#331 - Lake America? Really?

We slept in.

It was nine fifteen before either of us woke up.

Which is unusual for Robyn, who naturally wakes before me on most days. We scrambled out of bed, and I headed to my desk to connect my PC to the one at work. There were people already asking questions that needed answering.

The first hour of work is always such a whirlwind of activity for me as all the messages from all the different sources start to roll in. It’s not my favourite way to start the day.

By ten things had calmed down and everyone had tasks to complete. I headed down to the kitchen and made some fried eggs and toast for Robyn and I along with cups of tea. It was just the pick me up I needed to get on with the day.

Unfortunately, I knocked over my tea and spilled almost all of it down the right-side of my body. I got completely soaked, but luckily the tea had cooled enough that I didn’t get scalded. I mopped up the tea and wondered if this was a new thing for me. I had spilled half my tea at the same desk just yesterday.

I spent the morning revising background and then approving them. The goal today was to get as many of the paintings finished so that the art director could do her pass on them and determine if they needed more work or if they were approved.

I was able to hand out the remaining paintings to two of my painters, and it felt good to know that was the last of the assignments for this episode.

My colleague offered to take on some of the Art Director revisions from the day before as well as some layout revisions to about four of our paintings. Sometimes you can only see the problems that arise when you have enough of the work done or in progress. Each painter gets to know their section well and often are the first people to notice what is missing or off.

And that was the case with these layout revisions. The artist noticed that a vehicle in all his scenes had their doors closed when all the reference provided had the doors open. This type of conflict happens more when you are doing a show a week as opposed to a show every tow or three weeks. Things get missed due to time constraints.

There is feeling like being in a boat. If you fall off the boat just keeps going and leaves you behind. It was either a Disney artist or a Pixar one that called this “Feeding the Beast.” Once things get started you have to keep feeding the beast and the beast is always hungry.

It’s a feeling anyone in the animation industry is far too familiar with. It will feel like this for the entire year we spend on the project.

By noon I was more than ready to get out of my chair. We took the car to the provincial park down the street from us and walked under the shaded canopy of old growth trees. There is always a nice breeze in there and the temperature is much cooler than walking unprotected in the sun. There were only a few dogs out there today and we didn’t see a single cyclist. There haven’t been nearly as many cyclists this year as there were in the past. I’m not sure what has changed, but last year we would have had to jump to the side of the trail four of five times to allow a cyclist to barrel past us, slightly miffed that we had impeded their progress.

The walk was just what I needed. The mosquito bites on the other hand were not. I should say the bites on the back of my neck. Something got me really good and at least three times. Maybe four. The soft underside of my arms got hit as well.

There must have been some really desperate bloodsuckers out there today.

I walked through a bunch of silk work threads or spider webs as well, which added to a feeling of being itchy. Add to that some annoying gnats buzzing around my sunglasses. You’d think I didn’t enjoy the walk with all this complaining, but I did. Sitting in front of a computer all day really makes you appreciate some movement and a little nature.

The rest of the day had me doing heavy revisions on some of the painter’s work. When ask your team to move fast, things get missed. But I wanted to keep them focused on their current work and went about making the fixes myself. My goal was still to send as much work to the art director as possible today. And I was getting through things at a decent rate.

By four pm, I got word that the art director was going through our work and there were already revisions and approvals. My worry was whether the revision pile was going to be too big. But I was happy to see that they were the amount I expected and that they weren’t going to be difficult to revise. We often get revisions on things like clouds for example. Which is far better than having to redo the whole painting.

And that was the case with this round of revisions. Most of them would be easy to do.

The approved pile was much bigger than the revision pile, and that is how you want things to go. With the approvals pilling up in front of me, I began the process of rendering the photoshop files into pngs layers that could be imported into the animation software. As well as rendering the files, I have to use our tracking software to mark the paintings as either art director approved or art director revision.

This helps us keep track of what stage each peace of art is at the time and how many are ready and how many are left. Other team can use the information as well so it’s best to keep it as up to date as possible.

There was a point where an art director revision came in, I fixed it and she approved it like we were a well-oiled machine.

I worked a little later into the evening making sure the renders didn’t fail and moving the files into the next department’s inbox. It felt great to finally see that folder filling up with work. And I am sure they will be happy to have things to do tomorrow.

I’ll have to make sure I send them a message tomorrow letting then know the work is available.

There came a point where I was watching water boil and it didn’t make sense to keep working.

