Oodles of Noodles

Noodling.

I recently heard that term on a podcast by Franklin McMahon. It refers to the process of just opening some software and playing with it. Learning by stumbling. It's something I don't do enough - at least not recently, as I've focusing on getting Fini launched.

But starting the summer of 2004 and through the middle of last year I was doing tons of it over at PixelCorp. At the time I was thinking of moving into a different part of the industry. After a year of noodling with Shake, Image Modeler, Cinema 4D I decided I needed to focus. What do want to be when I grow up?

I decided to start at the end. I pictured where I wanted to be in 5 years - and Fini was born.

Now that Fini is nearly up and running, and since some of the skills I acquired over those 15 months are starting to rust, it's time to get back to doing some noodling. And learning how to restore and retouch photographs in a guided reading with the author of a Photoshop book... it's classic PixelCorp.

It's a healthy change of pace. But no teams for me this time around... can't lose sight of the 5-year plan.

- patrick