Let The Resolutions begin!

New years resolutions. i love them just for the simple fact its an excuse or reason for people to change something about them selves. I guess its crazy to think about the whole thing. the one holiday that has no meaning or purpose except.

Guy 1: Hey! its a new year lets get drunk.

Guy 2: Ok.

Guy 1: (after the hang over.) Wow that was horrible i want to never do that again.

Guy 2: oh yeah!  you ought to make that a resolution.

BAM! the birth of new years resolutions. I just always think its funny that what people want to do in the new year. its like I’m fat i want to lose weight for my resolution. cause quite honestly any other time of the year there isn’t a reason for me to loose weight.  i have to do it in the beginning of the year….. yeah. can’t do it cause your over weight and you want to do it just for your self. NO! its my New Year’s Resolution! Its just funny to me maybe you never thought of it the way i do. or you just think im a jerk. no matter what its funny to me. yeah well there are things i plan on doing this year so here is my list.

1. Be the best DaD as possible.
2. Be there for Christina when ever needed
3. Become a better Photographer
4. Get my farm back in shape from the windstorm
5. get 2-4 more goats for the woods.
6. Keep Growing and Learning in my field.

-MeaD.

Week of Hate! Day 5

Welcome to the Last day of Hate:

Client Approvals 

some save the worst for last

Ok in my trade i make animations, Logos, Design things. Which means people pay me to be creative. Yeah pretty awesome when you really think about it. I get paid to just use my imagination and put it to paper/the computer. So let me go thru the process with you so you can understand and hate with me. So someone comes up to me and says i want you to design a logo for my company & i would like you to make a open animation for a TV to play when you enter the building of our logo flying in with some music. lets call it Dogs’R'us. ok so we have this company and we ask for direction

do you have anything you want in the logo?

are there specific colors you are looking for? 

client answer: ummmm yeah we want a dog paw in it some where. but thats all we really know we want.

So round one ok we make our logo for them and it has a paw in it and looks great so we give it to them and they look at it and say:

What? why is the paw brown we wanted orange and the font should be blue and fun like a kid wrote it out.

So i know what your thinking they didn’t tell you that. They said they just wanted a paw they didn’t say they wanted a certain kiddy drawn look. Well hate to let you know but this is how it is every time some one always tells you something else after its done and your expected to change it and do it for the same price. When is the last time you went to the mechanics and they changed your oil and after wards you say “oh i forgot to tell you change the front tires too.” Then they do it without charging you. Yeah thats why its so hard to charge people for a product they can’t touch they think of it in a different way. So now we make the changes to the logo as they asked and they love it. YAY! we made a logo for them with only one round of revisions we call that “LUCKY” in the industry. SO now lets move on to the animation they want to play in the lobby of the store on a TV.

So for your animation what do you want?

Client: We just want the logo to fly in set there for min. and fly off the screen. and can you make it loop.

Ok anything else. What is the format you want this in? on a DVD? Do you need to have this HD? or just regular SD?

Client: On DVD is great. i don’t think we need it in HD so let just go with SD. and thats it.

So we have all the info we want to make this wonderful logo fly up and staying for a min. then flying away and repeating. we create our wonderful animation and it fly in holding and flying out and it loops and its on DVD for them and its great we deliver it to them. get ready here is the best part.

Client: Umm looks nice. we found out our tv is HD so we need it HD is it?

No its not cause you said you didn’t need it HD so i didn’t make it HD.

Client: hmmm well make it HD for us now cause we need it in that format. And where are the sound effects i mentioned to you when it flys in. I can’t hear them or i don’t think they are loud enough. and now that i see it can we have it hold for only 30 seconds i minute is just too long for it to be up there i think.

Ok i can do all of that for you but its going to cost you more cause the budget wasn’t to have it in HD and Audio was never mentioned either. I can send you over a new quote on how much that will be.

Client: WHAT!!! it not that hard to make it HD is it! i mentioned i need SOUND IN IT IN MY First email. 

well all the emails i have didn’t mention any audio at all. The animation has to be completely recreated in HD cause it has to be built in a large format for the High Definition.

Client: what ever send me the qoute i just can’t belive i am getting charged extra just to make it HD and you to add sound  that was mentioned already for you to put in it.

I KID YOU NOT. this is how some clients are its amazing how they think that all i do is a click and BAM done lets give it to them. its not i can’t make something small suddenly huge in HD with a click of a button. this is a very good reason to back everything up in email which i do. But this goes back to the Client is always right. The worst thing in the world is when you have a product you really like. I mean man this is great this could win an award great. Then the client comes back to you and says…..”I like it but I don’t think its what i am going for and i really just want something else. Something with a little less…..i don’t know lets just take out….[all the good elements]..then i think we have something good.” 