I found Robyn out on the back deck reading and I joined her. I closed my weary eyes and took a short nap. The weather was warm and pleasant, a perfect night to enjoy the deck. After I had a nap and felt revived, I went and grabbed my book to get some reading done. I took it to the front porch and said goodbye to Robyn as she left for her second job helping a man with Parkinson’s.

The reclining seats in the front are great for reading and I loved every second of it. The Sand Pebbles novel I am reading is so well written I can see why it did well back in the day. There are writing lessons to be learned by this book for sure.

I kept reading until Robyn returned and then the two of us reheated some leftovers from last night and sat down to supper. The food was just as good the second night and we added a little bit of basmati rice to have a bit more food on the plate.

Kiddo #2 convinced Robyn to go for an after-dinner walk, so I headed upstairs to watch some YouTube videos and finish the Peaky Blinders movie. I felt that the movie gave the series a proper ending and everything got resolved in the end. A good story deserves that kind of finality.

Once I got into the show, and it took me a few tries, I found I really enjoyed it. I just needed time to get to know the characters. Once you do, it hooks you. It had some great production value from the costumes and sets and to the natural locations. It all just worked so well together. The time periods covered were also interesting, with the conclusion happening during World War Two.

I got started on my writing a bit earlier today, since I was by myself and I had the time, stopping only when Robyn returned from her walk. We put on the most recent episode of Ted Lasso, which was a fun episode with some Ferris Bueller call backs that had us chuckling. Even the music choices were perfect. Tracy Ullman made an appearance as a character, and it seems to me that it will be a reoccurring role for her.

She wasn’t me favourite character as she was a little too bad ass right off the start and was not portrayed as being particularly likeable. I suspect she will get a little softened as the show goes on.

In the news it was hilarious to see Trump saying he would rename Lake Ontario to Lake America as some sort of retaliation to his administrations last minute additions to the trade deal being rejected. Does he really think that will sway anyone’s opinion?

International news coverage seems to be on the side of the Canadians and even some of Trump’s old allies are voicing their displeasure at his childish antics. You can certainly imagine that he used these types of tactics in his business dealings, but he is dealing with government agencies that understand contracts much better than the people he was dealing with in his real-estate days.

A Toronto politician quipped that we would rename New York to “The Province of New York.” How has the world become this ridiculous?

And we lost an icon in the world of music today as Dolly Parton passed away at the age of eighty. It’s amazing how many great songs she wrote in her long career. So many songs that have become classics and even her own life story is interesting.

On a happier note, there was an article about a guy who was able to work remotely, so he worked out of the Canada Wonderland amusement park for the entire season, bought a meal plan and an upgrade seasons pass that gave him access to a quieter air-conditioned lounge area that also served snacks. The pass even included free parking for the season which normally costs about twenty dollars per day. I didn’t get into the entire article, but the guy saved a fortune on food and spent is free time riding rollercoasters.

I wonder how many funnel cakes he ate before getting sick of them?

He’s probably ruined it for everyone now, because there is no way the park will allow it to continue and even if they did, the place will get overrun by copycats.

I was saddened to read that an organized hate group is having a convention in Hamilton, Ontario, not far from where I live. The convention goes by the name Domcom and call themselves the Dominion Society of Canada. They want to remigrate people they think don’t belong here. And it goes without saying that they are likely a thinly veiled white power group. It’s sad to see they are coming this way, because they must see it as a good spot to attract more members. The operate under the veil of immigration reform and protecting Canadian heritage.

And I think we all know what that really means.

They must think we are all stupid.

I was glad to see the mayor of the city saying she would not offer them space to have their conference, and the police are asking everyone to report any instances of intimidation by the group while they are in town.

The exact location of the event is still unknown at this point.

It’s just past midnight and I need to get up at seven to catch a train into the city. I didn’t plan on staying up this late, but who can really control things in this life. Time just seems to get away from me.

I am looking forward to getting a delicious breakfast sandwich on the way into work though. That has become a small pleasure for me, particularly when I get to eat it on the patio in this perfect weather.

It will be good to talk to some of the painters in person as well. Not to mention that I usually get more writing done when I can type on the train rides in an out of the city.

Although, if I don’t go to bed soon it will be impossible to have the energy to do any work. I’ll default to sleeping on the ride in.

Alright, that is enough for today. Time to pack my back for tomorrow and get ready for bed.

Until tomorrow.