Hitting my 400th comic yesterday seemed like quite a pivotal accomplishment. It means that I’ve been at this thing for quite a while now and I guess I’m no longer a newbie. Despite having around three years under my belt, I still feel that I have quite a ways to go as far as personal goals go.
I’m starting to become a lot more comfortable with my 3D skills. I’m at the point where I can usually accomplish the look I set out for when I’m doing a comic. Carrara has become fairly comfortable for me to use but I still need to become quicker with it. Sometimes I feel like there’s still a lot of trial and error going on when I’m working on a scene. Also, I’m still using version 7 of software most of the time. I need to start using version 8 more.
My biggest technical hurdle at this point is post production. These days most of that is being done in Photoshop Elements 8. I know there’s probably a number of you screaming, “Why aren’t you using Photoshop CS!?!?” Well, there are two reason for that. One is price and the other is the fact that CS is more program than I really need. I did use GIMP in the past but I find that I’m much more comfortable using Photoshop’s interface. Either way, I need more practice in the 2D world to accomplish what I want to do.
As far as the music side of BS/OD, I feel that I’m on track with my personal goals. Doing the weekly one hour compositions has helped me out quite a bit. I now have a number of ideas that are ready to be made into full songs. So, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.
I group of convention appearances coming up starting in two weeks with the Baltimore Comic Convention. I’m doing three conventions this year but next year I’m planning on around five. If all goes well, I be adding Anime Central and Dragoncon to my list in 2011.
Over this past year, I feel that I’ve started taking what I do a lot more seriously. I think that partially due to some of the people I’ve made friends with in the webcomic world: Phil from Webcomic Planet, Byron from 1977 the Comic, and Chris from Capes n Babes. There are more people I should add to that list but those three came to mind pretty quickly. With the conventions I have coming up, I’m sure I’ll be adding even more names.
