Your mindset is important when you’re writing and publishing.
Back in October, I moved away from an apartment that I really thought would be my last rental for several years. I really bonded with the area and that place, so it was one of the harder moves I’ve done. It was a space I picked out thinking it’d be my creative sanctuary. I thought I’d write several books in the space before leaving.
It’s a small thing, but it made me think about how I often don’t quite reach the milestones I reach for with writing. …
But that doesn’t mean you have to give up all hope in life.
“And every demon wants his pound of flesh
But I like to keep some things to myself
I like to keep my issues strong
It’s always darkest before the dawn”—Florence + the Machine
This song, Shake It Out, has been one of my anthems for bad days, jobs, and relationships for the past 7 years. I’ve scream sung it on my way to work, poised to be demeaned by sexist and sociopathic men. I’ve cried the words as I told myself I would someday be able to get away from my enmeshed, codependent family.
Clinging to an uncertain hope for a better life has always been my life raft.
Hoping for better was how…
There’s something reassuring about having some routine fun on your social calendar.
At the beginning of this semester in grad school, when I started keeping track of my virtual social calendar, I decided to establish a monthly Catan night with my friends who are also into board games. Even though we can’t physically get together to play without significant effort and planning put into quarantining, it’s still pleasantly reassuring to have that date on the calendar when we get together to play, voice chat, and have a good time.
I’ve started on the first draft of my kinetic typography project.
This week, I’ve pulled my storyboard of this project into After Effects. This is my first time using After Effects and I’m quite excited to finally learn the missing puzzle piece in my knowledge of Creative Cloud’s most common applications. For a little bit more on what brought me to choosing this scene from Rick and Morty to turn into a kinetic typography video, I’m including my first update on this project below.
I watched Title Sequence Designer Saul Bass’ short documentary Bass On Titles before I dove into revising my storyboard for this project. …
You need some heart, too, but your hands and your graphics card are going to do the real heavy lifting.
For the last three years, I’ve been on an obsessive quest to improve my time management skills. I’ve come a long way in that time, but I still have an Achilles heel—overestimating how quickly I can get through tasks. Though I do love learning new ways I can exercise my creative muscles, I do sometimes think I will work through creative tasks much faster than I physically can.
Though I’m very new to the world of working in 3D, it is a really exciting prospect for me. I have a lot of fun working in Unreal Engine thinking that it’s…
Content writing might seem like a grind, but there are some hidden benefits.
“In order to write about life, first you must live it.”
― Ernest Hemingway
After years of trying to find the right university and the right funding package, I started grad school this past fall. I’m thrilled that I’m finally in these chapters of my life, but there is one caveat.
My two years of trying to ramp up my content writing came to a screeching halt last September when my full-time course load of grad classes and assignments filled almost every minute I’m not working my day job. …
Last week, artist and performer Matt Romein dropped by my Social VR class.
Like most people, if someone told me not to press the big red button… I would absolutely press that big red button, as long as I was relatively certain the results wouldn’t be too catastrophic.
So of course, when I saw the “Please don’t click!” button on Matt Romein’s website, I clicked it. I was rather surprised by what happened. But then—again, of course—I had to press it again for science. I just had to be certain the same animation was going to play.
Once I heard Matt Romein talk about his practice, I became very interested in the experiences he had before becoming a 3D artist.
While listening to Matt Romein’s presentation, I really enjoyed hearing about his earliest career pursuits that…
But I did raise a little bit of awareness that social VR exists.
The funny thing about VR is that a lot of people are interested in it, but they’re afraid to spend the money on a headset. Even people who do play video games regularly and have the purchasing power to afford consoles are often slow to take the plunge and dive into the VR world.
Despite that hesitance, VR really excites people the first time they try it. I’ve had at least 10 people try out my Oculus when they came by my apartment. (I’ve also wiped it down with disinfectant wipes twice as many times.) …
For my next design project, I’m diving into kinetic typography.
In the past, the most I’ve done with videos is add simple effects like lighting tweaks and fades. I haven’t ever worked with motion graphics or typography in the past. Though it’s very new territory, I’m eager to dive in and learn how to create kinetic typography. As a writer, I feel like it could be tremendously helpful for me to become more familiarized with.
When watching Dan Boyarski’s TEDx talk on The Art of Kinetic Typography, I really found myself appreciating how subtle motions could accomplish a lot in the eyes of the viewer. It also felt like an…
Last week, Nick Katsivelos from Microsoft visited my Social VR class.
One of the things that excited me most about going to grad school in New York City was the idea of being in a place that is deeply interconnected with industries. I’d see events with guest speakers and practically drool over how impressive their backgrounds were. Now that I’m in my first year of grad school at NYU, I’ve had the good fortune to meet a lot of impressive industry professionals.
Though we tend to focus more on systems like the Occulus since they’re fairly affordable and not too hard to find, Microsoft is actually cooking up a lot of…
Leigh Fisher
Writer and poet from Neptune. Instructional designer in NYC. Grad student at @NYUTandon studying Integrated Digital Media.
