Lots of things have happened

It's been a while since I posted anything here and there's a perfectly valid reason for that. Actually, make that several reasons! In no particular order:

• Got made a moderator/admin over at Game-Artist.net

Game Artist is a nice forum that is part of the CGSociety family and is (of course) geared towards game art. Feel free to drop in and post some work or help a struggling artist with a bit of constructive criticism.

• Resigned from Rebellion
  

While it was good fun to work with the people there, I felt it was time to move on. Will miss the people there though, great bunch of people.

• Got a job at Codemasters Southam

Somewhat nervous but they have put out some really good games and their tech looks like it can deliver so I'm excited to get my hands on that and getting involved in things over there.

• Found a flat in Leamington I really want to get my hands on

Now I just need to rob a bank to afford deposit, estate agent fees and all the other associated costs of moving houses... 

• Went to Stockholm, Sweden and...
• Celebrated 30th Birthday

A week-long vacation that included dinner with family and friends seemed  like a good way to celebrate. So I did. Good times were had by all!

• Went to see a couple of movies at the Stockholm Film Festival (their 20th Anniversary!)

Only managed to catch six movies but they were all pretty damn good. Short summary follows!

Okuribito (Departures) - Japanese movie about a cellist whose orchestra gets disbanded and moves back to his small home town and gets a new job. Doesn't sound like much but it is easily one of the best movies I've seen in ages. Not a dry eye in the theatre when I watched it

Map of the Sounds of Tokyo - Tragic love story between a spanish wine seller and a fish market worker. Very good as well and since it's a Catalanian director it's got an interesting mix of European and Japanese vibes going on.

Haeundae - Korean disaster movie where I actually cared about the main characters. Good mix of comedy, drama, action and decent effects

Shrink - Kevin Spacey plays a self medicating shrink that tries to fix himself and his broken patients. It was better than I expected and has some sweet moments. And a decent ending too in my opinion.

The Limits of Control - Jim Jarmusch. Beautifully photographed but don't ask me to describe it...

And lastly...

Black Dynamite -  Awesome stuff, a love letter to the blaxploitation genre. Completely crazy story too with a nice twist at the end. For your aural pleasure, they've gone and put the whole soundtrack online: http://www.blackdynamitemovie.com/music

• Writing notes on a blogpost about working abroad that I need to research a bit more before posting

This is a post I've had in my head for a while and I have several pages of notes in my little Moleskine notebook (I'm not being pretentious, they really are quite nice to use!) that I need to translate into a coherent post. And I also want to do some research on visa requirements in the US for example so I can make some informed arguments about the pros and cons of  having a degree or not. And various other things that are important to look for when moving countries. I've done it twice so hopefully I will have something useful to say about it...

• Helping out at GAMC #4, the Game Artist Mini Challenge

The GAMC is a small competition with some nice prices, open to anyone who feels like participating. At the moment the theme is to model and texture a jet engine turbine thing from a loose concept and the winner will get the Character Modeling 3 from Ballistic as well as one year CGSociety and CGTextures membership. Not too shabby.

• Made a somewhat silly farewell letter together with a colleague

We both love Team Fortress 2 so what better way to show that than to make a Saxton Hale-style farewell letter? Especially since we were leaving within a week of eachother.

The way we did this was to create the template, print it out, tick the (in)appropriate boxes, get some coffe stains on it, fold it up and then scan it for some further touch ups and Bob's your uncle. Got a Photoshop psd template file if anyone wants to create their own letter...

So yeah, lots of stuff has been going on but it's calming down a bit now so I'm hoping I'll be able to post a bit more frequently again. And there's one last bit that I haven't shown... But will in a minute! Honest!