Plan for Adam deGrandis

This monday (the 25th) will mark the beginning of the last week of my college education. Im thrilled; I definitely feel like school has reached the limit of its usefulness for this part of my life. Time to learn from real world practice.

I actually don't have a lot more to say on the matter. The whole conclusion of school has been surprisingly uneventful. I have solid working habits, so I was able to avoid an insane crunch. One thing of note did come up though. At my school we have a thing called senior reviews, where each graduating senior invites 3 faculty members to critique work, talk about the future, and basically just shoot the breeze. At my review, we were all talking about how Im heading out to Eugene. I was saying that in my best, most optimistic scenario, Ill mesh well with the whole scene/crew and be able to make some tight contacts so I can get enough work (contract or employment) and stay out there. I added that if doesn't work out, I always have a job offer in New Hampshire, blah blah blah. They said collectively responded "You know what, if its what you want to do, you should really just stay out there. You're young, you're talented, and you have a passion for something. You can do it. Don't settle for a job offer in NH. You wont be happy." It surprised me... and it stuck. Besides that, it was pretty flattering because I really don't consider myself an overly talented person. :)

So we'll see what happens. The future is looking open and bright. Thats a fantastic thing to be able to say.

Anyway, on to actual development news!

I started the hardcore work on my senior gallery show project about a month ago. At first, I was really at a loss for what I should do. I thought about making an environment or a minigame or something like that, but I threw that idea out because I knew that Id start thinking way too big and end up with something I could never actually finish. Besides, that seemed like a cheap idea; showing something really flashy just for the hell of it. After a bit of thinking, I came up with the idea to do something that showed off my current site, Games Extract. Games Extract is basically what school has been about for me; a passion that lead to learning and vice versa. Just showing the site seemed cheap too, though. I mean, it's the senior show... It needs to be at least a little flashy. In the end, I decided that a site that combines a rundown of Games Extract, a selection of my portfolio work, and my artist statement was the way to go. The artist statement establishes my mindset, my portfolio shows exactly what kind stuff Im working on, and the Games Extract section shows just how far Ive taken it all. All in all, its feels like both a great representation of who I am as an artist as well as a really strong response to those who would challange the validity games as an artistic medium.

One cool part is that I designed the site to actually be 4 sites. Every time the index is refreshed, it will randomly load a different version. Here are some screens. Keep in mind these are slightly shrunk to make them more manageable.






So thats the end of school. Moving on.

In actual Games Extract news, I havent been able to work on the site as much as Id like due to everything I just wrote about, but progress hasnt completely ceased. Earlier this month I uploaded the first round of my links page. This is an awesome thing for artists. It has links to tutorials, free assets, reference image sites (which I find especially useful), sites of other artists, and of course, Torque specific stuff. And its growing, so If you know of a site that you think should be on there, send me a link and Ill take a look.

Besides that, i started a complete character modeling tutorial. To answer the obvious questions, no its not done and no, I have no idea when it will be finished. Ive gotten through the first part (blocking out the main masses) and now Im working through fleshing out the form. I started the this for a couple reasons. The first was for money; I was going to charge for this. That has since changed, as I cant honestly take money for teaching something. Charging people to better themselves just doesnt feel right. The other reason was kind of just to see if I could do it. I feel Ive come a long way in a relatively short time. Being able to tell somoene how to do this is a good marker of how much you yourself know.

I guess Im curious as to how much I actually know.

I also have some other (exciting) projects that Im putting some serious time into, but those will be saved for a later plan. :) Thanks for reading.