AHHHHHHH

the worst feeling is coming out with a product you are not proud of but once were. i have a huge graveyard of projects that i loved then the finished product turned to something I will not admit i did. But the client is always right! my buddy harrison worded the best about how we work and how people think they know more than us.

What I’m getting at is you don’t stop your doctor at the point he or she is about to save your life and say, ‘You know, I don’t want to step on any toes, and I know I’m not a doctor, but I’d like to see if you could do this by continuing the knife in its original path and try removing it from the other side.’  You trust that this person understands all the details involved and is therefore qualified to make the decisions necessary to make for a desirable result.  Yet, at the same time, both you and your doctor know that you are the one with the money, and he or she is the one working for you.

-Harrison Ambs

So i know i haven’t fully painted the picture for you yet so lets go back to the animation we do all the client has asked for and send it back to her and this is what we get.

Client: looks great.

Ok so we are ready to send the final copy to you where would you like it mailed?

Client: i can come pick it up. before you do that make the logo hold for a min. I realized i just don’t like it there sitting for 30 secs not long enough. then its complete. thanks.

(client hangs up)

man i really wish i was joking with you but this is not how bad it can get this is a mild case. but all of this has happened. 

so yeah i hope you can join me in the hate of client approvals. now have had saying the longest rant of my life i do have to say this. not all clients are like this. I have had a lot of great clients that welcome all the input from the professional. Who is completely open to all ideas and also brings great ideas with them with a list of details of everything that is required in the project. I am not throwing all clients into one barrel here cause this doesn’t apply to all i have worked with way more great clients then the ones i am talking about. Ones that understand the process and all the work that goes into that process. On the other end people that don’t really get the process but try to understand all the things needed to let me preform my job as best as i can for them. i just want to make that clear. i am really venting on the rare pain in the butt that thinks they could do a better job there selves but have me do it for them anyway.

ending that note here is a great little thing for you to listen too.

Miss I Don\’t Know How to View a Rough Cut Lady

-MeaD.

Week of Hate! Day 4

Ok so i couldn’t decided on what i wanted to rant about today there are two different types of people that just annoy me. I couldn’t decide on which one i hate more soo

Two for one deal for hate today! get it while its hot.

People Who Ask Questions Before Looking!

Ok so i know every single one of you have been in this situation. This really doesn’t apply to the category i am going to use as an example but here it goes. So I think its safe to say that Everyone has been annoyed by people that just start asking questions and not using there own brain power to figure it out.

I get asked all the time how to do something or where is this at in this certian program. I could care less if you ask me these things cause if you were never shown you will never know. But the execption is if you never look you will never know either. You have to try how can i help someone that won’t help themselves.  I use to deal with this alot when i worked in news and still some times deal with it from time to time. It really just annoys me. When someone comes to me “i don’t know how to do it where is that thing i have seen before…bold i think it was….?” When it gets to that this is where i say….did you look? this is the question if answered right i will show without a problem in the world. but if answered NO. i look at them and say ok well lets look and see. so we look and well what do you know its under type there we go all better as i slip away from a man that has been in his job longer than i have been alive. the next thing is Can you do this in this program (a program that i do not use) umm i don’t know look it up and see.

Well how do i do that? 

get ready people of all shapes and sizes for the button that will change your life

F1

(thats the button beside the ESC key)

this is called help it helps you find things. yup its like your own personal data base of this program and information on all it does and where its at. Well I’m working on a Windows machine and i know you run a Mac. well here we go this is what we call a universal key no matter what program and what computer your on this is ALWAYS the help button. So for you people that have just started in this strange and different world with all these Webs and wondering where are all the wires are on wireless things. Just step back sometimes and when your confused and can’t find something hit that little button. After you have used all the power of your brain and grey skull then just ask someone.

*one exception i have found for this. you need something done fast and now and don’t know where something is thats OK. Sometimes you are in a crunch and gotta get that crap done and theirs not enough time to figure it out. We are all there sometimes.

 

———————————————–

 

Oh yes! I am delivering the Hate today.

 

People that ask for input that don’t want to hear it.

