The Good and Bad of 2017 and you expectations for 2018.
polycounter lvl 9
Hey Polycounters, I hope you're all enjoying your holidays! 
Please stay safe out there, 2018 is just beginning and let's hope it's a good one.
Le's try and recap the positive things and negatives that happened to you this year, things in which you succeeded or failed and share with us your hopes and expectations for 2018!
The Good:
-Graduated school and found myself a job as an animator in a game studio .
-Became much more social by actually getting out of my house and participating in events and social activities!
-Improved a lot in my animation skills.
-I actually started to do traditional animation at home, on paper and I'm really enjoying it (Big YAYYY for this one)!!!
The Bad:
-Despite working on projects at home, I still greatly lack discipline and there's ton of project I had I couldn't finish or even start
-I haven't gone into the gym as I promised I would and I'm really out of shape ( a fking slob if may say so)
-I haven't played enough games...only one this year (AC unity)...I miss playing games (but they require so much time)
Expectations for 2018:
-Improving more in animation (both traditional and 3D)
-Be more disciplined at home (sleep earlier, wake up earlier)
-Get in freaking shape
-Be even more social around people
-Finish my projects and re-work my demo-reel
-Hopefully get some times to experience more games !!!
Cheers people!
Please stay safe out there, 2018 is just beginning and let's hope it's a good one.
Le's try and recap the positive things and negatives that happened to you this year, things in which you succeeded or failed and share with us your hopes and expectations for 2018!
The Good:
-Graduated school and found myself a job as an animator in a game studio .
-Became much more social by actually getting out of my house and participating in events and social activities!
-Improved a lot in my animation skills.
-I actually started to do traditional animation at home, on paper and I'm really enjoying it (Big YAYYY for this one)!!!
The Bad:
-Despite working on projects at home, I still greatly lack discipline and there's ton of project I had I couldn't finish or even start
-I haven't gone into the gym as I promised I would and I'm really out of shape ( a fking slob if may say so)
-I haven't played enough games...only one this year (AC unity)...I miss playing games (but they require so much time)
Expectations for 2018:
-Improving more in animation (both traditional and 3D)
-Be more disciplined at home (sleep earlier, wake up earlier)
-Get in freaking shape
-Be even more social around people
-Finish my projects and re-work my demo-reel
-Hopefully get some times to experience more games !!!
Cheers people!
Replies
- Finally getting into cryptocurrency trading, something I've been wanting to do for a year!
- Released my first album!
The bad
- Broke my back while snowboarding, though doing much, much better now.
- Still have a portfolio which hasn't landed me a job yet
-Finally graduated college after years of hard work.
-Slowly paying off thousands of dollars of credit card debt that I accumulated through focusing on school full time.
-The founder of Artella reposted one of my portfolio pieces onto Artella's social media pages.
-Made some progress in building my network.
-Landed a small freelance writing job for an art community
The bad
-Celebrating my first NYE alone in 6 years.
-Still haven't been able to land a job with my portfolio.
-Has had a really hard time generating portfolio pieces due to constantly feeling drained.
-Struggling to get medical help for my anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
-Still living at home with parents
-The passing of my grandfather and an aunt that I knew from when I was a baby.
Goals for 2018
-Self care. Lots and lots of it. I won't be able to get an industry-quality portfolio if I don't address the health problems keeping me from creating quality content.
-To leave an unsatisfying job for something more fulfilling.
-Build a more stable freelance career.
- Finally landed a steady bill paying job
- Through self discipline actually started too enjoy making art again
- Maybe a move interstate in the near future
- Oh...and new romance might be on the cards, because a clairvoyant said so
The Bad:
- My arthritic knee has been acting up lately
- Put on a ton of weight over winter
- still adicted too chocolate
- For the life me, can't seem to clock zombie mode for CoD WW2
New Years Resolutions
- Hit the gym
- Have a more positive outlook
- Get out of the house, not live like a hermit
- Stop watching the news and simply enjoy life
job search
Good:
some good freelance, lots of variety
landed a steady gig
2018
expand more into tech-art python & pymel
blender
whittle down the to-animate list.
new season The Expanse and Westworld
Still alive
Have a job
Bad:
No game job
Put on a ton of weight
Despondent mood
2018:
Get a place of my own
Have an industry job
Get out more
Lose weight
Pick up some hobbies
- Learned a lot
- Finished making two games by myself. Snake and pong but hey... You need to start somewhere.
