 years, I have decided to embrace the challenge. And even middle of the road pays better than builder, especially in the US housing market of today.
You seemed to really enjoy the journey of exploration in the 3D modeling world. Don't despair and please don't give up! You have too much talent to walk away, IMHO.
And another thing to remember, all those guys who are working on the cutting edge of video games and Hollywood movies, each individual gets to do one thing and one thing only, be it modeling, texturing, rigging, etc. etc. Sounds exciting for about 2 weeks and then perhaps boring/assembly line ish. I much prefer getting to work at all of the aspects of the product, even though I don't produce at a PS3 level (yet
)Well, enough of the long windedness.......... Is it too obvious that I have been up all night editing animations and compiling a quasi finished movie?
Good to see you back, homeboy, and I hope to see you around here more often!
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Congratulations Shaun!
Nice to have you back . -
Shaun, that's quite a bundle of joy you have there. Congratulations to a new father, from a recent father (before I became a father, I didn't know how to share the joy of new parents
). So you moved while your wife was pregnant? That must have been quite an effort.Guite
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