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Hello from Texas!

kathrynlochkathrynloch Posts: 378
edited December 1969 in New Users

Hi everyone!

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kathryn Loch and I'm in southeast Texas. I've had DAZ for awhile now, but haven't had the chance to really dig in and learn it. I'm correcting that at this very moment. lol!

I'm a best selling indie author on Amazon.com. I started writing with the goal of being published back in high school - many eons ago. But I've been an artist as long if not longer than I've been writing. Since the days of the original Tron movie (yes, I'm dating myself) I've wanted to do special effects for the movies. I lived in Southern California at the time when ILM was in its infancy so it would have been a perfect opportunity, but as the saying goes, life is what happens while you're making other plans. So things didn't go that direction and I went into accounting and business management. A big difference, all things considered, but after 30 years in that path, the experience is now serving me well since I'm in business for myself with the indie author thing.

But I'm rediscovering my passion for all things special FX and this too serves me well as I'm now creating my own book covers - very important since we do judge our books by the covers when it comes to sales and promotion. I'm also expanding my business into small press and looking to help new and aspiring writers as they navigate this rapidly changing industry - I got serious with publishing back in '96 and understand both the traditional publishing world and the independent/small press world.

The biggest thing I've been test marketing is using 3d and video game tech to create book trailers. Book trailers are becoming as popular as any other trailer that advertises movies and video games. So far, the only options available to authors, both traditionally published and indie (unless you are a household blockbuster name such as King, Rowling, or Grisham) is to pay out of pocket and hire an indie director, actors and crew to produce your trailer, or do the glorified slide show Power Point production (OMG - if I see another one of those I'm gonna hurl!)

But if we use readily available 3d and video game tech there is no reason why we can't have high quality custom trailers of our own for our books without breaking the bank. I created a short demo which I showed to respected industry execs such as Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords, and others, and have received positive and very constructive feedback.

So now it's time to take it out of test and into the real world. But that's a huge undertaking. Ultimately, I'm a writer and that's how I pay my bills. Books need to be published to keep the income - incoming - lol! So I'm trying to juggle the schedule and sometimes I feel like I'm juggling chainsaws. ;)

I think out of all the stuff I've tried - Cinema 4d (I'm an Adobe Creative Cloud member so have C4D lite with After Effects), Video Copilot, Maya, and a few others, DAZ offers the most potential because of the open marketplace and from what I've seen thus far on the forums, the open exchange of information with those who are most familiar with DAZ. While on Deviant Art I've seen some truly extraordinary creations using DAZ and Photoshop. That sort of amazing art is what I want to learn to create.

They say when learning any new art to go with what you know to give yourself a foundation before branching into the truly unknown. My knowledge base is horses, medieval history and the knight in shining armor. So I'm starting with that and hoping to learn more.

We shall see how it goes.

I look forward to getting to know the community here.

Thank you!

Cheers,
Kathryn

Comments

  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854
    edited December 1969

    Hi from Georiga! These are interesting and exciting times around here. Right now most of us are on a learning curve because of Iray so it is a good time to dig in when there are loads of people sorting everything out.

  • kathrynlochkathrynloch Posts: 378
    edited December 1969

    Thank you, Khory!

    I must admit I just did a search on lray - way beyond my mode of comprehension at this point. I know what mentalray is, and raytrace, and of course my own GPU with a NVIDA card - a GFX770m. I'm running an ASUS ROG i7 hyperthreaded laptop. Should I worry? ;)

  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854
    edited December 1969

    Not worry no.. Lust in your heart for a gaming computer with OMG graphics cards maybe so. We are all getting up to speed and there are hugesome threads in the forums on Iray as everyone works through these baby steps together.

  • mark_l_andersonmark_l_anderson Posts: 6
    edited December 1969

    Hello Kathryn, What area of Texas are you in? My kids and I are down by Corpus and are trying to learn Daz ourselves for various projects.

    Mark

  • kathrynlochkathrynloch Posts: 378
    edited December 1969

    Hi Mark - Corpus is a bit of a distance but not as bad as it could be. I'm in Southeast Texas in the Beaumont area - near the Louisiana line. Houston is about 2 hours west of me. At least we're not talking about Brownsville or El Paso here. :lol: Beaumont to El Paso is the longest, most boring drive ever!

    I've definitely been diving into DAZ and absolutely loving it. I'm starting a creative live stream on Twitch.tv - orginally goiing showcase the writing and my art in Photoshop with tutorials and stuff, but now adding DAZ tot the workflow and the stream. It's gonna be fun! I'm so hooked on this program now. ;-)

    I've only just started tho so I have a bit to go. But a great way to learn is the newbie contests if you haven't checked out those threads already. I just saw your note on this one. I'll check the rest of the forums later. I've gone beyond burning the midnight oil here. lol!

    Cheers,
    Kathryn

  • mark_l_andersonmark_l_anderson Posts: 6
    edited December 1969

    Well I needed something for the boys to do to release their creativity this summer while they are out of school, and DAZ looks like it will help immensely.

    As for the distances here in Texas, you know you're in Texas when you drive for 12 hours and still haven't even left the state :)

  • kathrynlochkathrynloch Posts: 378
    edited December 1969

    mark_l_anderson said:

    As for the distances here in Texas, you know you're in Texas when you drive for 12 hours and still haven't even left the state :)

    AMEN brother! Amen! lol!

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Or is that, you know you're in Texas and you're willing to drive over twelve hours just to get the heck out of it? ;-P

    Kidding aside, welcome from a northerner.

  • mark_l_andersonmark_l_anderson Posts: 6
    edited December 1969

    And believe it or not I plan on moving even farther into the state after my kids all graduate from school. And out into the desert to boot. I'll leave hot and humid but the beach is only 2 miles away, for hot and dry during the day and freezing at night :)

  • kathrynlochkathrynloch Posts: 378
    edited December 1969

    hahaha Thanks evilproducer!

    Well for those who don't know and I'm sure Mark can attest - Texas has two seasons - Summer and Winter and usually both in the same week.

    I'm originally from southern California so the humidity down her kills me - I'll never get used to it. I never grew the required gills. And when I go visit my mom in California now I freeze at night when its normally comfortable because I'm not used to the dry air. I can't win for losing. lol!

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