1.26.2013

Digital Diversions

    In November I set everything aside to try to organize and complete all of my web design software so that it would be usable to my web clients and I would be able to work faster. It's always a lot harder than I think it will be trying to be a coder while being a full-time parent at the same time, but by the end of 2012 I had gotten pretty close. So close actually that I decided I wanted to try to come up with one piece of content for every day of the month in January 2013.

    I underestimated how difficult that would be also. My experience so far indicates that everything that you think you will be able to find time for is much harder to find time for when you're doing childcare at the same time all the time. But, so far I have not yet missed a day and there are only 5 days left to go in January. Looks like I might make my goal.

    There have been days like yesterday where all I've had time to produce was a touched up Computer Generated Image. But actually, that's a pretty interesting/cool image and I did spend a good bit of time modeling those old AMProSoft characters in order to now be able to just tell the computer to crank out some images of them.

    My biggest challenge with creating a content item each day --my biggest problem with anything really-- is I get side-tracked. I have so many diverse interests and there is so much available information about all of them out there on the internet that it's hard to maintain a focus. One day I was intending to make one 3D model in blender for my computer generated images gallery. The next thing you know I've discovered they have a new version of the software available, tons of new tutorials are out there for free on YouTube. A few late night/early morning hours later I'm finally past my old road block (an inability to put skeletons in my models and move them all around and pose them.) Next, I'm totally diverted into digital sculpting again.

    Oh well, I have had a lot of fun creating content this month. I've also managed to cobble together some more substantive efforts like YouTube videos of my own. This recent one of my daughter Aya is particularly good.

    The other big bonus of having gotten sucked back into digital sculpting a bit is that the very bleak, desolate looking "under construction" page for AMProLand may get to come down some day soon. I bought a domain name for AMProLand many, many years ago with the intention of resurrecting the old AMProVerse characters from the 90s. Well now that there are 3D models of the characters all of that is much more of a possibility. I don't want to get into to many "I'm gonna" plans because it'll all probably be a lot harder than I think it will be while juggling child-care, but I'm pretty impressed with the "What I already did" with what digital sculpting I've gotten through so far. Just as an "oh by the way" the featured image for this blog post over to the right is an old Pirate Ship from the old comic books. It looks a lot better in the 2013 beefed-up version.

    In February I will definitely be slowing way down with the content creation. But man-o-man has it felt nice to have AMProSoft.com be an active website again. Slowing down will hopefully allow me to fix a lot of the broken stuff and complete more of the incomplete stuff. But it's great to sit back and realize that AMProSoft's output for 2013 is already comparable to 2012 and January isn't even over yet. Taking a bit of time to get a little more organized last year and then taking some time to pick up new skills this year has already been an incredible tangible boost in my web abilities.

    So that's pretty much what I've been up to this month.


No comments: