The Trade Show in Vegas

I didn't get to go, but I did get to design the banners that went up.

Here's a few pics my boss took with his cell phone.

There were 10 Wrapping banners with different product names on them; One high rise banner with four logos on it.

My boss said that our booth was the talk of the show.

I also did the intro and outro animations for the 5 videos they had playing on different 32" HDTVs.

As for the Slot Machine animations, that stuff is all put on hold. As of now, I'm doing mostly graphic design with talk of animations in the future.

WORK WORK WORK

I've been doing a lot of that lately. It's nice. This week my boss is out of town so I've been going over to a co-workers house (Dan).

A bit about Dan:

This is Dan.

SURPRISE SHOT!

He can do THIS!

And THIS!

Working

This week I started my new job contracting for Inventiv Designs. I'm doing animations for video slot machines. They tell me that they won't get into actual machines for a couple years due to the process that they have to go through, so pretty much everything I'm working on is pretty "hush hush". There seems to be a lot of work to be done so hopefully I'll be able to stick with this for a while.

All Good Things

Must come to an end.

Looks like my last day at Dizilu has come and gone without me even knowing it. My boss just called me and told me that he just found out that we won't be getting any more work. At least not from the place we've been doing work for. He's going to call me if he gets any more work that I will be able to do. But until that day comes, Back to the unemployment line (not really).

If anyone would like to check out the company's site (that I made), you can see it here.

Dizilu.com

work...

I've been working. A lot. Sorry for the lack of posing lately but at least next time you see me, you'll see a slightly richer version of me :)

I've been working Monday through Wednesday, 10:00am to 9:00pm... minus an hour for breaks.

I'll post some pictures of what I've been working on soon.

But until then, you'll have to bear with me as I am a working man now... :) :| :(

what... a... night...

First off I wake up at 8:30 in the AM and I get to work at 10 in the AM...

After working for 10 hours on one 30 minute break (my choice) I figure I'll leave a little early and try to make it to the comic shop before they close... so I leave...

Get out to my car, and it's not there...

Towed... I'm already on the phone with Gretchen so I tell her and she volunteers to come pick me up.... so she does, but not before stopping off at my house and getting some of my car papers and info. She picks me up and we're at the lot and in a LONG line by 9:20pm or so. Another hour goes by before I even get into the fish house like thing they have constructed outside the entrance of the building....

lots of time goes by and I don't even get to the desk before 12:30am.

I didn't get out of the lot until 1:15am.

And now that I'm home, I have just enough time... TO DO NOTHING!

cept watch heroes and go to bed...

Nightly Brigade

Night One: Dan's House.

Dan invited a few friends over for a night of video games and poker while Chevis was out of town. These friends included Pierre (Awesome French guy), guess what he teaches, Shawn (idk how he spells it), teacher of Chemistry, Tim, I think he teaches something too but I forget at the moment, and myself... a bunch of teachers and a nerd, makes for an amusing night.

We started off playing the Wii, mostly Guitar Hero with two guitars, drums and Microphone. Then we moved to Texas Hold 'em. Dan ended up winning but the game went on until 3am or so. Which is right around when everyone else left and Dan and I went to bed, FUTON FTW! I was notified by Dan the next morning that Daniel had woken him up at 5am. And the little guy wasn't feeling well. :( How he didn't wake up during all the games we played is beyond me.

After Breakfast we hung out for a bit before I had to rush off to get ready for work... That's right, I said it... WORK...

Someone's got a job! Which Brings me to Night two...

-------------

Night Two: Animation with a Vengeance.

The second night of my newly acquired job in animation using Adobe After Effects. I worked one 3 hour night before from 7 to 10 and we went out for drinks after, by we I mean my boss, Michael, and Lloyd (a coworker from my last animation job).

ANYWAY, today/night was my first stretch of work that really didn't have an end in sight for some while. We are working on some videos for a church. Videos they can show to their young followers before they get confirmed. The videos are pretty straight forward. 2D animation with pre drawn figures.

