I am depressed kind off here is my story:-(

# 1 30-06-2003 , 09:34 AM

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Ok here is my situation. I finished BA in 1998. Then I got a job straight away. Worked in London for next 2 years. Met a girl who was on holiday in London. Stayed together for 3 months. Then had a long distance relationship with her.

Then moved to a foreign country to be with her. Got married. Got a job in the foriegn country. Been married now 3 years. Love my wife she loves me no problem from that side.

Now this job that I have involves 3 to 3.5 hour of travel
everyday:-( I have been at this job for exactly 2 years. There has been hardly any work for me since day one. It's a non-design company but I do the design side of things for them ie. graphic design, web etc etc.

I really want to get better at Maya and move on but here is the CATCH!!
At work I have so much free time and I try to learn Maya etc but my boss does not like when I learn... maybe he thinks I will leave. He says we should use the time to find new strategy to sell design. In last 2 year he has made 10000 strategies for his company.

Anyway in my contract and according to what we had discussed at the time of me coming here was that it's purely my bosses job to bring the work in. My job is to only execute it.
I feel I am here only to be shown off to clients.

I want to improve and work on my portfolio but when I get home it's around 8 and then I have to wake up at 5.20. So I am not getting any time to learn properly.

I have the following options-

1- I am thinking about leaving my job and going freelance after staying at home and working on my portfolio for 3-6months.

2- Tell my boss I can only work 4 days a week. Use the friday with weekend to learn Maya, portfoilio and create clients.
This option might work or backfire if my boss says all or nothing.

My wife does not want me to use option 1 or 2 UNLESS I have clients or another job. For me it's a case of chicken or the egg.
I am 29 and time is not on my side. I dont want to waste my life sitting behind the desk. I know some of you might say that you should not give up your job in present economic conditions but I tell you what it's very draining to act busy all day. On top of that I have to fill bloody time sheets all the ****ing time!!!**!!

I earn 44,000 US dollars (started in 42k 2 years ago). I don't have any kids and we both are not going to have any either. So I don't have any reall responsibilities apart from my wife tellling me not to quit.

What should I do?????? All this travelling and not gettting anywhere with Maya due to lack of time is getting me down.
The worse thing is I find Maya comparatively easy if I get the chance to just sit and learn :-(

Last edited by slickrenderer; 30-06-2003 at 09:48 AM.

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# 2 30-06-2003 , 11:13 AM

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does your wife work? if she does, is it going to be a problem for you to quit your job and work on Maya 24 hours a day 8 days a week? and I really mean 8 days a week if you want to be seriously good in maya!

that's what I'd do if I were you... if youre commited enough, you can do it but it takes dedication and a lot of practice!

-Emo

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# 3 30-06-2003 , 11:24 AM

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My wife says she will support me in any way possible but that it's irresponsible to quit my job just like that.
She does not like her job but she says she has to do it as that is the reality. I do understand her but....I am wasting away. I think I might have to stick with this job till end of the year and learn from 8pm-1am and then sleep 4-5 hours before going to work.

Get a laptop continue learning while I am travelling and see where it gets me in 6 months.

I am very motivated. I have to be NOW OR NEVER :-(

grrrr

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# 4 30-06-2003 , 12:10 PM

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Originally posted by slickrenderer
My wife says she will support me in any way possible but that it's irresponsible to quit my job just like that.
She does not like her job but she says she has to do it as that is the reality. I do understand her but....I am wasting away. I think I might have to stick with this job till end of the year and learn from 8pm-1am and then sleep 4-5 hours before going to work.

Get a laptop continue learning while I am travelling and see where it gets me in 6 months.

