Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Orders 'n Business

Okay, first and foremost...dear internet:

Specifically everyone who uses Facebook that knows me, anyone who you've friended or has tried to friend you who goes by "Chris Niosi", is NOT me. I DO have a Facebook account, but it's under a fake name, mainly for privacy issues, but also because Facebook isn't really "for me". I use the account for specific purposes, but flat out, I do not have an account labelled with my name. So to the many I've spoken to who're like "why won't you friend me back!?" it's not me. There we go!

ANYWHO. So New York Anime Fest was great yet again. Had a lotta fun as I did the previous two years, did a little bit of networking, made some new friends and hung out with a few I haven't seen in quite a while, though I was glad to have a lot of the same company as last year's con. Good to see Crystal Lonnquist, Lucien Dodge, Casey Mongillo and the like. I also dragged Mike Ruocco along with me on Saturday to see the American premiere of Soul Eater, which is awesome. I met the cast of the show and the director, gave 'em some nice gifts of which they very much enjoyed too!

Aside from that I've gone through about 3 full weeks of school thus far...and I don't mind saying at all that's been freaking GREAT. Truthfully, I've been "unproductive" in the sense of online projects; I haven't touched Parody Rangers or the Po3 game in quite a while now. The only side project I've been doing any work on as of late is the super secret thingamabob, which for now mainly concerns overseeing other people's work until I get going on my contribution. Point is, I like not being tied down to a million things at the moment and primarily focusing on schoolwork and just livin' life. Plenty of close friends living in the general area, or close enough to where I see them on a regular basis. Odd's are, over the Christmas vacation I'll "get back to work" on certain things and I'd dare to say before then I'll be doing work on some stuff, but we'll see. Regardless, I feel great and just wanna keep pressing forward. I've come to grips with a lot of personal stuff about my future and what exactly I wanna do as far as a career goes. Still plenty to sort out, but I'm tryin' to stay level-headed and logical about everything.

I'll be uploading some stuff from school soon most likely. Thanks for readin'!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Survival

I've made it through nearly two weeks of school so far.

I LOVE being back in NYC on a regular basis. While I've not quite reached the point where I'm sustaining myself on my own income, at the very least living in a dorm here in NY feels great and gives me a sense of responsibility. I've had all five of my classes for this semester at least once so far, all of which have been very beneficial. Advanced Life Drawing and Layout & Design are workshops for exactly what they mean, giving me crunch-time on major stuff I need to work on. My main class, Advanced Animation Workshop, which I'll be taking once again with Celia Bullwinkel (who's also teaching a 3rd Year class for the first time!), is crunch-time for everything I've learned. Light & Color is my one humanity or "regular school class" as I often slang-term them to others, but it doesn't seem like it'll provide too much distraction. I'm glad most of all to be taking the elective Developing An Animated Series in which to focus on what I wanna do with my art, stories and characters most of all. I'll probably be posting a lot of the stuff I'm doing for school here, so those've you who have any interest can check it out.

I'm starting to have to put a lot of things on hold, but I AM continuing to try to work on stuff on a daily basis and keep track of it all. I'm overseeing a big group project and sending out material for people to work on in hopes that I can that relased at a reasonable time from now. I'm also continuing to work on Rob Kohr's film which is coming along nicely and helping me maintain a small amount of income while at school (it's a bit more difficult for me to keep up a normal job while I'm here). He's looking into showcasing his film at one of the ASIFA events coming up, which is gonna be amazing, so look forward to that...among other things. We'll see.

I also wanna start making more blog entries on specific subjects that hopefully I may end up getting more feedback on. With my thesis coming up next year and a lot of really in-depth things about animation flying around in my brain I'm curious on as getting as many retrospectives as possible. Time will tell.

Later kids!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Third Time's the Charm

What a Summer, yet another already come and gone.

I wasn't NEARLY as productive as I wanted to be this season, but what I -did- get accomplished I'm very proud of. I'm glad I got my writing spark rekindled, had a ton of fun with character designing, did a few storyboards and a just a tad of animation. Nothing fully completed, sadly, but PLENTY in the works.

The game I'm working on for Newgrounds' Power of Three Event definitely ain't comin' out at its appropriate time, but Richie and I refuse to give up. We'll most likely be continuing production on it over the Fall in bits and pieces because we think it's a great concept that shouldn't simply be abandoned. I think it'll be something that will really surpise people, especially from the standpoint of a flash game. Meanwhile I've also started production on a BIG new project involving some close and INCREDIBLY talented friends. I'm actually not sure which project will finish and release first, but both are -very- worth looking forward to.

The Summer's been fun AND draining. I've made new friends, lost a few, revived friendships and relations with many people that I'm very grateful and appreciative for. There's been some sickness issues at home between my getting my first cold in a long while, not to mention my mom's condition, but she'll be fine thankfully. Also Comic-con was still amazing. I think the filthy laziness bug will be sprayed off once school starts in a few days. I'm just about to move back to my dorm in NYC and despite some small concerns, I've gotta damn good schedule of classes this year. I'm also glad to have a couple 'o Mikes around the area to hang with, eat with and watch ridiculous amounts of stupid animated movies with.

I've got high hopes for the future and plan on goin' full-throttle with this next year of school at SVA, hopefully doing even better than last year and the year before it. Wish me luck!