Assignments

Per my project calendar, I have 3D work tonight. Then sketching Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; a review day on Friday, and more 3D and computer time on Saturday and Sunday. However, because I do have a job and have the occasional networking I want to do (Saturday is another ABOSG meeting), I'm keeping it all flexible.

For example, tonight I need to work on a small project for my real job. Eh, sometimes you have to take work home to get it going. This is more along the line of figuring out a better way to catalog our past and current artwork and production art, while still being able to access the art (search, view, etc.) in a better format than what is currently provided for our product managers. Particularly since by that point, the actual concept and sample art is no longer referenced, just the actual product. Us artists need more information than that and better images than a 50 x 50 pixel square. Which can sometimes be the only reference that their application provides. So, our art team administrative assistant and myself are taking this week to come up with a working solution that we can present to our creative manager upon his return.

Information request
Also, this morning I got an email from one of the guys in the Sketchgroup in reply to an email I'd sent out last Winter...heh, he finally found the email. Anyways, it was a request to the professional artists and students in the group for ideas on how to help keep my art team inspired at work:

"To learn more about your craft or grow creatively? What are the things that your company does to keep their artists happy? ....Besides working on fun games. Or have you heard stuff from other artists that you wish you all could do at work? I've heard about figure drawing sessions, trips to the zoo or to the nearby mall, having visiting artists come in and do workshops...are there other things that you do or wished your company did for their art department? Like maybe company sponsorship to conferences, etc."

He replied with the following bits of advice which I'll add to the suggestions I got from other artists:

"I try to keep the artists on my team happy by involving them in all aspects of the dev cycle (letting them try things that they may not actually have experience doing) so that they can grow as artists. I buy them supplies, and let them take anything that grabs their fancy from my office (pens, paper, markers) if they are inspired to do so to try their hand and concepting. I send them to interesting sites, invite them out to sketchgroup, etc - basic mentor stuff I suppose. The company also buys training dvds in digital painting, etc. from Gnomon."

So, more good ideas I'd like to present to the other artists tomorrow and see how we can come up with a plan to finally get this need recognized by our creative manager and implemented in some way for our department. More stuff to do! :)