I am very motivated. I have to be NOW OR NEVER :-(

Originally Posted by

you put too much pressure on yourself, imho. 6 months is a very short time. dont get fooled that even if you are willing to learn and have time that you can master maya in 6 months. "now or never" is like blackmailing yourself user added image

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# 5 30-06-2003 , 12:51 PM

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No I did not mean that in 6 months I will be a Maya GURU (I wish though)
I meant that I could start to get proper grasp and create lot of stuff for my folio.
-"Now or never"meant that full commitment to "learn and improve" starts now or never :-)

What is your opinion on my job situation?

grrrr

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# 6 30-06-2003 , 02:25 PM

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this is going to sound a bit crazy but why dont you quit your job and find out what kind of help the government can offer for you to go to a good college. There is a place by me. Orlando, Fl. that is called FullSale. Its not very good but its only a year. VERY INTENSIVE YEAR. You have classes in the morning and labs at night. you might only get 4 hours of sleep but its like a four year program jammed into a 1 year. Everyone however does get hired from what I have been told by a student there, which is a very hard thing for just anyone in the animation business right now. The best industry seems to be gaming. But that is just from my research. But I can tell you there is a lot of unemployed animators begging for jobs, and the reason for this is you have hot new blood willing to animate for practically nothing and when you get good or excellent animators wanting a pretty good pay they get the door slammed in there face. however gaming is always developing and always need people on the team so there is many decent jobs out there. I have an article about it I can p2p to you if you are interest. its at the border of us and canada. just pm on one of my pms if you want. Im sorry if I jabbered on a bit but i hope it was usefull.:bgreen:

Last edited by animatress; 30-06-2003 at 02:41 PM.

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# 7 03-07-2003 , 03:08 AM

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this is a tough one slick- one that I just went through myself. I had a high paying job at an investment bank doing graphic design for the last 3 years... the money was great but the work was not creative or rewarding..nearly 3 hours of commuting too. and similar to you I spent alot of time on "strategy" and "looking busy". Plenty of time to learn if you could disguise it as real work. I realised that the money didnt make me happy and I need to be creating things. I recently went back to the job I had since 1993, and while it pays a fraction of what the other job did, I am a whole lot happier. I draw everyday from 9-6 and learn Maya at night. However, I wouldnt quit unless you are confident you will have plenty of clients to support your freelance endevors. but I understand your feeling of "time is short" as I will be 34, 9 days from now.

Good luck with your decision, you are a lucky man to have such a supportive wife user added image

(side note: the toshiba Lappy is working out just fine for me!)

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# 8 03-07-2003 , 04:21 AM

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Hey! Howard thanks for the mail. Yesterday I took a gamble and asked my boss for $6000 raise per year. I was willing to leave if he did not give. He gave it without any problem I can't believe it. SO I will stick there for a bit longer. Although all my original points still apply it's little bit easier with more money. I will now DEFINETELY buy a laptop this weekend to make sure that I continue improving in Maya and using every second to learn.I am looking at the Dell Precision M60. Toshiba I can't because they won't install English OS etc for me.

grrrr

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# 9 03-07-2003 , 04:37 AM

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wow, that's quite a raise! Congrats!

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 10 03-07-2003 , 04:43 AM

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squeaky wheel gets the grease!

hey slick, how about talking to my boss for me, huh? user added image

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# 11 03-07-2003 , 07:20 AM

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I did the coversion wrong it's about $5000. I was so nervous inside but I acted very cofident. My bluff paid off:-)

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# 12 03-07-2003 , 07:21 AM

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mtmckinley- Thanks

grrrr

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# 13 03-07-2003 , 07:44 AM

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um, i was gonna read that and tell you what i think, but DANG! you wrote a freaking novel! So ill just say, good luck with life.

Armitrex Studios
Now open!!

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# 14 03-07-2003 , 07:59 AM

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slickrenderer: I can relate to you 100%. I'm almost in the exact same situation. Crappy, enough-paying, non-creative, non-rewarding work and very little time for Maya user added image

I've been wanting to quit my job for quite a long time now. Dunno if it ever happens. Last winter I was very depressed. There was next to nothing to do at work. I was just wasting my precious time at work which I could have used for modeling...

I've kind of learned to live with what I already have instead of worrying about what I would like to have. I hope that with time this all sorts out... That goes for you too...

Luckily my holidays are coming soon and I can properly concentrate on making a demo reel.

Kari
- My Website
- My IMDB

Do a lot, Fail a lot and Learn a lot!

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# 15 03-07-2003 , 08:33 PM

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kbrown......yes that's the thing. I don't want to get too used to this situation. I will try my best to be disciplined. Let's see what life has in store for all of us :>)

grrrr

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I am depressed kind off here is my story:-(

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