General Chat / What Do You Do?

I'm sure there are a plethora of these sorts of topics throughout the site but I regardless I'm making this one. If an admin wants to merge any of them together that's cool too.

Basically I'm just asking the question of "what do you do, other than RCT?" As time goes on and I get swarmed with more schoolwork and look at upcoming jobs and whatnot, my time and interest wanes but my overall interest in the stuff that made me love RCT still stays strong. Basically, I love art. I constantly am finding new ways of expressing my ideas and whatnot, especially in practical ways (ie, future job placement). I love filmmaking, animation, comics, anything that allows me to put my ideas into motion, put a camera on it and make it look super cool and epic and funny, at times. I'm sure many of you see the trend of my RCT work which revolves around studio parks and superheroes, so that's where it stems from. I worked at Disney for a year, running away from school and living off my bucket list, crossing the goal of "work for Disney" off the list, learning a lot about myself and what I want to do, and I realized it's definitely not being an hourly employee at a theme park pushing buttons and checking lapbars. I moved home and currently work at a Best Buy electronics store, and even then I hate the corporate bullshit that goes into that sort of thing, which further strengthens my love for stuff like painting and the like, which surprisingly makes me love school and what I'm doing there even more. I'm finally getting to the point now where I'm confident enough to start showing my work, so maybe I'll open a topic for that here or even this one will become that, who knows. I'll toss something at the bottom of this post to start that off. All I want to do is make cool shit to show people and make them smile and laugh and whatnot and just be like "holy shit, Kyle made that!" I don't know, I think that'd be cool.

Anywho, now that I'm way off topic I'd again like to know what all of you fine lads do in your spare time, or what your main interests are. Maybe we can like make connections or something if we see common interests. I'm all about networking currently so it may cool to work with people on things other than failed group parks.

Lastly here's a quick painting I started last night. It's nowhere near completion and parts are hella ugly and need work, but hey unfinished screens are a dime a dozen here so I figured it's okay.

 starwars7-01.png (662.12KB)
downloads: 31

I currently work with my dad, who runs a sculpture business.  We make models for theme parks, TV, film, theatre, exhibitions etc.  In my spare time I play with Lego, computer games (and combinations of those two), play badminton, a bit of piano, perform with drama groups and do the odd bit of paid acting work.  My ambition is to become a professional actor, and I'm currently in the process of writing a couple of plays which I intend to perform with my three brothers.

"Holy shit, Kyle made that!" I like it, any art more complicated than a pencil drawing I always seem to appreciate, if just because I'm incapable of doing it. Art was always a thing that I thought was really cool and would be great as a hobby but that was more of a phase for me rather than something that I continued.

Anyways, I am a student currently studying law and international studies at university. I've done debating in the past and have always liked the argumentative side of it - basically because I like talking even if it is bollocks most of the time. In my spare time I play the piano and enjoy reading - specifically action/mystery genre. Played soccer throughout school, but never club-level - have always enjoyed sports in general but was average at everything master of none kind of guy. Still have strong interest in soccer, watching more so than playing nowadays but still. Movies are a thing as well...uhm will basically watch anything but would depend on time + mood. Usually action/comedy is the go-to.

I'm a high school senior, looking to study civil engineering/geology in college (most likely Purdue University). I like to play baseball, collect insects, and stargaze. Not too artsy, although I can play a mean tuba. 

Also cool painting nin. 

Nin I’m hijacking this topic and turning it into more of a “tell us about yourself” in general, lol.

I’ll start with the occupational stuff cause that’s what Nin asked in the first place. In December 2014 I graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. Those not interested in details can skip to the next paragraph at this point. Most of my advanced coursework is in structural engineering, with some coursework in geotechnical engineering as well. I certainly took the long way through school. In the fall of 2008, my junior year of high school, I started taking college courses full-time through the Post-Secondary Enrollment Option (PESO). It’s an amazingly good opportunity to get college credits under your belt for free (yes, free) but it varies by state, so be aware of that. My intent at the time was to go into electrical engineering, but I was at a local community college getting my basics (college algebra, calculus series, physics, etc) and liberal education requirements out of the way. I graduated high school in 2010. In the fall of 2011 I transferred up to UMD to start into the electrical and computer engineering program, discovered I hated it, and switched majors to civil engineering. On the plus side I had just taken enough courses to earn a computer engineering minor, so there’s that.

Now that I’ve graduated I’m on the job hunt. I’d love to stay in Duluth where my friends are but the reality is opportunities for civil engineer college grads are scarce this time of year around here, so I’ll likely end up working in the Twin Cities, North Dakota, or Wisconsin. Or hell even somewhere else in the states if it comes to that. We’ll see.

I love anything structurally interesting, or that’s related to construction, as well as technology. I like interesting landscapes, cityscapes, mining, and infrastructure. I also really enjoyed computer programming when I was involved in that in 2010-2011. Part of me still thinks I should’ve majored in computer science, haha! Ah well, you do what you can. Summer 2014 I worked as a civil engineer intern on a large wind farm expansion about an hour west of Bismarck, North Dakota, which was really awesome. Here's some shots of that for you guys (all these were taken by me):

 Bison Summer 2014 (103).JPG (59.89KB)
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 Bison Summer 2014 (108).JPG (58.89KB)
downloads: 10

 Bison Summer 2014 (172).JPG (83.28KB)
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 Bison Summer 2014 (182).JPG (56.29KB)
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 Bison Summer 2014 (210).JPG (44.95KB)
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I was also a pretty serious video game player back in the day, but that’s slowly dwindled as I got further into my college career. I enjoy films quite a lot. Action, adventure, sci-fi (that one’s hard because there’s a lot of really crap sci-fi out there), fantasy (see sci-fi comment), non-retarded comedy, and….well anything as long as it’s good lol.

