Ch-Ch-Changes!

As those of you know who have been following my blog, I have been trying to make some important decisions regarding my future - that future including attending a video game design program.  I waffled a bit... Okay, a lot!  My front runner had been Vancouver Film School (and in a perfect world, perhaps that might have happened and who knows what the future may bring), since it was an all around program, intense though it was, and had a great placement rate with great connections in the industry.  Another school I had been looking at was Gnomon which is located in Los Angeles.  Another great school with great connections and placement rate.  Both were expensive to attend and would require my moving to a new location, so the cost of the school (VFS has an amazing Women in Games scholarship which was the only way I could afford it) would only be part of the problem.  I'd have to pay for moving, transportation and living expenses for at least a year.  At the end, I'd have to hope that I got a job that could pay enough to continue living where ever I was or to move to where the new job was.

The truth was, even with loans and whatever, it seemed a really overwhelming undertaking.

My Mother came up with the idea to ask someone for some advice.  I don't really know many people in the industry who I thought might be able to help and she suggested I contact Walt Simonson.  You might know him as the super talented artist of many comics (including Thor!).

BAM!

I also know him as a funny, intelligent, thoughtful and kind person who is probably one of the best gentlemen to know (as well as amazingly talented), who was my teacher while attending SVA in New York.  So I emailed him, thinking I was just bothering him, but in true Walt fashion, he was as giving and helpful as always.  (I am eternally grateful to the man for many things, this is just another on the list)  He put me in touch with a former student of his named Brandon Perlow.  His company website is here: http://www.newparadigmstudios.com/

Mr. Perlow, who has a lot of experience in the VFX industry and 3D Modeling was kind enough to give me his advice.  One of his pieces of advice was to look for something more specific to what I wanted to do, meaning, looking for a school that focused on pre-production art and design, rather than an overall school that did a little bit of everything.  He also said that committing to a school that required I take out a loan or put myself in debt was probably not the best thing to do since the industry was changing and what they were looking for was good portfolios.  He suggested a few schools and sites for me to look into.

With that in mind, I started checking out the schools...  That is how I came across Red Engine School of Design.  It is located in Los Angeles, but unlike the other schools this one is only one day a week.  On top of that, Red Engine is focused on 2D Entertainment art - pre-production character design, environment and the like.   They have instructors like Steve Jung who worked on the first Thor movie (as well as Tron Legacy and The Avengers).

Concept art for The Destroyer for Thor.

 

 

 

 

 

Jung Park who has worked on different video games, like God of War III and Mortal Combat.

Olympus Cave for God of War III

And those are just the two founders!  For a complete list of instructors you can see it here: Red Engine Studios Faculty

Of course, the issue of me being in Kansas and the school being in California was still there, hovering over my head like that depressed umbrella in the Abilify commercials.

Yeah, kind of like that...

I felt really lost even though I think in my heart I knew what I wanted to do.  Self-doubt is a terrible and insidious thing.  Brandon Perlow's advice was good and I knew it made sense to me, but other voices and advice kept inching in and I felt stuck - afraid of making a mistake.

In the course of weeks, flip-flopping back and forth, still wondering what to do overall, I did contact some people in the Women in Games group - more than a support group for women in the gaming industry, they have events, network and generally try to make the woman's voice louder in an industry that is very male-centric.  Their website is here: Women in Games International  I posted my problem to them, asking for advice, giving them my two choices: Attending VFS for a year with its intense program (if I got the Women in Gaming scholarship) where I would leave with an all around education, or attend Red Engine where I was focusing on what I really wanted to do, for a shorter period and less cost.  Outside of one woman who worked at VFS it was a rather resounding agreement that I should go to the school where I would walk out with a specific portfolio since that is what the Art Directors are looking for. 

I don't know that this needs a caption...

On an aside here: I seem to be drawn into industries that are rather male driven.  First it was Fantasy Illustration - while not an anti-woman arena, it was dominated by male artists and the work was very much 'babes in bikinis' type of stuff.  Then it was comic books (and not much has changed there sadly over the years), where there hadn't been much in the way of women artists and at the time, the independent companies weren't big competition against the big two - Marvel and DC.  While still working on illustration, I became involved in the Anime/Manga world.  When first attending conventions, I was a VERY definite minority in the artist alley (about a 1 to 20 ration of female to male).  Now on to video games where, the female representation is taking a lot of flak for falling back to the sexy female avatar and really, the 'babes in bikini' image.  This is about a 25 year span now and looking back on it all, not much has changed in regards to women in these industries, except for Anime/manga which, if you attend a convention, sometimes finds men in the minority of attendance (including at the artist alley tables).  But that's all a discussion for another time.

My Mother has spoken for many years about moving to Las Vegas; ever since we went there on a vacation.  With my attempting to plan a way to attend a school, she thought that this might be a good time to go.  Talking further with her, I realized that we might have a solution to the situation.  If we both move to Las Vegas, I could commute the one day a week to Las Angeles for my class - not a great thing, but only for a year - this would allow me to work and not have an additional rent in L.A. to deal with.  There were other reasons this would work out for us both and with this in mind, we have moved forward with our plans.  We've both been keeping quiet in general about it, not wanting to tell anyone anything till we were more sure of what we were doing and its why I've been pretty quiet on the blog and such.  Its hard to focus when you have decisions floating about, demanding you figure them out.  But now things are appearing to fall into place.

Today we were informed that the place we wanted was ours and is located in Henderson NV, not far from the Las Vegas Strip.  A day or so ago, we told our employers at Barnes & Nobles that we were giving our notice.  I've already put my down payment on my class at Red Engine and simply have to pay the rest of the tuition.  This is really happening.

The view from our new home....   Um... probably not.

While this is very exciting it is terrifying as well.  Moving again is overwhelming on its own, but we are going somewhere new that we love now and hope we will love living in.  And of course, I am moving further away from the East Coast where so many friends and family dwell and who I miss so much...  And worse, leaving Kansas where my brother and his family live. 

There is no way to know how the pieces are going to fall in this puzzle, but no one has assurances or absolutes.  That's the way of life.  Every choice has good and bad results and we can only hope the good will outweigh the bad.  So here we are...  Changes are happening and I am taking steps closer to the mountain I have to climb to get to where I want to go.