Production Update 136: Post-4th of July Recap

Last week I mentioned that I wanted to get some artwork colored and also wanted to get all of the crowds composited into the shots that make up this scene. I didn’t get that done this week, but that is because I picked up a freelance project to work on to continue to fund the project. So I logged hours during the week and weekend on that project. With that said, I did get the piece of artwork colored that I needed to and I also was able to get some crowd work done, just not all of it. I have 3 shots left, which I aim to wrap up tomorrow night.

I spent most of the holiday weekend working in the garden. I had a lot of weeding to catch up on and I also needed to build a couple supports for a few plants that are growing. Both garden plots look really awesome now and should now just require the occasional weeding session instead of an entire day.

On the actual day of the 4th, I went hiking at Split Rock Creek State Park in Minnesota. It was a nice little park that had a dam you could check out and also about 3 miles of trails to hike. I would like to go camping at the park sometime before the fall. After hiking, we came back to Sioux Falls and worked in our gardens again.

Finally on Sunday I spent some time on the freelance project and also went to the garden for a bit and did some cooking. I spent the later part of the day working on Cosmic Rage and getting caught up on a bunch of small things that have piled up. The goal was to free myself up for the week to work on Cosmic Rage. Building crowds tomorrow and then looking to get into animation!

Hiking Road Trip!

If you checked out the Production Update from earlier this week, you will see that I took a long overdue trip back to Minneapolis to hang out with some friends, work on a new top secret project and also to go hiking. If you haven’t been to Minneapolis before, it is one of the best cities in terms of outdoor activities, there are lakes everywhere and plenty of places to go hiking. On this particular excursion though, we ventured into Wisconsin and hiked one of our favorite trails that we haven’t hit up for a while, Kinnickinnic Park.

I enjoy these “creative hikes” with my friends, because we spend the time talking about projects we are working on, things we are learning and any questions we have for one another since we come from a range of backgrounds (web, mobile, app development and animation).

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It’s great to have a group of friends that can push you along and make sure you are still creating and not slacking off. At the same time, it is great to see how they have grown over the years and evolved as artists and creators as well.

On this particular hike a friend and I were able to discuss details about a future project we are going to be working on and I look forward to sharing more with you all as well. Of course, no hike would be complete without a slip up, and that came in the form of me slipping off of a log and getting my shoes soaked. I chalk that one up to the first hike of the year. The first of many I hope!

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Wet socks must be the worst thing in the world, let’s hope that this won’t happen again for the remainder of hiking season.