Bad:
- Too much alcohol.
- One more year without a partner.
2018:
- Stop drinking. Its stupid.
- Learn more programming.
- Learn more math.
- Learn serbian.
- Make more games, start putting them on the marketplaces.
- Find a partner finally.
Lol, that's crazy. Everywhere on the Internet and social media, I see everyone jumping into this cryptocurrency thing, buying all types of coins online...I'm scared to get in. The whole thing sounds so complicated and feels like a gamble...
For those who got into Blender this year, please don't drop it. 2.8 should come out this year as promised by the devs and it's GON BE CRAYZEEE!!
For those who have hard time finding jobs, I wish you all my luck and sincere wishes!
heres some of the good from my perpsective.
-HIt the Ultra focus button with my art, and made improvements i didnt think possible
-Hit the mega focus button with the gym, and made some nasty gains.
-Learned Unreal, to a point where I can confidently use it.
-Made some of the dankest friends in the Polycount hangout. Keep holding it down gangstas!
Cons
-Still cant Bench 225
-Winter slowed down my gym time. Lost a pound.
-My social skills kind of got a bit worse imo.
SO for this year.
Gonna travel more
save more money, gott buy some property.
go HAM in the gym, and make sure I eat consistently and correctly. Gotta look sexy for GDC.
Dance more salsa, I realize I'm getting to old to get krunk anymore, and you look good doin salsa sooo.
learn how to cook chicken i dont hate, as well as a killer brunch.
Positive:
-Got my first client for freelance work.
-finished university
-moved out of my parent's house
- bought a new video card for my desktop (Geforce 1070!)
Negative:
- lost my treasured mp3 player that i had for 9 years
-My old laptop broke
-my older brother moved to a different state.
My hopes for 2018
- get more freelance work.
- get a girl friend lol
- visit my brother
-improve my 3D modeling skills
-improve my texturing skills
- Work out once in while
-improve my eating habits
Positive:
- Was offered 2 interviews for games companies in the UK
- was offered an interview for an outsourcing company in Spain
- Was offered 2 freelancing jobs
- Had some paying work
- Got to work on my portfolio a lot and did my longest project yet , 5 months.
- Played with MIDI and interfacing with UE4
- Work was featured By Quixel on facebook , i was on the front page of artstation twice and Marmoset tool bag featured my work on their website.
Negative:
- Didn't get payed for some work,
- One of my chickens died
- Friend moved out of town
My Hopes for 2018
- Continue working on my portfolio as i have been hope to get 3/4 quality portfolio pieces out this year
-Polycount Recap (a while back, probably like in February last year)
-Job
-Moved back to Seattle
-Went to a bunch of game dev stuff
-Went back to the gym more (it's in the work building)
-Josh Lynch's Material Mentorship
Negatives:
-A demo/game I did freelance work for, early last year, got canned
-Got scammed on a potential apartment to move to in Seattle
-Laptop broke down
-Gained some pounds during freelance and work. Stressed over it too much. Wanted to wrap up on a freelance gig, which finished on time, on the side, but my routines were way off, especially during some overtime, on working out and what to eat.
Hopes for 2018:
-Wrap on another freelance gig (on a much smaller scale) while balancing with my main job.
-Better work/life balance
-Heading to the gym on a more consistent routine
-Probably go to other game convention events, aside from GDC.
* expanded the TA team with some awesome people!
* worked on some great AAA projects
* my wife getting her masters in project management
* built myself a kick ass ultra quiet gaming rig
The bad:
* Shanghai winters... 5 degrees never felt as cold
Hopes for 2018:
* hope for interesting career developments..?
