This Vacate thing.
I'm hard at work packin and sorting.
I realize I have about 10 days before I'm actually booted out by either the Park or the old Lady and her Lawyer.
But that also means I no longer have to live AND WORK close to Culver City.
Anyone with a job in Seattle-San Diego-Burbank-Portland.
I'm available.
Mike Christian. Hook me up with Google.
I can put the stuff in storage and come to work. Come back for it later.
I'm ready for a new horizon.
Actually have a little wiggle coming from Boulder which I hope pans out.
I think my angst and depression are draining a bit.
UPDATE-I'm in a a wait it out mode. No fire is being effectively lit under me at this time.
34 comments:
We can just table disability-social security if the company HR lets me by.
I'd rather work.
Be sure to contact Joe Shoopack down here at SOE Ellis. jshoopack@soe.sony.com
Will do Tom.
That would be wacky if I got to go back to San Diego. Just in time for Beata's ComicCon.
One thing you should know Ellis, I don't think we hire people to strictly be concept artists any more. However if you have 3-D modelling, texturing or animation skills plus you can concept your own stuff, that's a plus. You have experience with some or all of these, right Ellis?
Let me know and maybe I can help with keeping your name in front of Joe.
I sent Joe a short letter, mainly touting my modeling background. And that I was self studying rigging. I guess I should have also emphasized my prodigious photoshop skills. As far as concepts, I just said "you know I can draw and paint."
I just realized it may be insane to apply at Sony.
Application " Have you ever worked for Sony Online."
Me "Yeah. For about a week. Then I left and went to the Neverhood."
Maybe not ideal, but I don't think that's so bad Ellis. It would have been worse if you had stayed at Sony long enough to get other people in the project dependent on your work, and THEN left. Or if you had stayed just long enough to earn a bad reputation and then quit. As it is, it means you, as a jobseeker had two irons in the fire, and your preferred offer letter got to you second. That happens to a lot of people.
Did you actually work for Verant/Sony Online or was it actually 989/Sony Interactive?
The latter I'm fairly sure. I'm not even sure online was an entity at the time.
Mike has been with Microsoft for a while now. Shoot me a line at rick@rickschmitz.com and I can put you in touch with him. I think he's doing sports games mostly these days, but he's REALLY well connected up here, so he might be able to hook you up with others who are looking for people.
There's a lot of Kinect activity happening right now... look at the MS site for info on the various game stuff going on.
As for me, I'm not hiring at the moment, but if I were I would probably be looking for a 2D artist who could do illustration and UI work for smart phones as well as Flash animation. We are looking at possibly using vector art as well.
PopCap just downsized, so that's not a good avenue, but Amazon has spun up a game studio and they are looking for new folks from time to time.
There's a lot of contract work up here (mostly for MS, but others as well), and a lot of that is found through these agencies that provide some benefits. That's a hard thing for a guy with a family to swing, but it might suit you well. I think that was more or less what Scott was doing recently, so you might talk to him about that sort of work.
There's a guy at the Zynga office up here who was looking for more artists fairly recently... I can send on your info to him as well.
Zynga and Trion also have branches in San Diego. John Abad is a senior programmer at Trion. Did you know him? He was the new guy back in BlueSky days, one of the people that went to comics every Wednesday with us; good friends with Keith Freiheit. He's on LinkedIn.
Thanks Rick. Tom. Rick, give me Mike's email at gunnellis@yahoo.com. I'm connected with him on linkedin but I could just send him a direct message with email.
I'm actually pretty fair with Flash Rick.
I was looking at a cgi newsletter. That gave me the idea, why not Singapore?
Bunch of good ideas
I took a bunch of books to a little meet up at Doug T's house yesterday. I was going to give them away. Instead, without any look at what I had, a fellow that teaches illustration at Fullerton took the whole tub and said he'd sell them to his students. Cheap of course. Better than nothing right?
He let me know this morning that I really ought to set some sort of price on my 1st edition Disney's Illusion Of Life. It can go for 100 bucks. We decided the student discount will be offer it for 50, take 40.
Good guy.
If I got a job in Singapore, I'd be curious if they extended the Japanese culture thinking about the window sitters. I might be good at that.
Ellis you made me google japanese "window sitters" in order to understand your post.
I thought everyone knew about window sitters. Great job.
Ellis, we have room for you here if you decide to head up to Seattle. Spare bedroom, private bath and room in the garage to stow your stuff. Please feel free to crash with us.
Keith is at Trion as well, isn't he?
Is there anyplace that Zynga DOESN'T have an office?
Holy Heck Ronnie. I need to drop a line to Mike Christian right now. You're on if Mike has a place on the Microsoft campus for me
I'd love to work at Trion. Shot word to a guy named Den Johnson, fello Okie, that I was available. I think he's probably looking more for Scott. Scott should linkedin to Den Johnson and send him some links of his work.
I sent a note to Mike. We'll see Ronnie. Fingers crossed.
Ellis, criminey, I go offline to drive down to SoCal and look at all the action here. Don't interpet my lack of comment as indifference: been on the road.
