I was working on some homework last night. Usually when I do, I have a video or music playing in the background to keep the quiet to a minimum. To my utter joy, I found that a streaming video channel on Winamp streams full length movies and Jurassic Park had just started.

I… LOVE… Jurassic Park. Not the sequels. I never even saw the third one. The second one was so bad that I couldn’t stand the thought of another horrible spin-off ruining one of my childhood’s most cherished movies. I remember watching the first Jurassic Park movie over and over again, so much so that I could recite it from memory. When I was a junior or senior in high school, I photoshopped the T-rex into our school newsletter devouring students. I spent days working on plans for an animatronic homecoming float theme called “Dinosaurs at Julian High.” Sadly, the student body decided to roll with a ridiculously lame “Julian High in the 1950’s” theme. One of my favorite memories is going to Universal Studios with my cousin Matt and riding the brand-spankin’ new Jurassic Park theme park ride. So awesome….

Then it stopped suddenly. I hadn’t seen the original Jurassic Park since I was eighteen or nineteen years old. Ten years! What are the odds of that? These sci-fi blockbusters are always getting rerun on cable stations like TBS or SciFi. How could it be that I haven’t seen such a cherished classic in so long?

Therefore, something peculiar happened as I watched the movie. It felt like a literal quantum leap into the body of 1996 James (or Jim, as everyone called me back then). I watched the film through the same eyes as my former self. It was sureal. The CGI in the movie is pretty dated, but it felt the same as it did so long ago. The same awe from when professor Grant sees the brachiasaurus hoisting itself onto it’s hind legs to feed on higher branches. The same tense fear from when Ian was being chased down by the T-rex. The panic from when the kids escape the raptors in the cafeteria.

I got a taste of all that philosophic bull crap that movie officianados wax on about their profession. You know, where they say that films help the viewer escape into a different world, inspire their inner child, fascinate their blah blah blah blahhh…

The taste was bittersweet.

Half way through the film, it dawned on me that Jurassic Park was one of the main influences of my childhood (teenhood?). It made me realize what I wanted to do with my future. I remember feeling an enormous sense of hope and joy at knowing that I wanted to work in 3D animation. I wanted to make dinosaurs of my own.

I look at where I am in my life today and it’s no where near what I planned for when I was younger. I still haven’t learned how to model or animate in 3D. I’m not working in the movies. Life is moving faster and faster toward being 30 and I have yet to get something higher than a high school diploma.

In a sense, laced with those forgotten feelings brought on by the brachiasuarus and the T-rex chase was the pain of remorse. A mourning of aspirations gone unanswered, and an anger that I’ve been spinning my wheels for almost a decade. When I graduate college next year, I’ll be in the same shoes as all the other 21 year old graduates. I’ll be a green horn, noobish code monkey, except passing 30 and under an immediate priority toward raising children and buying a home.

It’s a shame, and at times kinda depressing to think about. The only thing I can do now is upgrade my goals and assess the possibilities. Let’s hope I’ve learned how to ignore the distractions.

I hate JRPGs for the same reasons.

Why is it that you always get 15 year old emo kids that end up with super powers? And what’s the deal with their ridiculous clothes and hair? Seriously, not even Japanese people dress like that! It’s like they purposefully dress them that way to keep the cosplay industry alive.

Ugh… so much animation. Check out the final 5-hit combo attack sequence for the main character. You can see the roughed out versions here and here. I’m pretty happy with it, but let me know what you think!

Here are the roughed-in attack animations. My goal is to have them up and functional by tonight or tomorrow. After that, I can begin working on the casting animations.

I just realized that I should probably make a dummy to beat up on to test if the hit detection works. Haha!

Some guys from one of my classes at UCI made this. Absolutely hilarious! I almost crapped a brick of laughter at the StarFox reference. “Do a barrel roll!”

Check out more of their machinima here!