I'm excited for Taxes!

It occurred to me that with graduation already over with and my soon to be (hopefully) income approaching, I would be utterly useless when it came to filing my taxes. Never done, don't understand it, and frankly, it just plain scares me that the government plans on taking money away from me every year. So since my mom is an accountant, I talked to her about it and asked her to advise me on these things before I leave for CA. It turns out, if you do everything strategically, the government can actually OWE YOU MONEY and will cut you a check after tax season. Awesome right?! I'm sure most of you already know this, but I was quite inspired. For about 3 hours we discussed everything I had done recently that would qualify as a tax deduction because I am "running my own business" aka myself. My trip to LA for SIGGRAPH- Tax Deduction. All the meals and coffee I had to meet with people in the industry- Tax Deduction. Even something like buying a USB drive, DVDs, office equipment, rent on your room that houses your computer, car insurance (helps me run my business), new business clothes- All of these things I can file and will likely get you money back at the end of the tax season! I'm pretty excited.


Since I'm weird, I got SO excited that I decided when I get back to Chico, I'm going to do a presentation on Tax Deductions as a Freelance Artist. I am by no means an expert (and I will make that perfectly clear in the workshop), but if everyone in our department starts having this mentality of "I'm running my own business and the government should pay me for it", "I'm making sacrifices and it will pay off in the end", etc., you could actually have INCOME from these tax deductions that could help you out if you're between contracts. You can almost DEPEND on having these checks delivered to you within a few months of getting your 1099's. I would recommend (even to myself) having someone like H & R block do them for the first couple years just to get a feel for what works and what doesn't, and what the process of filing entails, but honestly, $50 to maximize your tax deductions for the rest of your life is not that bad of a bargain.

Now, most of these deductions only apply for when you are unemployed or not working for a company (don't quote me on this, I'm still learning). So that means if you perfect it early, you can keep HUGE records and keep all the receipts for these events and deductions that count and just total them up at the end of the year while you are between contracts. My mom recommended not only saving all your receipts (and to be thorough maybe even add side notes as to who was with you, etc.), keep a log book of mileage in your car (or gas receipts, but $.50/mile make more sense for how I would personally do it), keep a register on Quick Books/ Quicken to keep track of all your income and bills you had to pay (Comcast bills count, you need internet and phone to run your business!), even making a photocopy of everything for that year and storing it in a box for 7 years (they can't audit you after 7 years) will help you prove to the government that you are working your ass off and need these deductions. The more proof and relevancy you have, the better.

So anyways, I hope that inspired some people as much as it did me :)  Now, I don't have to worry so much about it because we have an edge over all those uneducated taxpayers- we are running our own business and now we KNOW to look for loopholes in the system. I look forward to discussing all of these things with people in Chico, and I hope I somewhat educated people on this subject (I know I learned a lot!)

Cheers.

Cupid Scene 2

Just looking for feedback. Don't mind the textures, I'm still getting the shading networks sorted out. Thanks!

Cupid update

Finished a scene and need some critique. I may or may not get to it before it's time to render them all, but if you notice anything that's absolutely bugging you, feel free to post. Hopefully, we'll make our deadline of November and finally be done! To see the trailer, you can view it on my website or here.

Finished Painting

So i never really considered myself to be an artist when I first started taking classes to become an animator. But, I have to say, art has inspired me a lot and I'm really excited about this painting I did. Mostly what I tried to incorporate was this concept of color temperature that I never really understood. I kind of understand it now, but I feel it takes a long time to perfect these things. I never really cared for details in my work either, but I didn't want to downplay my passion and cut myself short of work. I also focused on showing where the light is coming from (the light source in the sky and Aphrodite herself).

So here's the final. I learned a hell of a lot and I hope I become inspired to paint more! Cheers!

New Plan

My loan got denied for AM, so it looks like I'm on my own for portfolio work. Not to worry, though, after a few days of moping, I realized working from the bottom isn't as bad as I thought. It will give me a chance to get a feel for a real pipeline since I probably won't get a job as an animator right away. Should be moving to LA by the end of this year (and probably stopping to see my Chico State people on the way) and working on my portfolio until then. On the agenda? Finishing Cupid and hauling ass on Kitchen of Terror. I do believe we are bringing it back and working on it until it's done this time! In addition to animation scenes for my portfolio, I've been exploring other mediums. ZBrush 4 just came out and I got a trial and decided to replicate a pose of Basil of Baker Street from Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective". It's weird getting back into ZBrush since I haven't touched it after I learned how to use it... but it should be fun. Another side project which I should be finishing up soon will be a digital painting. I've been in love with the idea of painting/ sculpting the Greek Gods and Goddesses and interpreting their story into the composition. I just finished the shading on Aphrodite and I posted it below. Since the legend is that she was formed from the seafom, and I haven't really done landscapes before, I decided on the composition below. I also started an idea bank for animations to create WAY later on down the road, and one of them includes an well-known story by Euripides with a twist. Lastly, it's always good to do the 11 Second Club when you are jobless :)

So I hope everyone is doing well, and feedback is always appreciated!