Oh man it's been a while since I've written here, oops!
I've been living in Auckland for a few months now and really enjoying rigging. At first, like with most new things, it was very frustrating getting settled in and having to learn a new job. But now, I can happily say that I've found my new passion. Animation was fun, but there's something about the problem solving side of rigging and working alongside animators to make beautiful user friendly rigs that makes this so much more satisfying to me.
I spend each day setting up props, both small and large for Penguins of Madagascar and Robot and Monster, two shows that air on Nickelodeon. This usually involves simple tasks like wire deformers, lattices, FK setups, squash and bend deformers too. Sometimes, I'll get to rig a stretchy IK spline with secondary deformers... oh boy, what a treat! Now and then we have to setup entire sets too, which involves a lot of making new proxy geo, testing UVs and adding in rigs where needed.
During my spare time, I've been focusing on learning Python as much as I can. I do a little bit of MEL now and then, but mostly Python as I find it's a more interesting language to read/write. So far I've written a few of my own scripts which I'll be uploading to my scripts page when I get around to it. They aren't very complicated and often tailored directly to how I work, but using these scripts has sped up my workflow by an enormous amount. I've been trying to get into programming best I can as I can see how beneficial (if not essential) it is going to be further down my career path.
I haven't really given up animation, I still do some 2D stuff now and then with my flatmate on projects we share. I sometimes make little 3D tests with my rigs, but just haven't done too much more with it. Oh yeah, speaking of animation, I got my Wotwot's - Season 2 footage sent to me in the mail! It's so great to see my old work, especially since it was my first 3D job and over a year ago. I loved working on that show! Met so many cool people and learned an enormous amount.
My goals over the next few months is to get some of my scripts online and start planning out some character rigs. Hell, I'd love to release a free rig to the community one day! Hopefully when I'm a better.