Start of the month recap time again! It is a monthly thing so there's a lot of words.

What I've done:

What have I done this past month? This month has gone by so fast! It's been full of things to do but I don't recall completing as much as I would like.

Not related to Taj Packs:

Freelance Gig:

Oh my god! I got my first freelance gig. I can't say much about the project but I can tell you that the client has been lovely and patient with me. It took me longer than I would have hoped to get my contract to them. Now all the formalities are done, I get to work in Maya on a few animations and other things. Expect vague updates :D

Full-time work animation test:

I applied for a job overseas earlier last month and I got a message back from them asking me to do a test animation. A bit of this month was taken up by an animation test for the company. I hope I get the job but I've not heard back yet.

There were three animations:
- Run-Stop-Run. I'm most unhappy about this work because I misread the instructions and only had about 2 hours to fix it. So I handed in both animations with a note saying that it was a loop and it ran from point A to point B. Hopefully it doesn't go against me.
- Climb animation. This animation was a combination of references. I wanted to keep it short and sweet but he might look a little too strong.
- Push/Pull loop. The animation was probably one of the hardest, I had real difficulty with the push. initially i did a push via the shoulder, but it looked really wrong. And the height of the bar made it difficult to exaggerate.

Bumbabee! Games:

So Tuesdays are my time to work with my husband on a game. I made a checklist for Bumbabee! Games and I've got a website sorted out (it just needs a domain). I've made a Twitter account too. So on the social meadia side of things everything is coming along nicely.

It involves fluffy cute bumble bees. Here's my work on the Queen Bee. She has more fluff than the worker bee and a crown on her head. I'm also thinking that the worker bee will have a different facial colour to the queen. Like Yellow and Black for the queen and Black and Yellow for the workers (basically inverse).

It just occurred to me that she doesn't have any eyebrows... I'll have to fix that.

Related to Taj Packs:

Checklist:

I have made the checklist. With Asana so that I get notification when I need to do things, and I get to see unicorns jump across the screen when I tick enough things done. I have checklists within checklists.

Finishing work on Dungeon Magic Pack:

From the above image you can probably guess but I GOT THE DMP1 FINISHED! I've placed up the packs on Gumroad and everything but the major pack on the Unity Store (of which I'm waiting for final confirmation).

You can find the pack on Gumroad here: Dungeon Magic Pack
And you can find the packs on the Unity Store here: Shadowtajun Unity Store. (I'll link when they are approved)

Sketching out creatures and objects from other Packs:

I'm pretty sure I've posted up the sketches I did of the Bat. But I've done some work on a cultist using the main characters as a base. I'll post up pictures later when I can find them.

Making a Macro for folder creation with standardised naming conventions:

Done! I did it straight after typing up my last recap. It was a magical thing finding that folder wizard. I've posted it on my Tumblr blog, Twitter and Facebook I was/am super excited by it all.

Reviewing my work:

Whilst finishing the work for my dungeon magic pack I learnt a lot about Unity and placing items up on the Unity store, how to the packages get put together and the like.

What I'm going to do this month:

This month I'm going to push myself to get the following done:

Human character mesh:

I know I said I was going to do this…. But I haven’t. No excuses, it just hasn't happened. At the very least the mesh will be complete by next recap. The only reason this isn't going to happen is if something life changing happens (which includes getting that job overseas). December will be a half month at best so it needs to be done before then.

Second Candles Pack for Dungeon Magic Pack 2:

I've been working on my next environment pack (which is basically an extension of the Dungeon Magic Pack 1). I want to get the texturing complete for my chandeliers, candelabras, candles, and candle lamp/holders/whatever-they-are-called items done before next month too. I only have the textures to complete.

Dungeon Magic Pack 2:

Actually, speaking of DMP2 I hope to get a bunch of items complete in this pack by the end of the month. Try and churn something out every week.

Making another recap:

Yup, another recap is on the cards. It'll keep in perspective what I'm doing and what I said will be done.

Work on D&D game campaign:

I'm up next to DM a D&D game with my husband and a friend of mine. I've got a basic premise... sort of but I'm fleshing out the details for the game when I get time (after 5pm)

Work on Forgotten Futures campaign:

I'm also doing my very first Forgotten Futures game with my Aunty and Husband. I've been talking about dungeons and dragons to her for some time and now that I get to spend my First Christmas with her, I'm going to play Forgotten Futures with her as a sort of gift. I have a whole one shot scenario set up I just need to flesh that out too (but I feel confident with what I have so far).

TEFL Course and other things:

Continuing with the TEFL course is very important (I did pay for it afterall) and hopefully the sooner I complete the course the sooner I'll be able to put it on my resume. As for the Freelance work I've got about 6 months to complete everything. I'll start working on it this month and slowly give completed items to the client as soon as they are finished. As for the internship I have about 2 more animations to complete and then I'll be working on another character (in theory). I also have Bumbabee1 Games to work on.

What I'm having issues with:

Determination (still):

I have a peculiar way of dealing with things that bug me and I need to work past it. I like to put it aside. I've noticed I'm doing it with my TEFL course. It got me really angry that there are verbs that aren't verbs and nouns that act like verbs and verbs that are nouns... and they're all called different things. Participles really get me down and so what do I do? I put it the exam aside for another day. I think to myself that maybe today it doesn't make sense but tomorrow it will. And it never does. I feel like if I don't look at it, I won't be troubled by it and then I won't have to worry. But in all fairness I'm going to have to deal with it one day so it may as well be today.

Games:

I usually have a time for everything and everything has a time. I don't play games until after 5 (which is getting difficult because the sun sets around 4:30 and 5pm feels like 6pm). However I've found a game called Planetbase and I'm obsessed. I'm determined to keep it on my computer and work around it but I will admit I'm using more than a bit of willpower to stop myself getting distracted by it before 5pm.

Actually looking back on it, I've done a bunch of work this month. That's why I like writing these posts. Hopefully I can keep this speed up while the days get shorter and the weather gets colder.

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Monthly Update - Oct to Nov