Roommate In Paradise: Gecko Commentary

Ahh, my old senior thesis animation… It stirs the memories, posting this ancient creature of five years past online. (For the actual video, see our YouTube account http://www.youtube.com/user/dreamkeeperscomic)
Capping a four year degree in art, 'Roommate in Paradise' was my senior thesis project. Bearing in mind the quiet failure of every previous group project I had labored for, I made the unfortunately essential decision to go it alone on my thesis. Concept development, script and storyboards, character design, modeling, texturing, rigging, music, voice acting, yadda yadda... Everything was completed on my personal computer (no 24 hour labs were available at school) on my own time (far from streamlining, classes were a steady impediment). The downside to this approach was that I missed out on the social circles of incessant mutual congratulation and superficial hype which constituted the backbone of the school's instruction. The upside was that I was in the scant minority of students with finished work, and I gained a lot of animation experience in the process. Do I find it ironic that I was only able to develop significant skill by avoiding classes and teachers? Now that I'm shackled to exorbitant student loans, you bet. (Note: I remain extremely grateful to the few instructors with professional experience and competence whom I was fortunate to locate among the staff. If only there had been more like you.)
Despite being closely linked to my college experiences, let's steer this commentary back to the video. I was much happier with it in 2005 than I am now, although even at the time I understood that it was nothing terribly exceptional. Albeit a towering monolith of accomplishment at my Ohio art college, the animations and demo reels coming from comparable universities were visibly more professional and polished. This animation is rushed and clunky throughout, and the rigging is just barely adequate. I think I'm still happiest with how my render passes and compositing worked out - the overall lighting setup works nicely, especially in the late evening shots. My subsequent graphic novel work with Liz reflects the lighting lessons learned here.
Speaking of whom, although she didn’t directly contribute to the work on my thesis (obviously she had her own class work at the time) she was a great source for feedback and encouragement during production. In fact, squirreled away in my dorm room for nearly the entire semester with only Liz as company, most folks assumed that we were busy incessantly ravaging one another. Towards the end of the year when I finally showed some rendered progress to other dorm-mates, I remember looks of surprise and comments along the lines of “Oh, so THAT’S what you’ve been doing in there, no kidding!” Animation and CG rendering, of course - what else would a healthy and energetic young college student devote his time to?
Representing such generalized abilities, 'Roommates' was obviously of little value on a demo reel. Even as possibly the least embarrassing animation to emerge from that art college in a long time, my short was quickly brushed under the rug by a faculty preferring their home brand of insular blandishment to unflattering counterpoints of substance. This came as no surprise, and I never expected my effort to garnish value from any outside source. Rather, it gave me the crude abilities needed to work in the field after college, and came in especially handy with freelance work that culminated (and ended with) that indefatigable soul, Dempewolf.
Much to my surprise, I actually did get a job offer as a result of this short, years after I had sent out demo reels... It was related to some kind of television network position, and offered full time employment if I would relocate. Fortunately by that time I had fallen in love with my true artistic passion, and was not interested in professional animation industry employment. I regard that prospect now with almost a faint sense of horror.
I suppose the point of my rambling commentary is that upon reflection, I learned a lot from this short, and only some about animation. I look back on it with fondness now -it's a bit like watching a puppy sprawling happily but awkwardly across the lawn. And, of course, these geckos eventually merged personalities, turned 2-D, pink, and became 'Narp' from our ongoing Dreamkeepers project.