Well, this is it. My first baby steps back into the creative workplace.

So who am I, and what is this Blog all about?

My name is Barry T. Smith. I am a thirty something with a wife and a newborn baby. I grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to California right after college. I received a traditional animation degree and worked as an artist in the games industry for a few years.

But over time I found myself drawn into the corporate world, working as a webmaster for various companies over the past 9 years. In essence, I got myself thoroughly sidetracked, from a professional as well as a creative standpoint. Five years ago I began to flex my artistic muscle with online comic strips, but living in the Bay Area with a family to feed, being creative with my strips just wasn't feasible.

While cartooning has been good to me, over the years I've tasted of creativity and want more. Ideally, I realized I would have a day job where I am creative and someone would give me a steady paycheck (and benefits) to be artistic.

And so my mind returned to the idea of working as an animator again. But the animation landscape has changed so drastically over the years. 3D was in its infancy back when I got my first degree and while I have the knowledge locked away inside of me, I am rusty with my skills. Plus I have a new tool to contend with.

Seeing as how I sought re-training but still needed to maintain my day job, I signed up with Animation Mentor. An online based animation school. I am proud to say I am part of the first class ever to go though the program and look forward to letting them teach this old dog some new tricks.

So stop by every now and then and I'll regale you with tales of school as well as post my thoughts on the industry and share my learning experience (and some of my homework) with you.