So this is one of my most hated types of people. These types of people are people not really looking to improve there work cause in there wonderful minds there is nothing to fix. they are trying to show off there work instead of seeking input from someone to critique it. Every time i have ever dealt with these types of people they get so defensive of there work. They act like they are the Leonardo da Vinci of our time and you are asking them to change the smile of mona lisa. The sad part is these people truly believe in there head there work is soo amazing and they don’t expect you to come up with anything that could be changed on there work. I have realized with dealing with so many of these people in my life these people are usually not that great to begin with. They have just been around people that do not understand or get what they do or how they do. so they think they are amazing at it cause they can’t do it. You keep getting told over and over how amazing you are guess what people…. Yes you are going to start to think you are the Leonardo da Vinci of our time. BUT!! when you start to place these people in an environment with people that can do all they can do and most can do better they start to get into defense mode. Someone that is saying that my stuff is not good enough everyone likes it except you so… there is something wrong with you not me my work is fine. The bad part about these people they never get better they just get worse in what they do or they just stay in the same rut they started in. All i can really do is give art examples since that is all i have experienced. I have seen people better than me. Yes people who did what i did and they just naturally did it better. They just did what they did and thats it and bam out did me by a mile. So we are in all the same classes all the way up to graduation and i turned out to be the best. Why? this person had so much potential to create and do great things but i became better than this person. Why you ask. Well there was a huge difference between me and this person.

 

ME

I knew i was not the best.

I knew i could improve in what i do.

I had so much to learn and wanted all the knowledge i could get.

I knew my teachers were greater in skill than I was and I knew I could learn something from them.

 

The Other Person

I am the best here.

I don’t have much to improve what i already have.

I have learned all the skills i need.

the skills i have get me by just fine.

I could teach this class if i had too.

 

Notice the difference but the one thing that i did every time that this person never did was i asked for help i asked for opinions and critiquing to see where i can improve and how to improve it. I asked for input from my peers cause some of them were good in certain areas i was not and just the opposite and I valued there opinions. This person never did any of that never took input. Never listened to teachers on how there work could improve. and slowly I started to get better grades and slowly there grades started to fall cause they were not improving. The great thing about Art School is you are not graded on comparison cause some people will never be as good at drawing as you are but you might not ever be as good as they are in modeling something. So you get graded on how much you personally improve and i did i was a sponge i took everything i could in. This person didn’t which is one of the saddest things that is why I hate these types of people they have such potential they there pride gives them a glass ceiling. Why go to school when you do not want to be taught. seems like such a waste of time and money. So i hate these types of people with the attitude that will never make them better. I still to this day ask for input from fellow artists and freinds i get some of my best ideas from things they mention that could change or some of there input adds so much to what was there. I have friends that do the same send me stuff to see what i think of it. It just makes you better and more humble of a person to take criticism in a non hurtful way. Cause a critique on your work is something to improve you not to show off how good you are.

be a sponge. 

-MeaD.

 

Week of Hate! Day 2

Here we are day 2 of the awesome week of hate.

So today is about…

 

STARBUCKS

Starbucks. now this one is a tricky one cause i don’t want to step on some peoples toes but. STARBUCKS HAS HORRIBLE COFFEE. well i think i just stepped on something. oops. well i hate starbucks for multiple reasons once again its mostly the people that drew me to hate it so. I am not saying i never give the place my business cause i do from time to time when its the closest thing near me when i want some coffee. But there are people i know that just like it and thats ok. its the following that really make me annoyed.

So first off the Coffee the issue at hand. I don’t think they have good coffee they seem to think that the stronger they make it the more people will love it. now i have had expresso multiple times i know the difference between a good bold & robust coffee when i taste it. Between the other which is strong & bitter the main problem is most people think they are the same sometimes. they don’t have a good foundation upon to base a good opinion on. also i am talking about black coffee not cream sugar and creating some kinda drink that is sweet and only similarity to coffee is its in a coffee cup. the biggest problem is people don’t fully understand what happens when you use the drip brewing method.

let me explain:

First off certain amount of coffee only contains so much of the wonderful oils that give it the taste and smell we love. After all of the oils are extracted, the only things you’re getting from the grounds are bitter tasting elements from the beans. This is called over-extraction. One of the most misunderstood facts about coffee is that bitterness is caused by using more coffee when in fact, the opposite is true. Bitterness is a result from over-extraction. which means if we want weak or not as strong coffee just brew it normally at full strength and add hot water to the brew then drink it. adding water doesn’t change the taste in any way it just makes it less strong. the same goes the other way as well if your drip brew goes to fast you can under-extract your brew making it weak and little aroma to it. so its finding that wonderful middle ground. my personal opinion is that starbucks always over-extracts there brews which makes that ever so popular bitter strong coffee everyone thinks is soo good.

