Check out my follow-up post after reading this one: More About Working at an Animation Company in South Korea

From 2010 to 2011, I was a 3D Artist at Digital eMation, an animation company in Seoul, South Korea. From the time, I started, people have wondered how I got the job; what job board or website did you use? Well, I definitely took the road less traveled.

When I came to South Korea, I came as a native English teacher and worked in Gwangju (Jeollanamdo) which is the sixth largest city in Korea. It was coming up on the time where you decide if you're going to renew your teaching contract. Being a teacher in Korea is kind of like being in a dream world. You have four classes a day and weekends off. With the cost of living, you can save half of your income and still eating out every day. It's easy to forget your actual dreams when your life is relatively easy and money is aplenty. Considering all of this, I was seriously thinking about doing a second year of teaching.

I went to visit a friend and while talking to him about it, he reminded me, "Don't you have a degree in animation?" And I responded, "Oh yeah!" It was kind of a wake up call. I was almost sucked into the black hole of the Korea dreamland.  I had to remember and realize that no matter what industry you're in, the longer you stay away, the harder it will be to get your big break. And you ultimately get further behind your peers that are "doing it". At that moment, I decided that I wasn't going to renew my contract and I was moving back to America.

I really liked one of my students' designs for her chess set, so I decided to finish modeling the pieces in 3D. Here's my WIP.

During the month of November, I led a 4-session workshop at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where I taught the students how to 3D model in Autodesk Maya. I taught them about the different aspects of 3D animation and specifics about creating good 3D models. Since I was teaching art students, I gave them the option to design their own chess pieces. We then used different 3D modeling techniques to bring our chess pieces to life. It was the first time these students were introduced to 3D.

I just finished tutoring a student in animation over the past year. I taught him the basics of 3D modeling and 3D animation. He is now attending the Academy for Interactive Entertainment. Through our lessons, he is equipped to attend his program and is ahead of his peers by a semester. My recommendation from his parents can be see on my LinkedIn page here.

I started a site a few years ago called 3D Gumshoe. The concept came from me working on different 3D projects and having to scour Google search and forums for hours before I found the answer to my problem, if I found the answer at all.

I wanted to create a site where it just had the solution and that's it. Not 10 people reiterating how they're having the same problem also, or people responding about how they don't know how to help you.

3D Gumshoe is a solution aggregator to help 3D folks out when their 3D problem starts acting crazy or when it's actually user error. :) I hope to expand to more programs in the future, but I'm starting out small for now. I hope the site can be of help to a lot of people. And I also hope that it adds value to the 3D world.

SUPPORT THE SITE!!!
http://www.3dgumshoe.com/
http://www.facebook.com/3DGumshoe
http://www.twitter.com/3DGumshoe
http://www.youtube.com/3DGumshoe

I just started a new job at LED FastStart as an Animation Specialist. My original program is Autodesk Maya. I also learned how to use Softimage XSI when I worked in South Korea at Digital eMation. At LED, they want to use Cinema 4D, so this is the 3rd 3D program I'll be learning. Here's an image from a tutorial I did last week.

It's not the most impressive model, but I like how the tutorial took you through all of the different tools that Cinema 4D has to offer. It is definitely a powerful program. I've wanted to learn it and use it with After Effects, so it seems as if I'm on my way!