I love where I live: Duluth, the city on a hill. Duluth is an international sea port in the dead center of a large continent. Why it’s not be utilized better is beyond me, the majority of the economy comes from the taconite mines along the Iron Range being shipped to the steel mills around the lower part of the Great Lakes, and the rest is pretty much from tourism. But enough about that. I absolutely adore the scenery: Canal Park, the lake walk, woods and trails, driving around and watching the road drop out from your vision and give way to Lake Superior, or the “Gichigami” as the Native Americans called it, off in the distance, with Wisconsin far on the horizon as a tiny thin line. Driving in winter kinda sucks when it’s snowing, but it’s a trade-off. But most of all I love the friends I’ve met here, they’re the real reason I want to stay if I can.

 DuluthSkylineAtDawnPanoramic.jpg (102.54KB)
downloads: 15

I also love the ore docks, harbor, and lift bridge. I love taking trips up to the Iron Range and other parts of the Northland and looking at the old open mine pits, taking tours of taconite mines that are currently in operation, and of course going to Soudan Underground Mine: “Minnesota’s oldest, richest, deepest underground iron mine.”

 P7280095.JPG (265.3KB)
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 P7280088.JPG (250.7KB)
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Because of the climate here I also enjoy laughing at anyone who lives further south than the Twin Cities and complains about what they perceive to be “cold”, and also because I’m a jackass.

 Duluth Climate.JPG (113.3KB)
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Well I think I’ve rambled on long enough lol. I think this topic is a great idea and I’m curious to see what others have to say.

I am now doing my master's degree in Urban Geography at Utrecht University, the city where I also live with some other students that are all lovely people. I learn a lot of stuff about cities and will visit Detroit and Toronto in April during a field trip. I'm starting my master thesis these weeks about city centers in the Netherlands.
Apart from RCT and the standard hanging out with friends and drinking (a lot of) beer, I play football (soccer) twice a week. 
I also think it is pretty cool to learn about other people's life. 

Seph, I'm super jealous of that mine. Lake Superior in general is such a cool place. 

We have the same general interests, too. So I'm pretty much jealous of everything you mentioned. 

I'll start by saying my ambitions and goals stem from my brother who was diagnosed with Autism before I was even born. I work as a behavioral analyst for kids and adults diagnosed with Autism. The job comes so natural that it just feels right to be doing it. While my dream job has always been to be a coaster or theme park designer, my ambitions for the longest time have to become a teacher. I just didn't know M focus would change to Special Ed. When my brother was still in highschool, I witness the lack of respect the school principal gave to my brother's"population." It disgusted me that they treated that class like it was just a babysitting center. Had there not been such negativity, perhaps I would still be pursuing a teaching job as a high school English teacher.

My only issue now is since it is almost time for me to start my M.A in Psychology, I'll have to part ways eventually with my kiddos-- Its a conundrum. It makes me almost want to get my BCBA (Board Certified Behavioral Analyst). Getting this will make me get a hefty promotion to a supervising role in my company. That alone has its own benefits. All I know for sure is my life has been altered in a blessed way. I cant see myself doing anything else.

Shit nin, you beat my crayon bastardizations known as drawings.

https://twitter.com/...1845121/photo/1

Im a Project Manager by day and have been doing online racing at night for about 2 years now in this that I built last spring

When not racing, I'm spending time with my two grand babies and occasionally fire up RCT2 and dink around a bit

The last few concept art pieces, are those traditional or digital?

And RCTNW that's just wicked cool.

You're telling us that you actually designed all that real-life stuff. I'm impressed.

So much love for ][22 right now lol

Admins, would I be allowed to post some links to our website, showing some of the work we do?

I don't see why you wouldn't be allowed to post links, unless it's porn or illegal content or whatever.

Cheers, Liam.

Here's one section of our online portfolio, which shows the theming work we've done (some of you might recognise the Chessington and Thorpe Park models).

http://www.sculpture...=Theams&pt=port

^Woah, some of that stuff looks incredible! How long would something like that take [obviously depending on size and material]? and how do you decide on what to make?

A lot of the stuff we do is fibreglass work, and something like the octopus would take about 4 weeks. Most of the time, it isn't us who decides what to make; it's usually a commission from a company/person who has a specific design in mind. From here, we'll either quote the job and proceed, or else suggest alterations that could/should be made in order to produce the model effectively. On occasions, we're given a lot more freedom with designs, like when we're asked to create something "Disney-like" and the client isn't too bothered on the specifics.  Cheers btw

I'll start by saying my ambitions and goals stem from my brother who was diagnosed with Autism before I was even born. I work as a behavioral analyst for kids and adults diagnosed with Autism. The job comes so natural that it just feels right to be doing it. While my dream job has always been to be a coaster or theme park designer, my ambitions for the longest time have to become a teacher. I just didn't know M focus would change to Special Ed. When my brother was still in highschool, I witness the lack of respect the school principal gave to my brother's"population." It disgusted me that they treated that class like it was just a babysitting center. Had there not been such negativity, perhaps I would still be pursuing a teaching job as a high school English teacher.

 

My only issue now is since it is almost time for me to start my M.A in Psychology, I'll have to part ways eventually with my kiddos-- Its a conundrum. It makes me almost want to get my BCBA (Board Certified Behavioral Analyst). Getting this will make me get a hefty promotion to a supervising role in my company. That alone has its own benefits. All I know for sure is my life has been altered in a blessed way. I cant see myself doing anything else.

Doesn't Midnight Aurora do something like this? I remember him talking about it before

I'm still in my last semester of high school, and i have no idea what i'll do post-college, or what i'll even study while in college.