Today I got in at 3pm, and tonight I got out at 1:10am. An hour in there for Dinner and BAM, you're workin' a full shift on a sunday night. Too bad I missed the Pro Bowl. :(

For the next week my hours look like this:

We'll see what happens for the week after that, It all depends on whether we pull in a few more hands to get the job done... get it? HA HA... it! (Harvey Birdman FTW!)

The Company I'm working at, by the way, is owned by Michael. It's called Dizilu. If I play my cards right I'll be the first full time employee...

Here's a few pics of this small but growing office:

In this picture my back is to the corner, there's a small space heater next to my right leg. A window on the right, doorway on the left, three computers and some chairs. Home away from home.... although I must say, the only real downside to this whole thing is that I work on a PC... >:( but "boo hoo" poor me... I'll get over it.

This picture is from the other side of this space. again I'm in the corner but to my left is the point of entrance. Next to that, also on the left, is a small refrigerator and sink. All this place is missing is a couch for nap time!

well, it's 2am and I'm beat...

OOP! Almost forgot! Picking up the Gretch Monster from the airport tomorrow night. She's coming in from Arizona.

"To the Bat-mo-bed Robin!"

Tuesday = Friday

Today is/was Tuesday. I was originally supposed to work Monday through Wednesday this week but something is going on at my work so we will work Mon. and Tues. this week and Mon. through Wed. next week.

This is fine with me since the new Family Guy Star Wars DVD (Something, Something, Something, Dark Side) just came out today and I went to Zac's house straight from work to enjoy it.

Zac, Ashley, there dog Louie and I watched the first Family Guy Star Wars DVD (Blue Harvest) followed by S.S.S.D.S. We had a blast. Not only did we watch these two movies but we also sat around and drew pictures on my 22" monitor with my wacom tablet.

Zac's brother Joe showed up a little later, as did our friend Griffin. We all watched Star Wars Family Guy and played with the tablet until it was getting late and Zac and Ashley had to go to bed. They are getting up at 4am tomorrow to go to Texas for Christmas.

Since my weekend started a little early this week, I think I'll spend tomorrow trying to go see Avatar again. If anyone who reads this is interested in seeing it with me, shoot me a call.

Day three of the job

Third day of work and I'm already getting tired before 10:00pm... something is wrong with me. Who knew that sitting in a chair and animating on the computer could take so much out of you? Well, only one way to learn I guess.

But so far so good. Not sure on how secretive this place is with their animation so I won't post any shot's I've completed. But I have to say, once it's cleaned up in After Effects, The animations look pretty good.

The episode we're working on should air on the Larry Lipton Site mid January. Hope that's enough info for now.

Don't forget to keep an eye on the Winged Yeti Blog and Site. The site is getting Zero work on it right now because of the time spend on this job, but the blog gets a few new images now and again.

This Morning

So I'm bummed that I didn't get to go hunting with Tom. But on a lighter note. I received a phone call from a gentleman I met at a networking party at Robot Love. His name is Michael. He's working on an animation web series.

You can see the older episodes HERE.

Looks like I start Monday. 9am to 5pm. Forty hours Next week and then another 40 spread between the following two weeks. It's going to be fun. I'll technically be an Animator's Assistant. So learning the tricks of the trade from these guy will be a great experience for me.

On an unrelated note, I was informed about this new app for the iPhone (and probably iPod Touch). It records your voice and turns it into text. And it works REALLY well! Once it is text, it copies it for you and you can paste it into an eMail or text message or anything you want.

Here's a video of it!

Sorry if the video is backwards :/

but still... Awesome!

Finished Logo

Gretchen's friend Kari's DAD asked me to whip up a logo for his 4th annual paintball and beer pong tournament. I, of course, accepted. After throwing ideas around, I came up with this.

minus the watermark.... never know who's out there trying to steel your stuff....

pff, who'd wanna steel my stuff.