* hope that we keep getting awesome projects this year
* become a substance using harry houdini... just need to spend more time on those 2 things
* finally meet other polycounters than those at work in real life
* somehow scratch enough money together to buy that damn Lego Millennium Falcon
* The time in Finland has strengthend my relationship
* Experienced living in a new country
* Managed to improve my skillset
* I managed to prevent my grandfather's ~40 year old boat to be sold
The bad:
* My portfolio still doesn't land me a job interview and most probaly won't in a long time, it's been 1,5 years without work living of my savings
* My father-in-law passed away and mother-in-law needs help, their house badly needs to be repaired which eats up all our savings
* My GF's company is now cutting its team, so with the renovation starting this week she most probably will be out of her job next month and as we found out unemployement benefits in Finland without joining a union aren't even close enough to pay the rent - guess lesson learned XD
* We will probably have to move back to Austria and that's something we personally really don't want to
2018:
* Just give me a short break to take a breath - 2016 wasn't great, 2017 was worse and now 2018 is starting in a fantastic fanshion XD
* Last chance to get the job. If it doesn't pan out this year, I have to drop out of the games industry to do whatever comes up and move on with my life.
Tough life though, Best luck for this year man. A lot of us went through this!
Tough times hit you every now and then. Take it with a smile, accept the challenge and move on
- I made headway in a lot of medical debt that I have been paying off for a few years now.
- I had an amazing time at 2017's SIGGRAPH. Got to make a few new contacts and got to see some old ones.
- I finished multiple projects that I feel strengthen my reel. I'm starting to realize that quick one off projects work a little better than long drawn out projects.
- I've started actively getting out of my comfort zone with animation and getting excited over working with movements that challenge me.
- Towards the end of the year I started taking more time to be a little social instead of grinding away non-stop on animation.
- I took the time to improve my health and get in better shape. I've lost probably 70 pounds over the course of the year and gained muscle to boot. I feel that if I'm to excel at animation, I need to make sure my body can be in shape enough to do various movements in reference footage. That and in general it makes you feel better and more productive.
- I applied at my first animation related job. Got denied. So I got that out of the way!
The Bad:
- While SIGGRAPH has yet to not be worth it. It's pricey to attend when not a student.
- Working full time (lets not forget excessive overtime) at a job that has nothing to do with animation can be frustrating. If I wasn't at work, i was at home working on animation related things. I was able to fit in time to maintain my health, but it really slowed my progress in developing my animation skills and isn't very mentally healthy.
- Around October my job switched shifts which made it very hard to get to the gym as I could no longer go in the mornings. So while I managed to maintain my weight loss, I lost a considerable amount of progress in getting to where I want to be health-wise.
- I don't really see it as bad, but I put in my two-weeks notice on new years eve. I saved up a enough money to be able to live for two or three months. So that I can focus purely on developing my animation skills, getting back in shape (again), and finding my first animation job. I view it as a very risky move and has gotten me some concerned looks from friends and family, but ultimately, I feel this is the best decision I could make if I want to get into the industry. I know I perform well under pressure, so why not take advantage of that.
Hopes for 2018:
- I'm hoping to get more involved in Polycount and the animation community in general. I've always been more of a lurker than a poster, but hopefully I can make that change.
- I aiming to get hired on at a studio by the end of first quarter. It probably won't happen, but you never know!
- I hope I can attend SIGGRAPH again this year, but I probably wont be able to afford to unless I get some sort of income.
- And in general I hope I can continue to push to better myself every day.
Animator here. Glad some stuff are going well for you. There's lot of opportunities right now for Animators. What area do you live in?
Thanks, I'm trying to maintain a positive outlook on it all. But leaps of faith are always at least a little scary.
Unfortunately, I'm currently on the eastern side of the US, specifically the greater Nashville area of Tennessee. There are a few studios here, but they are primarily motion graphics or I can't seem to get a response. So I'm completely open with moving, though the process financially worries me if there isn't relocation assistance. Hopefully I can find some remote freelance work soon to help assist with my inevitable relocation.
just gonna focus on learning new software this year , like Blender, advanced Maya,,susbstance painter etc
Hope to increase the number of freelance contracts and stop getting so ill with colds and flu!
will definitely go on a diet also:)