Last Day

today's my official last day at work. they are laying off TONS of people here, including staffers, people that have been here for years. weird. its quite the boring day today, though, and i didn't bring my laptop, so no coding for me today.

do you guys all jump around shops alot? do you like last days or not like them? i'm VERY excited for mine. I'll probably be back here in mid-late January, unless I go somewhere else. I'll miss the people, of course, but holy crap, do i want to see daylight! the past few evenings the cleaning crew comes in and turns on all the lights. Its usually really dark in here. We all squint and cower and complain when the lights are on, thats how accustomed we are to sitting in the dark staring at our monitors. its like we can't function with the lights on. We're all becoming Gollums!

Hmmm... i think i might be the only frequenter here that changes jobs alot, although I know Jacques is about to get into it. You guys that are wanting to get into this industry, does that kind of thing worry you? there is NO job stability in this industry, at least at the bigger places.

anyway, just some pointless thoughts, mainly because i'm sitting here bored, waiting for lunch to be served. for the next few months you won't see the little "hype" as the only logged in member 14 hours a day!

haha thats the way mate!!

I dont know if I should feel sorry for you, or congratulate you and offer you the simplycg soiled sock.

I'm not in the same industry so I wouldnt know how it feels with that kind of instability... But the gollumness, oh my goodness do I know that feeling, I have been in that mode for the past year, almost 2 years... and in two weeks i'll be resurfacing like you are now... Good times ahead and I hope you get some too!

That does worry me, but it's not that big of a deal in Canada, unless you are in Vancouver, maybe Toronto, but I'm in Edmonton, the two biggest places we have here is Bioware, and a Canadian Broadcast company, thats moving to Toronto

You would think CAN would have a bigger scene, thinking about VFS and such.

Anyway, it doesn't really worry me hype. I've always been easy in changes because I addept pretty fast to new situations. Not that I have any right talking (or even thinking) about it because I'm not in that scene (yet, I hope?). Still in school so who knows what'll happen.
And I'm a night person too. Good god do I hate it when the sun (FFS!) hits my monitor when I'm scripting..... A nice view really helps me when I'm looking for inspiration, just look into the emptyness for a bit and I'm good to go, but damn that big ball of lava When it starts to get dark I pretty much go in overdrive or something, so I kinda know the feeling too

Oooh you get lunch served?! Sweet!

As for me and the whole job stability thing - well I haven't really got to that point yet, still working very hard on this production and can't really see the light yet. I'm guessing that there are a lot of revolving doors in this industry though, and although your (Hype) job isn't 'stable' you are at least confident in the knowledge that you can jump from shop to shop. I guess once you get to that stage then it's not really such a worry, and I also believe that once you are in the industry, chances are good that you can stay there.

Made me laugh about the lights thing. We're pretty much the same - hunched over our desks in semi darkened room with no natural sunlight. Kinda sucks but I don't think I could work any other way! Just a killer on the eyes when I head out to the local market for fried rice or noodles.

Anyhoo - G'luck back in the small shop. I'm sure it'll be fun!

Wow, yeah I definitely get a bit paranoid about that whole job bouncy-aroundy way of life, but then again, people seem to do alright by it and I suppose there's an ebb and flow to the whole routine that once you get ahold of, starts to be just one more part of the job. Maybe I'm wrong here, and please correct me if I am. I have really actually had some stability working here at MAKE. Most places here in Minnesota are really small shops and have alot of bread and butter clients that serve as cash cows if you will. This enables them to keep animators around, letting them make cool stuff on the side, or cracking the whip about nothing. I don't know, I think that it would be nice to live the other way for a while. I get tired of the same ol clients, lame deadlines, and ho hum work. I keep hearing that film work isn't that glamorous, but for some reason, I want to find out for myself sometime in the future. So blah blah blah, I can imagine that my last day here will be an exiting one when it finally happens!

-Z

no more christmas parties?

Hype man, I hope all was good!

Like other people said, it's nice that you can confidently walk into another place and find a seat. Nothing beats that.

The studio I am at now is awesome. Everyone is so fun, just great people. The deadlines are effing mental. But the people make it worth it. If I may, I know for sure that if I walked in here at any day, I'd have a job. The problem with that is that the new studio I'm going at is in Vancouver and I'm in Halifax. (the equivallent of New York to Los Angeles I suppose:D ) And I know no one there woohooo!!!