The job hunt continues

Started searching Craigslist.com for jobs a while back, and I'm happy to say I FINALLY applied for one. I'll keep the blog updated with any and all news. 

I also began reading "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation" and I must say I wish I would have read this stuff a long while ago. I'm learning quite a bit and you can expect to see some animations coming out of me SOON. 

Been Hangin'

Wednesday, February 11th was my cousin Jessica's birthday. Wednesdays are the days to go get comic books. So I figured I'd invite Jessica along for a little NERD FUN. Went to get comics at 10am, then went to Tamodachi (a japanese store in rosedale) for a couple dunnys. After that we swung by Robot Love, someplace she's been wanting to see, and I've been wanting to show her for some time. 

She picked up a few dunnys, I picked up a couple of shirts for pretty cheap, awesome shirts too. One of the shirts was designed by one of my favorite artists, Shepard Fairy. 

I also bought a bag for gretchen that was designed by Shep. 

Later that day, my grandma, Jessica and I went for lunch at Boba, the Asian restaurant I worked at a few summers ago. They loved it. 

Yesterday, Thursday, I hung out at my grandma's house with her and Jessica. Jessica and I do a great deal of talking. We talk about all sorts of stuff, movies, music, art, hobbies, you name it, we've talked about it. 

Today, Friday, I stopped by there and my grandma gave me a bunch of my grandpa's old paintbrushes and art supplies. She won't be using them and I might have a custom toy design job coming up really soon. My grandma, Jessica, and I were talking about doing some Ukrainian eggs and/or stained glass windows. Both of which are things that my grandpa used to do all the time and my grandma has left over materials for. 

anyway... that's what I've been up to. 

Sites and Shites

Over the last few days a great deal has happened. I haven't been feeling well over the last couple days. I spent almost all of today in bed because of it. Although my website is still coming along nicely. 

SEE

So has the Baggan's Pub site... HERE

I signed up for the netflix free trial a couple days ago and I just finished watching my first two movies, "Traitor" and "Bangkok Dangerous". Bother weren't bad but I won't be rushing to buy them any time soon. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the movie reviews coming because of it. 

Netfilx has a "view instantly" option with some of their movies so I've been streaming them through my xbox, and I must say, the quality is actually pretty amazing. The movies on the "view instantly" list aren't all that new, but defiantly worth checking out. I have a list set up of movies I never got a chance to see. 

Just picked up the new xbox 360 game "Lord of the Rings: Conquest". Very fun game. Made by the people who made "Star Wars: Battle Front" so you know it's good. Basically the same game just Lord of the Rings instead of Star Wars. 

Ask me what's new next time you SEE me in person for the latest chapter in Jared's life. 

websites galore...

Lately I've been keeping myself busy on a couple of websites. They're not done yet but they will be soon. 

Baggan's Pub

ThatAnimationSite (my portfolio site)

enjoy!

As of late

As of late, I have been undergoing a series of side projects... next to my non-existent job. Some of the side projects include: 

1. Selling/shipping toys to people on the internet.

2. Working on the Baggan Pub website for my old high school friend Jeremy Bisek. 

3. Designing an 8" dunny for my friend JJ's birthday. (which I just finished and will post pictures of tomorrow)

4. Doing my own website.

5. Working out a design for my cousin Chelsey's boyfriend's snowmobile. 

6. FINDING WORK...

and recently added 7. airbrush some exhaust pipes and flames on a welding helmet for my friend Mike's friend. 

aside from all of that I do nothing but sit around, watch movies, clean the house in sperts and sleep in...

I hear that there are openings at the Aldi up the street... maybe I'll apply for a manager position there... would be better than nothing I guess... almost talked michael into it today... :D

current job.... well... sort of

Recently, my old school friend Jeremy Besik contacted me and wanted me to revamp his dad's bar's current website. So I'll be working on that for a little while. They also want me to do weekly updates. 

HERE is the current site.