Posts Tagged ‘Site News’

Site News: We (and I mean “I”) am back . . . gotta love technology.

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

Oh . . . my . . . freaking . . . goodness. I don’t think you would believe it if you experienced the amount of arsing about I have had to go through to get a basic phone line and slow ADSL internet set up. I think I mentioned it before, but if you are anywhere in North America, don’t complain about your internet. I am paying over $110 a month just for the internet (ADSL1) and another $20 for the line rental because I need it just for the net.

Of course, I had to take a day off work to wait for a Telstra technician to come to my house to check my line. Sure he was 3hrs late and four phone calls to Telstra resulted in them getting my contact details wrong four times and having them lie to me and say the technician knocked on my door and I didn’t answer . . . in a one bedroom apartment with me sitting about a metre away from the door.

Then after I finally get a phone line and internet connection I buy a Linksys router which proceeds to utterly not work and do a great impersonation of a lump of inert plastic. I had read varying reviews but decided to take the plunge after having a few connection issues with our last modem, a DLink G604T. Well, let’s just say the rumours of Linsys’s decline in quality are apparently true. The thing wouldn’t even connect to the phone line and just spun it’s wheels before failing. The funny thing is I took it back and exchanged it for, yes, a DLINK G604T (hey, better the devil you know), which proceeded to just have a completely pain free, straightforward and quick setup. So there you go.

SOooooo, while I had planned on a video tutorial today, it turned out an old mate and his family were in town so it was down to the beach for a late big breakfast and then onto the Musuem to check out the “Day in Pompeii” exhibit in which my mate Jay Miller was Environment and FX lead for the CG recreation.

Stay tuned for Wednesday when I will organise an “offset tracking in After Effects” tutorial as it is something that I though was uncessarily complicated compared to Shake, but made sense the more I have used After Effects.

Til then, stay cool!

Site News: Still no internet access living in the middle of Melbourne

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Alrighty guys, this is a quick update on the status of the website. I realise that updates have not been as regular as they should have been, and that is a killer with a blog site, however my constant lack of internet access is something I can’t overcome for at least another 2-3 weeks.

So, if you are in the USA and complaining about your net connections, think about this:

I now live 10km away from the CBD of Australia’s 2nd biggest city and not only can I not get Naked ADSL2 (ADSL that doesn’t require signing up for a phone line), but I can’t get ADSL2 and can only get cable at a ridiculous price of around $140/mth for 60gigs download. As it turns out, I can’t even get connected for a phone line for 2 weeks. That’s right, it will take two weeks for a Telstra technician to physically come to my house to check the phone line to see if they can connect it, which will let me pay $20/mth justfor the privilege of even being able access to slower, more expensive internet with less download limit than ADSL2.

Australia is a technological backwater :(

More updates soon, hopefully!

Site News: Moving state so updates may be a bit late over the next two weeks

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

I am literally just about to finish packing all my belongings into tea chests for yet another move.  I am heading about 1300km to start a new (old) job on Monday.  Unfortunately not in visual effects or CG, but with the economy the way that it is, I am glad to have a very safe government job for as long as I want it.  As I said in the first post of this blog, I am in the same boat as a lot of you guys when it comes to looking for work and sometimes you have to roll with the punches to pay the bills.

 

It will take a couple of weeks to find a new place and settle in, so there may not be video tutorials for a little while as a lot of my equipment is boxed up.  I will see what I can come up with, so stay tuned and let me know how you are going with your projects and careers.

 

Matt

Welcome to The Junior Compositor

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

Hey guys and girls and welcome to The Junior Compositor, a site that hopes to give you an idea of life in the Visual FX industry.

 

That’s swell, but who are you?

My name is Matt French and I am a junior compositor & roto/paint artist.  I have been in the industry for 3 years and am working my way up the ranks.

 

So what’s it all about?

In a nutshell, this site is a chronicle of the ups and downs of working in the visual effects industry.  It’s not all peaches and cream, especially when you are starting out and I hope to provide some insight at how I go about it.  It might help you or point you in the right direction.

 

Who is it for?

I am not going to lie to here, while the site is partly for you it is partly for me.  By “you” I am trying to target these posts to students and people starting out in the industry.  By “me” I mean . . . errrr. me!  I also want this site to be a kick up the bum for me to always be moving forward.  If I have a goal each week, I can keep moving, learning & helping and not slack off.

 

What kind of content are you offering?

At this stage I will be getting the website all finalised (screw that ‘get it all sorted out offline and upload, I work LIVE baby!) so the first entries will mostly be blog-style posts but as I get stuff sorted out, there will be more screengrabs, tips ‘n’ tricks, scripts, video tutorials, looking at my ugly mug as I ponder the universe etc.  I certainly don’t have all the answers and can’t promise to inspire all the time, but that is life.

 

Why should I listen to you?

Hey, it’s no skin off my nose, but I may have some advice that might help you, and conversely, you might have some advice that helps me.  You get a lot more out of life if you operate like that.  Hopefully I can save you some time and get you better results by having you learn from my mistakes.  Please note that this is not a legal guarantee and if you want to sue me, I don’t have anything of value.

 

I have been working in the industry for about 3 years now.  I started out working on video game cinematic and DVD’s and then moved to a 3D animated TV series and have just completed work on my first couple of feature films.  Some people get to where I am faster, some slower but it seems I have had a steady and rounded progression so far.

 

 I have also taught introductory compositing at Griffith University’s Film School to animation and design students.