Career change–finally?

NEWS:
A long over due Kitty Cat Diary entry:

And the Lisa session I mentioned before:

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I uploaded a few new clips I composed for the Galactic Melee score. The game is currently on hold as the project ran out of funding. I have no idea if Kevin will ever put more money into it to get it out there. I certainly had fun composing the score for it, and in a way, it was the catalyst that made me start thinking seriously about a career change again (more on that later).

Here are the new clips:

Galactic Melee – In-game Combat 3 – For this combat cue, I used evolving pads and percussions to build up a sense of mystery and tension.

These in-game combat cues loop throughout the various levels in the game. Since the game is more about strategy and teamwork than about pure action, I wanted to go for a more hypnotic and introspective atmosphere for all the combat cues as opposed to the typical in-your-face aggressive approach that most shooter games use

Galactic Melee – In-game Combat 2 – For this combat cue, I established a persistent drum groove that drives the mood and propels the strategic action forward.

Galactic Melee – In-game Combat 1 – For this combat cue, I used a square wave tone for its main melody to convey the feeling of piloting a small spaceship in the vast open space.

Galactic Melee – Credits – Since Galactic Melee has no narrative premise and is really just a fun multiplayer experience, I wanted the credit music to be more uplifting and optimistic and not dark like the rest of the score. My intention was to end the game with a feeling of “Now that the fighting has ended and we’ve all had lots of fun shooting at each other, let’s just put our ships on autopilot and enjoy the beautiful view as we cruise the galaxy together.”

WEBLOG:
Our apartment currently looks like a warehouse, with most of our stuff already in boxes. Just thinking about shipping my music gears (roughly $40,000 worth) across the ocean makes me nervous. I would be very upset if any of it was damaged along the way, since there are some pieces that are no longer in production and will be very hard if not impossible to replace.

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The fact that art isn’t my favorite among the things I’m passionate about is not a mystery among those that know me well. This isn’t to say I don’t love art, just that I’ve been working as a professional artist for so many years that I’m ready for a change. Throughout the years, I noticed that my love for music, film, writing, and even to some degree photography, has often eclipsed my love for art. The simplest way to describe why I feel the way I do, would simply be this:

Music, film, and literature can move me to tears and evoke feelings of such intensity that art cannot (although when art is paired with words like graphic novels, can, but I left the comic book industry behind many years ago). Photography as a medium communicates in a similar way to art, but what I like more about photography is that it’s just so much more fun than sitting there drawing and painting all day. Photography forces you to get up and interact with other human beings, animals, and nature in an active manner that is much more exciting than sitting at an easel, moving a Wacom tablet pen around, or pulling vertices in a 3D software. Although video games, animation, and film special effects can all be very exciting, they usually are only that exciting to me when I’m experiencing them as the audience–working on them don’t really give me the same enjoyment as I get when I’m composing/arranging/performing a piece of music, immersed in the story and characters I’m writing about, directing a scene and seeing magic happening right in front of my eyes and sharing that sense of excitement with the cast and crew, or being in “the zone” when a photo session is going very well and everyone’s just having a great time.

So, now that I’m leaving my current art directing job, I’m looking to my future with the intention of making a career change. I’ve tried to do this before and I couldn’t make it stick because it was just easier to find a job as an artist (many say it’s because my artwork is the most impressive of all the creative things I do. I don’t know if that’s really it). I’ve worked as a writer/director in animation and that was the only full-time job I’ve ever had that I really enjoyed. I’ve done professional work in music and photography as well, but neither could pay the rent full-time when I did them. Now, I’m going to try and see if I can make music stick this time around. While doing that, I’ll still be writing my screenplays and novels, and continue to shoot photography just for fun. Maybe I’ll continue drawing/painting too, depending on if any compelling projects come my way (that reminds me, I’m still a member of the Black Mesa MOD team. Maybe now I can contribute more concept art to that project).

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Mini movie & TV reviews:

There Will Be Blood – I respect this film, but I found it hard to sympathize with a main character that was so absolutely ruthless and lacking empathy for others. The score for the film was very unique, and certainly one of few notable ones I’ve heard in recent memory.

Babel – It took me a long time to finally sit down and watch this film, and it wasn’t as bad as I had feared it would be. It certainly didn’t deserve all the buzz it received though, as I felt the attempt to link the characters and situations together had no meaningful purpose to me, and made no profound statement in the way that I feel it should have to have deserved such critical acclaim.

Entourage – I have been hearing about Entourage for a long time now, but never got around to watching it. Now that I have, I can see what all the fuss is about–it is a very entertaining show, especially if you have an interest in the entertainment business. It has the ability to let you live vicariously through the lives of the characters, and it feels like watching something real unfold as opposed to knowing that you are watching fiction.