Any luck? Ronnie, you're a good man to offer up your guest room for a cousin. Glad you listed the "private bath"...we know how picky Ellis can be!
Oh yes. Beggars CAN be choosers.
Marty. No sweat. I drive these big threads up to large numbers quick. It looks more buzz-buzz than it is.
buzz buzz ...
I'm sorry, Ellis. I can't be of any help to you. I've gone off onto the dark side myself. In addition to getting a gig teaching Senior Portfolio at the Art Institute of Cal., San Diego (one day a week for four hours), I did also interview for a gig as Ass't Director of Admissions for that school. But I found out at the end of the interview that there is no immediate opening; they're just fishing for likely candidates in case one opens up. Leavened into all of that were interviews today at Sprouts (very nice store) and CVS (I have a 2nd interview on Saturday with a guy named Don). Anyway, as the Scots say, "Keep yer pecker up!!" (they really do say that).
I'm with you Tom C. I'm kinda enjoying trashing stuff that should have been trashed ages ago.
Bad experience for today was thinking because Game Spot buys used games, it would be worthwhile to take my games over and sell them. They didn't buy all my Pixar comps from Heavy Iron because they were still plastic sealed! She (the clerk) said it's not used. Plus still sealed might mean stolen?? maybe , who knows. Long story short, the nice games she took, probably about 12 ps2 games- I got 3 bucks! Complete waste of valuable time. She wanted to give me the same thing for the ps2. I kept it.
Sent a note to Mike C. He sent back one wanting to know what I really wanted to do. He's not in games so much now. I thought it was good to be asked specifically what I really wanted. Except that the answer is read books and nap.
Ellis,
No more gaurentees when I can get to the bank, but it should be before the end of the week for certain.
(Today the pres. is coming to my university and I think I'll be surrounded by traffic for the rest of the day.)
As for selling used games, that is my plan for raising money for Doug's project (after I pay you, of course). I already sold some earlier, and I agree that those places underpay. I sold about 5 practically new wii games for 12 bucks. As for ps2 games, they seem particularly low in price. Oh, and I almost sold a like-new Star Trek (the new J.J. version,) for one dollar. I ended up going for the $2 trade credit. Goodness knows what I will get with that as they sell almost everything for $20.
Good luck with the job search, Ellis and Tom.
What books have you been reading Ellis?
Hey, I just got a Linked-In request from a guy named Dwayne Mason who used to run the Mo-Cap studio at Sony Interactive. He's just started his own company in Los Angeles - might be looking for people.
I also notice that Jerry Huber is a Senior Producer at a place called Griptonite Games/GluMobile in Redmond Washington, if you end up going there Ellis. Rick, have you spoken to Jerry?
I have not spoken to Jerry, Tom. And I have him in LinkedIn. Thanks. The mocap thing also sounds interesting.
Benjamin, no sweat.
Sorry you went through the same rip off for your games. Ebay is the only way if you aren't trying for quick cash.
Some fellow has opened a line of communication from ebay about buying sketchbooks from me. He may buy about 5 of my old sketchbooks for 900 bucks. That would be some nice dough right about now.
Tom Moon. I've been reading a lot of books. Mostly mystery, adventure.
Right now I'm on an Erle Stanley Gardner jag reading Perry Masons.
Before Perry Mason I read Ann Coulter's Demonic. Library copy of course. Took forever to read because I can't read something for any extended time unless I'm following a story.
I recommend it. Understanding that mob rule is something that threatens America is a serious theme. I learned a lot about the difference between the French Revolution and our own.
Hey. I just talked to my first Lawyer. Bill Handel on-the-law. KFI radio. Marginal legal advice.
He told me to tell these guys to "Pound sand." His signature term.
I may not tell them that, but I'm definitely giving myself enough breathing room for October.
I guess I will be at that Con after all Beata.
Had a lot of recent success with ebay. And now I need to go back to that and hit it some more.
I need to get on here more often... I sent out a messege to Ellis and Mike and it turns out they've already talked!
Yes, I've been in touch with Jerry. I was interested in a senior artist position over at Griptonite/Glu and Jerry put in a good word for me. Sadly, as a recent AD I was overqualified for the job. It's all turned out well in the end, though... I'm happy where I'm at.
In looking at Gamasutra I see that Trion in SD is looking for a Concept artist, and there's a bunch of LA jobs: Supergiant is looking for a 3D Artist, Viseral Games needs a contract Concept Artist, Kojima Productions is looking for a Concept Artist. Also, SuckerPunch up here is looking for a Concept Guy too. And that's just what I found on Gamasutra... you may find more if you do a search on Indeed.com.
For Indeed.com search for the postion you are interested in (such as Senior Artists, Concept Artist, etc.) and the city you want to work in and it brings up loads of results.
Thanks Rick. I had given up a lot of the job aggregation type of sites. Need to get back at that.
I'm screwing things up now by being determined to stick. Ebay is treating me real well just recently. Piling a little dough up. Marty was my first big sale.
Just sold my Assassin sketchbook from Bluesky for 250 bucks. That felt good.
But I should continue to focus on a real deal job.
Glad to hear you are hangin' in, El!
Post a Comment