So without further ado, let me introduce myself.
My name is M.J. Ross and I am mostly a 3D computer modeler. I'm 22 years of age and grew up in Western Illinois where I developed and interest in the arts. Ever since I can remember, I loved to draw. I wasn't much good at it, mostly because I lacked direction. Catholic schooling didn't focus much on art, and I was told on more than one occasion that there was no future in that field. Throughout preschool and kindergarten I was told that my drawings were scribble, but was never taught anything by these people.
It wasn't until high school that I finally received some instruction. I finally learned some of the basics, but I was still considering doing other things with my life since my parents weren't willing to pay for any kind of art degree at the time. I was still thinking I was going to school to be a dentist. ha! I spent a lot of time drawing throughout my first year of high school practicing and learning as much as possible. It was pretty awful work, but it taught me what I needed.
I started thinking I wanted to be an animator when I was a sophomore and found out that because I went to a Catholic high school, there was a special scholarship offered which allowed me to take an early college class at School of the Art Institute at Chicago. No doubt this scholarship was set up by someone who knew how much art was neglected at Catholic schools and so had some pity. hahaha. So anyway, my parents agreed to let me take the course, but I couldn't let it interfere with my normal classes. So it was all set. I was going to take a film animation course every Sunday for about 10 weeks.
Well the first class made me feel like a big idiot. I didn't know about registers or anything, but finally I got the hang of it. I didn't have an animation bar at home so I had to rely on lining up my papers myself. I worked on my animation constantly. It was a lot of fun, but having all my school work too made things pretty tough on me. I got through it though. I enjoyed the class quite a bit and was sad when it had to end. I went on with the rest of my normal classes and gained more experience with color pencils, which I developed a love for, but by this point in my life, my hands began cramping up and I would experience great pain from drawing with pencils. This was arthritis unfortunately. It was a big blow to me, because I couldn't draw for as long as I liked.
The summer after my Junior year, I took another early college program at SAIC. This time it was a figure drawing class. I must say this was the most important class I have ever taken. I had been used to medium size format drawings. Nothing really big... just normal sheets of paper and pencils. This is the class that helped change all that. I was forced to use charcoal and work on a larger scale. I was terrified mostly because I had only used charcoal once or twice before and didn't care for it. The class was everyday for a week from 9am until 4pm and then we were required to go to two of the evening co-ops. So I basically was drawing the whole time. It was the best week of my life. I made some pretty cool art too.. only one of which I still like.
So my final year in high school I spent learning how to use chalk pastel and took another film animation course. I really developed a love for pastels. They were fun, I could do larger works, and best of all, it didn't hurt my hands to use them. I created several pieces with this medium and was pretty happy with my art. Throughout the year I tried to convince my parents I wanted to do animation, but they kept trying to get me to go to a normal college and doing animation in my free time. I finally was able to convince them and then I started hunting for a good school. I found a few and talked with my animation instructor about some. It ended up coming down to MCAD, Cal Arts, Ringling, and SVA. I was accepted at MCAD and SVA and Ringling "accepted" me, but wanted me to choose a different major. At the time I was kind of afraid of New York, so I wound up going to MCAD.
I didn't learn much of anything my first year. A few programs and computer stuff mostly. I had only used computers for word processors and clarisworks before college. My second year was when I started learning about computer animation. It was pretty difficult, mostly because it was so overwhelming. I spent every moment bugging the instructor about things I didn't understand. I'm sure he was pretty sick of me.. but that didn't stop me. After some time I was really thinking that I made a wrong decision in my life. I was frustrated with animation, both 2d and 3d. I just wasn't good enough. Time passed and my misery continued. I took stop motion and I found that building sets was the most enjoyable part and animating sucked. That semester was also when I started learning computer modeling.
I found this to be quite enjoyable, but still, I pretty much sucked and didn't get things. It wasn't until my jr. year at mcad that I started gain some slight skill with modeling. I just kept at it and eventually I started getting better at certain things, but still wasn't totally in love with it. I kept thinking that maybe I should've just done fine art. Fine art made sense and I was better at that then anything else. I was in this mind set for months. I kept trying to do animation.. but kept on sucking. It wasn't until This past year that I got bit by the modeling bug. Suddenly everything started to feel more easy and I was getting faster at creating things. It began to consume me and it reached the point where all I wanted to do is model.. but still had too many other courses interfering with my love.
Now in my last semester, I finally get to enjoy and hone my skills as a computer modeler. TThe past six weeks I've just been modeling. Modeling for homework and for fun. It's what I do and hope to continue to do until I'm a ripe old age.
That's it for now and hope no one actually took the time to read this boring post.
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