Tom has lately gone back to plugging away at 3D animation - which makes me very, veryhappy. :) My boy.

...this was actually the result of a minor crisis of..idk, but, a mental crisis. He'd gotten an email from his father about what an AMAZING position being a conductor on the Long Island RR is. $32/hour to START, and they back-pay you that for all the training time; it would be an insanely secure job, you'd be good to go for basically your whole life. Tom's dad is, what, I think second or third in the chain of command over there, and *his* father worked for the railroad as well. It'd be an easy in for Tom, pay is amazing, it'd be a security - and then too there's always been that little part of him that was sad not to be carrying on the family tradition, y'know?

Needless to say, he was awfully tempted to just pick up and head back to his island. His father's retiring I think this year, probably moving in with his mother in the Carolinas, so the house would probably be ours if we wanted it..

It would be an incredibly smart, safe, thing to do.

But as my immediate response - and Tom's eventual one - pointed out, is that what he REALLY wants? Would he be really happy?

And after maybe a quarter of an hour of intense deliberation, he realised that no, it wasn't, and if he signed up with the railroad, California would never happen.

And it's going to be hard as hell - neither of us feels like we have the drive, the talent, the ability, to get where we want to be... but we're not giving up yet.

So, he got 3D Studio Max all set up and running, is working out the best way to speed his rendering process, and downloaded tutorials from lynda.com (arguably the best there are). It was Cinema 4D he'd used in college, and knew quite well, but that's the most basic and apparently least powerful of the big 3D programs. Maya is ridiculously difficult - and I'm also under the impression that it's used more often for landscapes and world creation, though I know animation is done in it. 3DS Max is apparently the big one for animation, game creation, which is Tom's goal. So, that's what he's now learning, and I'm under strict instructions to kick his ass in any way I feel appropriate to make sure he does an hour's worth of work every day.

And holy hell has he accomplished worlds in under a week.

He takes notes on things he hadn't known, and I quiz him on them (so, by proxy, I'm learning some as well). He had off from work yesterday, and went on a learning binge - by the time I got home, he'd actually MADE things in a program that I don't think he'd ever really used before this week. I'm going to have to snatch a jpg version from him to show off, he's a wonderful. :)

SO, this in turn inspired me to make the same sort of pledge - to spend at least an hour a day on something artsy. Granted, I'd been doing that for weeks with my stories anyway, and a few months back I made a softer-bound vow to make certain I was artistically productive every day, because if I'm not, I get depressed and un-me and it sucks.

Having the day off myself today, I wound up.. actually I think it was via stumbleupon, or maybe digg, but I spotted a Photoshop tutorial I'd glanced at before and decided, hey, y'know what, I should really take a crack at this. (These guys do a fantastic job on tutorials, very slick results in a very approachable manner, it's all working quite perfectly for me. PSD Tuts.)

And then before I knew it Tom was home from work and I'd gone through a tutorial on those fantastic shiny glowy curves (and learned how to use the pen tool! finally! good lord I was more than overdue), and some other great professional looking background effects, and had not only done things in mimicry of the tutorials but made a desktop with what I'd learned.



BWA! Admitedly I raided my picture stash for the photo of Natalie Portman, but, I practised my magnetic lasso tool abilities to crop out the background. As one thing led to another, my colors flattened out and I realised I had perfect coloring for a worn-out newspaper look - like when you've got a photo printed on cheap newspaper, and you can see the words from the other side in it? And holy crap it worked out so nicely. ^_______^ I'm sure in like two days I'm going to hate how completely random and undoubtedly unbalanced and unartistic the curves are, but, for now, I'm a happy thing.

 
Every other book I have ever loved is suddenly being turned into a movie and it's starting to creep me out. And terrify me.

Narnia, came out fantastic. A few gripes but overall it was wonderful.

Terebithia, despite the stupidity of the trailers, and the ridiculous costuming, was gorgeous, and true to the story.

Nancy Drew - I've seen the previews and I want to scream at someone. Yes I'm guilty of having read the 90s updated versions of her stories, so MAYBE the movie's on the right track, but she's like 8 and I'm like wtf no she is not a Disney Channel show.

NOW, I see a terrifying trailer for The Dark is Rising, which is one of THE most AMAZING series I have ever, ever read, it.. there's such depth and such awe in those books. And the trailer shows cute little boy using powers to fling his little brother around the house while he giggles and is a lil prankster.
I am PRAYING it's the same mindset behind that trailer as the Terebithia one, and that it in no way relates to the feel of the film. (I've been finding that more and more frequently now, so I'm trying my darndest to ignore trailers, because they tend to be so far off case it's ridiculous.)

TODAY, StumbleUpon (which, btw, I love - there's a firefox plug-in for it) led me to a movie trailer site, and what do I find but a trailer for The Golden Compass! Given the casting and the look of the stills (have yet to watch the trailer), I have hope, but from what I remember (granted it's been awhile), there are WAY too many complicated aspects to it. It's going to be truncated and abbreviated and things not explained...

*is so getting old*