It's Been...Longer than Forever?

Wow...

It's been almost a year since my last blog post. I just decided to check out my blog and website out of the blue today and it was kind of fun. It has been so long since I've been deeply involved in clay animation and posted anything to these sites that I was actually relearning some stuff from my own posts. Re-reading things has also really shown me how much things have changed over the past couple years. Anyways, I thought that I'd continue the "It's been" series and write up another post to share some of those things that have happened this year.

One of the more recent occurrences in my life is that I graduated from high school. During my senior year, I spent a lot of time applying to various colleges attend. In the end, I chose to go the the only art school I applied to and plan to start studying there this next fall, aiming for a degree in Graphic Design. The first year will be a foundation year where I'll focus a lot in the more traditional art forms like paining and drawing. I'll also get a good dosage of art history. It will probably be a lot of work, but I should learn a lot. Hopefully I wont get sick of art. Why graphic design? It's something I can see myself doing for a living and that I'm good at. I have an interest in film and a passion for photography, but I can't see myself having either of those as a full time occupation.

Speaking of photography, let's get into some of the things that I've learned this past school year. Let's start off with photography. It's probably the hobby that I've had the longest and have invested the most time and money into, but it's been fun. This past year, I've taken hundreds of photos and explored different subjects and techniques. I also purchased a new lens, one that has a 200mm zoom, so that's been nice. If you want to see my photography, check out the link below.

My Photography on Flickr

I also got a lot of experience in ceramics and pottery and using the wheel this year. I learned a lot just through practice and from seeing how things work over time. It really shows you that if you keep commited to something, you will improve and learn, it just takes time.

Another area that I improved in was in terms of layout design. I was part of my school's yearbook team so it forced me to study magazines and techniques used in layout design. It was a very good learning expereince and I'm glad I had it, even thought it did take a lot of work and effort. I also got a lot of practice photographing sports for the book.

So why am I mentioning all this art realated stuff? Well, this is an art related blog and I believe that all things art related and more help contribute to one's effort in creating a short film or stop motion animation. Even though I haven't updated this blog or really practiced the art, stop motion isn't something that I've stopped thinking about. In the last year, I've continued to develop a website dedicated to teaching film. Even though I've only worked on it in short spurts, I've made a good deal of progress organizing and collecting ideas as well as developing a business plan and brand. One of the cool things about letting a project like this develop over such a long time, is that it grows as you grow. Everything I learn in the daily walk of life can be contributed to the project and help it become something I couldn't have imagined a few years ago.

The project still has a lot of work that needs to go into it. Everything needs to be designed as well as coded(my biggest challenge). I also have to flesh out a lot of the tutorial ideas I have into articles which will take a lot of time and research, something that I won't have a lot of time to do in college. The cool thing is that even though this project might take a while to get off its feet, it'll continue to grow slowly into something bigger and better. Some things just take time and experience to get better....just like my experience with pottery. We'll see what happens.

I can't promise anything, but hopefully, there'll be another post like this in another year or two. Maybe one will come even sooner...