Now The second reason i hate Starbucks

There is an old saying if you keep getting told something is good/bad you will eventually think its good/bad. They really made this saying to describe starbucks i have known alot of people to drink starbucks and only starbucks cause its so good and expensive and its high class coffee. these are what i call Tools. I hate the kinds of people that just go to or use only this one thing cause what it is. its like they can’t form a solid opinion of there own. why? I knew someone that would only go there cause it was what it was Starbucks. I find this true with almost all the people that go there religiously. there are a few people i work with that only go there i really never see them with out there starbucks drink but some of them just really like there ice tea or there special ice coffee or something but that cool. i just don’t understand why some people are so stuck on this place and will not give any other place a slight chance. So for all you people that only drink starbucks i challenge you to try some different types of coffee you could go wild and try coffee made from a french press which if you haven’t you haven’t had a good cup of coffee. Now that i am done with my rant i have one thing to say starbucks coffee is not bad BUT only if you make it your self and brew it right it can be very good but i could brew you a great cup of Bold Foldgers and a good cup of starbucks and there wouldn’t be a diffence in taste. So stop judgeing books by there covers.

P.S. side note Starbucks is still not the leader in selling coffee to america. Who is?  Dunkin’ Doughnuts you know why? cause they brew there coffee right and its delicious.

-MeaD.

Week of Hate! Day 1

Welcome to the week of Hate.

i thought it would be approprate to start with one of my least favorite things to use in my profession

Yes oh how i hate this filter.

So you ask why do I hate this soo. I have been thinking about his very hard lately trying to describe what i hate about this soo much and there are a few reasons. but i will only talk about the biggest reason cause i don’t want to develop carpal tunnel syndrome trying to describe all the many reasons on why not to use it.

I HATE PEOPLE. Its people that have made me grow to hate this so much. I have dealt with so many people that use this for just about everything they do. cause it just adds that “Extra Something it needed” ’click’ there we go now thats the ticket. i hate those people that use every filter there cause its there. just because there are filters doesn’t not mean any of the following

“Lets see how many of those things can i fit on this”

“Well that looks cool might as well throw it on there”

“Well a little bit of that looks pretty good SOOO a lot of it will make it AWESOME!”

“Done. Oh wait i didn’t use any filter gotta put some on there. Ok now I’m done.”

This is for you people if this reachs one person my goal is met so here it goes.

NO!! BAD!! NO!! (while i rub your nose in it)

If you are an artist and use this more than once a month you need to find a new profession. this is not a joke there are plenty of good jobs out there like…. well i can’t think of any for you if you are the kind of person that uses bevel and emboss a lot. Honest to god truth i have used this filter a hand full of times in my entire career and the sad part is the biggest chunk of the time is me recreating some old logo that wasn’t vector.  Now i am not saying never use this cause there are sometimes where you just need it to fit but when you use it. Please don’t make it to the point where someone goes “Oh you used bevel and emboss nice i love the filter” 

So MeaD what if I use it a lot and want to stray away from it how do i do that? 

great question and i have just the poster for you to place beside your monitor. 

 

that concludes our rant of hate for the day.

P.S. Comic Sans Sucks Don’t Use it either.

-MeaD.

 

 

The Point of it.

First off i know this picture is wrong in like a dozen different ways. but i laughed. yeah call me a monster but i thought it was a pretty good idea. no matter how wrong it is. So I don’t have cable or anything the only thing plugged into my TV is my Wii & my DVD player. Christina and I just don’t watch TV. if there is something i want to watch. I just watch it online or i buy it on iTunes. If you think about it what do you watch that you can’t watch online the next day… yeah nothing all the networks have all there episodes online. goodbye cable. So anyway i don’t make it a huge point to watch the Olympics i think that last time i really wanted to watch them was when Charles Barkley was playing. Yeah The Dream Team you know what I’m talking about. I have friends and co-workers that are totally addicted to them. Some of them coming in dragging and they say. “Awww I’m soo tired i was up till 2 something watching the Olympics.” i personally don’t care enogh to watch them but i don’t have anything against them at all thats not what i am saying. but at i have been watching them on my lunches since they started. Due to the fact everyone at work wants to watch them so i am watching them too. but watching all the differnt sports and events are pretty funny when you break them down.

Diving = Jump in the water

Swimming = swim to that end then come back

Running = go down to that line

weightlifting = (my personal fav.) YOU!! lift that.

gymnastics = go jump around but make it look pretty

water polo = take this ball put it in that net.

We were talking about this at lunch the other day. the point of some of these things and when you break it down does it really sound that interesting. ill leave that to you. I know i really cut a lot of it out and really bastardized the sport. but i think its funny to really think of the point of all these things. but yeah thats all.

umm. GO USA!!!

-MeaD.