As for the jumping around... I've been lucky. With the amount of work and people that have trickled through our studio on various service gigs and original productions, even for a small studio, sooooo many people had to be let go time and time again. But I've been lucky on that end. I was always on whatever show was in production. So this is really going to put me to the test.

The animators I know in the city pretty much all worked at the 3 studios we have in the city Which is good, it brings people together. 2 weeks ago I was out and about getting drunk with John K, the creator of Ren and Stimpy because he came down to visit one of the studio who did work for him. And my friends keep telling me stories of how fun it was to have buisness meetings with Jack black and Weird Al over the phone :D

So it's not all that bad I guess

I hope all goes well Hype!!

Halifax to Vancouver? Vancouver isn't a big place, but its a completely different Ocean

so where are ya gonna be working next?

I'm gonna be working at Vanguard animation. I'm starting Jan 2nd, so going on a flight, and all that moving and stuff after Christmas and New Years, it's gonna be pretty hectic!

I'm soooooo scared. Really.

Nice one in a roundabout way man! It's great to hear you've got someware solid to go to after you've finished with the current (ish) compnay, and that's great that you'll be working flat out at the small shop.

I'm a bit worried about this whole situation myself - not knowing if you've got a defiante future someware will no doubtubly make me paranoid - getting a morgage and everything will be a hasstle, but if i do end you working at a nice ass studio, then ill be happy - it'll be a great plus for the old CV, and inbetween new jobs ill just go travelling, so if everyhting works out like that, then boy ill be a happy boy!

Just today i've been offered a job doing 3d animation at a local company here - it's a great start, and im looking forward going over this week to have a chit chat with them, cannot wait!!

great to hear everyone's replies!

it's interesting to hear that the lack of stability makes everyone a bit nervous, but doesn't deter anyone from going after it anyway! that's the kind of dedication that gets you the job (along with tons of ovetime and no social life!)
Jaques, dude, i'm totally psyched to hear how it goes and how you like it there! it's actually kinda funny to me, cuz i know right now you're scared, but in 3-4 months, you're gonna be saying "this is the best! i'm having so much fun and learning TONS!". I would bet anything on it!
And congrats to you too, Iestyn!
Global, yep, we get (well, i don't get anymore being unemployed!) breakfast, lunch, and dinner (if you stay past 6pm, which is pretty much everyday), and you can go get snacks and sandwichs or soup all day, as much as you want. they have good things too, like fruit and 100%juices and stuff. its awesome. but i think its all going away on the next show in Jan.
Zach, yep, you're right about the ebb and flow. finding the next job just becomes part of the ritual. i kinda wish some of the places i've worked at would keep people around to do internal/personal projects. at the little shop i'm usually at, sometimes we get a bit of run-up time, to figure how we're going to do something if we know we're getting something tricky. but it doesn't happen as often as it should. and R&H staffers/lifers are the guys who do all the real R&D there, so i certainly don't get to do any of that there. if you applied at a big shop, what would you apply for? I think you're a modeller at Make, right? but you seem to be up on compositing, too?

i'm not totally sure yet if i'm gonna dash off to the smaller shop. i REALLY want time off for a while. I want to write some things, i'm gonna get back on my Maxscripting this week, i just bought the new Adobe Production studio, so i want to reformat my HD and get all that installed... lots of things to do! the only thing i've touched on my computer this weekend is my camera mapping tutorial, which will be posted as soon as i can figure out something to do about the size of it.

of course, if some irresistable offer from somewhere else presented itself, i'd do it, i guess, but i think i may try to stay off as much as possible.

especially if the next challenge is an animation one!

Hehe - I think the lack of stability is used as a lure by most companies! (well... that's my conspiracy theory anyhoo) As in, "your job is not stable here... but if you do well and give your soul to the studio... well we maaay think about keeping you on".

Hype, I gotta say that I am very jealous of your free fruit juice and snacks! At our place we have free coffee, water (since it's not drinkable from the tap) and Mama noodles (the instant noodle things that have as much nutritional value as cardboard and are just jam packed with MSG sodium yayness!)