Thinking About The Future...

In my last blog I commented that I was going to start preparing for the next stage of my life. I'm 53 years old and I've been an IT professional for about 25 years. That said, I've seen a lot of changes in the industry and it continues to move at a pace that is unbelievable.

In the past several years I've asked myself on numerous occassions whether I want to continue spending my time keeping up with technology and trying to compete against youngsters for those rare and coveted decent paying professional jobs.

Don't get me wrong. I love technology and I've been very fortunate to enjoy the projects I've been involved with over the past 25 years. At the same time, the level of effort required to stay current and maintain a skill set that allows me to compete comes with a price. I continue to pay that price because technology continues to be interesting to me.

So why would I consider doing anything else? The answer is that with the improvements in technology, the tools that are available to exercise ones creativity are numerous and robust. I've always felt like there was an artist in me wanting to get out. I love art and in particular 3-dimensional art.

Over the years I've dabbled with tools like Photoshop, Ray Dream Designer, Detailer, Asymetrix 3D FX, Painter, Adobe Flash, and the like. As I became more acquainted with open-source systems and tools, I played with the GiMP and more recently stumbled onto a software package named Blender. As I've started take a closer look at this tool, I've discovered that Blender is probably one of the most exciting tools I have seen in a long time.

Blender is a 3D Animation & Rendering tool. Or at least that's how I perceive it today. Recenty I was walking around the Danville Art & Wine Festival and as I perused some of the art that was displayed, it caused me to consider again what I might do if I just put my mind to it. To that end, that's exactly what plan to do.

Now learning how to create 3D renderings is not a walk in the park. There is a whole new terminology associated with this area of study. Learning to use the tools also takes some commitment and patience. I'm not particularly concerned about either of these issues because I know what I want to achieve over the next few years.

So... I've started my journey by purchasing a couple of books about Blender and I plan to spend the next year developing my skills with this tool. As my skill improves, I already know what I want to create using this 3D rendering tool. I'll give myself a year to develop a portfolio of 3D renderings and during the 3rd year, I plan to start displaying some of my works at the art festivals and see where that takes me.

I'm very excited about what the future holds for me. I see this activity as my transition from being an IT professional to being an artist. I feel like it's time to pursue a dream I've had for a very long time. The tools are there, my mind is there and my heart is there. The rest is up to me.

I'm going to document my progress in this blog. If anybody happens to stumble onto this blog and finds my journey interesting, please feel free to write a comment and/or follow my blog. I'll try to post about once a week.