I C S

This entry is a bit difficult for me to write. The reason for this is that there is too much history here. I guess the best way to start would be from the beginning right?

:// POST – A P S

After a successful showing of our student film, we all graduated and went our separate ways. I think it must have been like a month or two after graduating that my parents kept asking me “what next”? I had been working through and after college, but somehow I felt that something would change soon.

Right before graduation, Coach Rohn pulled me aside and asked if I would be interested in the Midway internship. I shit you not, I almost shat my pants right there. You see, during my 4 years in college, you would always hear the hallway chatter of “did you hear? Dude got the Midway internship lined up”. The best student would get offered the internship then it would be up to them to either sink or swim in the house that Mortal Kombat built.

I immediately said yes, we continued our conversation then I walked away dumbfounded. I was so over the moon that I had no idea how to react. So I went down to the first floor (we were on floor four), went to the vending machine and bought myself a Full Throttle, went to the first empty table and sat down. I pulled out my iPod, headphones on and cracked that black can open. I then took the hardest-longest swig I have ever taken out of a carbonated drink and sat there. Staring into space.

I had done it.

Months before graduation I had done it.

I’ve never been the best at 3D or production. But there is one attribute I due have that I can proudly say today after looking back after all of these years:

I was the down-est.

It didn’t matter what needed to be done, I would always stick with the team and plow through it. I think that is what caught Coach Rohn’s attention.

There was no where to go from there but up right?

Absolutely.

One week later, Midway went bankrupt.

:// YOU’VE GOT MAIL

I think it was a Tuesday night, the weather was nice, I had spent all day on my PC as me and the fellas have had a bender the weekend before. So this day in the week everyone was detoxing at home.

It was past midnight by this point, I was about to power down and get up from my desk. But something made me stop. I got this strange feeling that told me I had to check my email.

And there it was, it came in at around 2pm that same day. The title was short and simple

Jim Rohn Referral – InContext Solutions

I actually still have that mail, the reason so is because it was a milestone on this weird journey.

After reading the email for about the fifth time, I sat back and hit reply.

Here we go baby.

:// CLOSET SPACE

We had arranged an initial meeting at their local space. I checked out their website and turns out they made 3D stores. Honestly, I didn’t even know this was a thing. But I was like “fuck it, let’s see where this goes”.

After checking in at the man lobby I went up the elevator to their suite, knocked on the door and was greeted.

The space must have been literally about the size of a closet.

Four dudes and 1 extra desk.

After meeting everyone I was basically given the task to create a bunch of candy and bags of chips right there in the office. I basically spent the entire day there with them.

They were happy with the work and as I left we arranged for me to keep working from home on a freelance basis. That was actually pretty cool, it made me feel like a hired-gun.

Emails would come in with their appropriate instructions and we exchanged work through their FTP server.

Work would go back and forth for a few weeks non-stop, then a bit of a break in-between assignments. I think nothing ever passed the 2 week mark of nothing coming in.

I still kept my day job, but it was the freelancing that really kept me going. After a few months of steady assignments, just as before, I opened up my email right before bed and there it was:

InContext Solutions – Salary offer

As it was late, I called them up the next day as requested in the offer letter.

Terms were finalized and I came in to sign the final paperwork. This time I was greeted with another pleasant surprise.

This time the closet was bigger, it sat 16 people.

I came in on a Wednesday (I think), my first day would be the following Monday. Which would be at their new space. Which turned out to not be another closet. This was a full-fledged production workspace.

I had arrived.

:// BLAST OFF

This is the part where the post will change a bit. I won’t go into details of what was worked on as I’m sure there are a few NDAs with my name still on them. But this is actually the part which I think about the most:

The team.

As we barreled through many projects and deadlines (fuck, I love crunch time)(I live for that shit) and two new spaces, we moved to our biggest space yet (my personal favorite).

We had always been split up into teams. And some teams overlapped each other. For example, us 3D guys would have to work with the programming guys in order to make sure shit worked and worked well.

But as we grew, more and more great people started to join.

I loved my 3D peeps. There were so many projects we got through the finish line when many thought it couldn’t be done. Late nights, late pizza, late drinks. As production should be.

We originally stared as two 3D guys, but then grew into six.

There was basically nothing that could be thrown at us that we couldn’t accomplish together.

Fuck, each one of these guys could do anything.

My man The Drake could just power through any shitty assignment and get it delivered.

My man Fllad would just know how to solve the most random shit and make it run and look phenomenal.

My man Gage just destroyed (I hate saying crushed) anything that was given to him and he would make it artsy as fuck. (Those Mom jokes were legendary, so were those late night Dreamcast fights on Project Justice)

The list goes on, but there are my only peeps that still have a web-presence today.

Then suddenly it was over, for me.

One day I came in and it was over.

Just as it came it was taken away.

I said my goodbyes and walked out the front doors.

Funny, I had no idea this was barely the end of round 1…

:// ROUND DOS

A few years later I got contacted by the new ICS. There was a large batch of assets that needed to be created and not enough people.

I gladly took on the assignment as there was never any ill will from my part. Plus, I’d get to work with my major pimps again.

This one was completely remote, but I’d never say no tho my guys.

Another great run, hell, it go to the point where I would get home from work, then clock in another 8 hrs for ICS. I would have to say this is where I leveled up working solo. Because it can be a log to work alone, you really have to power through it.

As with any freelance, the assignment ended.

Again,

I had no idea this as the end of another round.

:// ROUND TRES

Out of all my runs with ICS, this was the best. Team members that came in right before I had left by round 1 were really on their shit. Those players also brought in new blood which brought the skill level even higher.

By this time, I had spent 16 months designing UI, so my vertex pushing was rusty to say the least.

Getting back there was like a crash course in 3D again. The best part was that all of the tools we had thought up during our Starbucks runs had been created and implemented by them.

By this time these guys were not trying to figure stuff out, by this time the had figured it out.

The work came hard and fast, I think it did take me about a solid week to get back into it.

I’d go to heel and back for my guys, past and present.

I will always be grateful to them for looking out for me.

As it was, December 27th 2019 was my last day.

With New Year’s creeping up, the office was basically empty for that whole month. As it was a Friday the few of us that were there had left early.

Once again, I said my goodbyes, had a cold Heineken with Coach Shehu and as he had to leave early as well; I decided to leave until everyone was gone.

I packed up my bag and walked around the space one last time.

I looked at all of the blinking lights that were shining off of each PC as I walked past them. I took one last look at the spot I was sitting at, took a seat and put both hands on the desk.

I felt the top of the desk and smiled.

I knew that was my last day as a true 3D Artist, on staff, creating environments and assets.

I guess you can say it was poetic, everything ended right where it began.