Hmmm, interesting post and also very close thinking to mine. I've mastered computer sciences at aculty and I'm programming since 12 years and in the same time paint, draw from even earlier years. Then, later I've started designin printed and online contents etc.
But my studies made me: GOD, I DON'T WANT TO BE JUST THE GUY SITTING IN FRON OF COMPUTTER!!!!!! I like my art side, I like to communicate with people in many fields. Then I was employed as guest teacher on the Faculty of applied Arts, teaching designing guys art and scinece of Web design. And I found myself sitting on both seats (art & science) and concentrated myself more on freelance flash projects. Since then I'm happy. But, you should know which area in Flash world to chose. It is constantly enlarging diversification between Flash developers and Flash designers (consequence of apps being more and more complex and arrival of AS3). So you are forced to chose side or to (be happy) to work on smaller (one-man) projects. Area I've found myself in is entertainment industry. Multiplayer games requires great programming experience and in the same time you are making things alive so also very creative. But even here you often get designs and you just do programming. For example, for game development I've hired guy less experienced in flash, but strong in OOP world and after few books read he is developing Flash games (AS3 is very similar to Java, C#) Other field you could think of is creating Flash web sites, then you are not stuck, you are communicating with wide range of people. I've worked with people from theatre, musicians, professors, dancers, etc. That's what I'm trying to keep working on. Also there are many multimedia offline projects (for CDs). I have so great experience leading projects in which I coordinated artists, programmers etc, producing real multimedia project. You could also search on term of "digital art director". That's one of my favourites :D and that's how you would probably like to see yourself in future. That position requires both art and science. About focusing yourself: you are partially right, I see several phases and several persons type If you like to have constant salary, then focusing is right way. If you are starting you career or are adventurous guy then covering wide area is for you. If you like e.g to become project manager one day or mentioned digital art director, or enterpreneour, then you should have *three phases in your development*: 1. (first) Learn wide areas of IT (and design/art) and work on many different projects, even as volunteer – in order to make wide foundation 2. Focus yourself on what you are best on and what you like the most – to become known and accepted to be offered to have higher rang or to get stable income of both money and clients to start you own business/studio 3. to learn management and to widen yourself again in several IT art/communication fields – in order to see wide and to be able to connect different professionals you will lead on your projects In the last (third) phase, if you are happy enough, you wil have poeple that you will be able to give tasks to research some field you would like to learn about, then chew it for you into some tutorial and you get general knowledge of it. All the best, Sinisa Rudan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associate editor of multimedia part of *InfoM *Journal, Journal of Information technology and multimedia systems. http://www.infoM.org.yu *MAGIC WAND solutions * Studio* founder and owner http://www.MagicWandSolutions.com http://www.sinisarudan.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2008/5/20 Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hello folks, > > I've worked with Flash three or four times, one of them creating a > relatively big project, using proper design-patterns and OOP, I've been > quite sucessful. > > However, somehow, I've been going towards business solutions software and > web applications (management software), an area that doesn't really > satisfies me. Even though I love proper designed software and designing > clever web solutions , I feel something is lacking and that I'm not really > being productive and I'm not where I wanted to be in phase of my life. > > So, I went to the physician today and that made me think. These guys > specialize! They do have a good background in medicine, but they choose an > area and specialize in it, and that's why they get good at something. > > And I think this is the way to go, if you want to really excel at > something. > > However, the IT world it too vast. > > What really attracts me is the communication, graphis and design aspects of > web work. I feel that what satisfies me is more the visual and creative side > of the work than the logic side, however, I too love programming, and my > background in computer science really gives me some insights that pure > graphics designers don't have. > > So, considering I already have a good background in computer science and > software engineering, what I would like to do now is to create new skills, > specifically visual communication skills, drawing skills and graphics > design skills. I want to focus my career in flash development, creating > astonishing content. I would, of course, like to use these skills for more > static sites, with proper (X)HTML and tableless CSS layouts, an area that I > also have a good skillset. > > But again, I want to focus in the flash platform, but don't ignore the > other corners of the web world, which of course, the IT world. But focues on > the creative side, mainly. > > * What I'm asking here is mainly what should I do to create these skills I > want and enhance them - some may argue that people already born with a > talent and this is common in the art field. However, I would like to develop > these skills in me. What would you recommend me to do become a good graphics > designer ? > > * And the other question is: How to handle such an overwhelming amount of > information and don't get lost in the objective (area of specialization)? If > I'm to be a flash wizard and also keep my eyes on other cornes of the web I > also like, such as web standards, web frameworks (I love Rails), Ajax... how > to handle it? I think you can be Flash wizard and Rails wizard, but it would > take a good amount of time before it. Maybe I should just ignore them and > focus only on one thing? I don't think we, information workes (even creative > information workers), could ignore such things. > > I'm sending this message to the osflash mailing list becouse I think that > many of you also could call youselves "Deselopers", and some tend to the > more cold, rational world of business and others are more about the visual, > creative side. The awesome thing about Flash, the technology and the > community is that it attracts both sides, and melts them in a very > interesting way. And that's how I like it! > > I would be grateful if you could share your thoughts and experiences. > > I know it turned out to be a long post, but I couldn't think of anywhere > else better than this list to post it. I hope you understand, and in the end > we may even end up by helping each other :) > > Cheers, > > Marcelo. > > _______________________________________________ > osflash mailing list > [email protected] > http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/osflash_osflash.org > >
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