stuck-in-a-zoo

[stuck-in-a-zoo]

Ch 2 - i forgor 💀 [bonus: hot takes that are sure to blow your mind]

Guess who forgot to write this last week...

That's right - It's me 😎😎😎

The week actually started off really well compared to the previous one. I was feeling fresh, I was feeling good, and I really wanted to work my ass off to make up for the week I had missed. I was assigned to make some basic slates for a reel they had to make. And that was actually new to me. I never thought they'd make statics first, get approval from the client and then make the fully animated reel. That is actually a really smart workflow. It would be really unfortunate if you had it all animated and then the client rejected it.

Anyways that was a really basic one, it was done and dusted within the day. The client wanted a bunch of changes and it did end up being the only thing I did on that day.

But the next one, oof. I think it was one of the most frustrating things I went through in that week. This one I got passed on from one of my fellow interns, and I essentially had to start from scratch because they had done nothing. Okay fine, that's alright. It's the same as getting a new thing to do. I did the first cut quick enough, an hour maybe two, with all the effects and filters in photoshop to make the 2D objects look and feel 3D. I love doing that, it's easy too. But then, they didn't want the background colour to be the colour that was the theme of the post. To give context it was like a week long sale and the theme was purple, but noooo i can't use purple. I have to edit an image to change the colour of the person's tshirt to purple, what a waste of time. Nothing looked cohesive enough with purple anywhere else other than the background. So that part was done. Then a few minor changes. Had lunch, came back and oop, oh no :( the person is wrong we need a different person. Literally why wouldn't you say that before 😭😭. The dude's been there since the start. But it's okay, except it's not. Apparently they don't like to take stock images of Indian people in the specific pose we wanted. And here i would like to talk about something important.

AI generated images and "ideas" are already commonplace in workspaces like mine. It's so normal, that if you can't find an image or don't have the time or budget to do a photoshoot, just AI generate it. Who cares if you can't employ people to 3D model for you, or make Illustrations, just ai it bro. And it pisses me off. What did i build my skills for. I learnt blender, photoshop, Illustrator, video editing and animation years before I even joined college. But then when I'm working, i don't even get to use 90% of that because I'm locked into a single role and they AI everything else. The work I'm doing, being mostly photoshop work is acceptable, but when i specifically said I know blender and 3D modelling and animation why not take advantage of that. Imagine what the other employees might also know and are skilled in. We need to start making use of these skills. Sure AI can make a pizza the shape of the empire state building in seconds, but it will never have the exactly right angle, the exactly right colours or the depth of field or whatever else, and we spend hours fixing that after generating it. It makes no sense to me. Anyways rant over.

Basically we had to AI generate a whole new person in two different poses which was a war on its own. But the end product looked really cool, minus the ai person, very uncanny. Would not recommend you do that ever.

The next few days were spent doing my favourite post so far. it has a lot of shading and lighting and playing with distortion, stacking blurs and all that to make a semi 3D scene in photoshop, and oh my god, i love doing this. Painting in the shadows, the highlights, then putting it all together, mmm *chef's kiss* beautiful. It took about 3 days to get all the slides approved along with doing other secondary, but immediate work. I'm glad they asked me to do it because I learnt a lot, especially this "Camera Raw Filter". Really useful to add final touches to really make your thing pop.

And that was it. Fun week overall, finally a full week without being sick. Yayyy.

Bye bye.

[stuck-in-a-zoo]

Ch 1 - Sickly Victorian Child

Let's just say my second week of internship wasn't very eventful. Thinking that I had fully recovered from my sickness over the weekend, I was quite excited to start a new week, a full week. And start it did. Monday went by quite well. It was a slow day, I wasn't given anything to work on for half the day so I worked on some personal project just to keep busy.

Right before lunch, I was assigned to make a social media post. Nothing too complicated, I was even given references I had to follow. I had an okay time experimenting, but I felt restricted by what I had to show and how I had to show it. I handed it off to my senior and got a new thing to work on. Research and reference finding. Not my favourite thing to do, but I'm here to learn and experience.

It was fine, the work was to literally just scroll on Pinterest with anything that aligned with the theme. Gave it 2 hours, showed it to my superiors and then I clocked out.

Day 2, Tuesday was a doozy. I came in feeling like I was stuffed like a teddy bear. I don't know what it was but damn was I messed up. I had to work on another pitch deck, due the next day. I powered through it as well as I could. Even skipping lunch to finish it off.

I can't talk much about what I did because there wasn't a lot. I can't say I'm learning anything because I'm not. I know this and I'm just applying. If anything I'm learning that being an intern is just doing menial work. That's not to say all interns are doing that. I'm just being given things I'm not interested in atall. Which is okay.

Getting back to my day, I show my senior the work and they give it the green light. At which point I inform them I'm not feeling my best and that I HAVE to return home. And boy am I glad I did. I got home and had the worst 4 days in the past three months. I was out for the count and ended up not going to work for the entire week.

I was but a sickly victorian child, draped on a mattress with my forehead slick with sweat. And also having the contents of bowels coming out the wrong end.

To be continued, hopefully not the sick part.

[stuck-in-a-zoo]

Ch 0 - Employment

Hello? Employment? Already?

No no. It's just an internship.

But you just completed your second year, why are you getting a job?

No, it's an internship

You have two more years in your course why are you looking for a job?

IT"S A DAMN INTERNSHIP.

Ahem. sorry.

To cut to the chase, my first week of doing an internship went really well! Uhm actually, that you can judge for yourself once I'm done with my story.

So, to start off: I got a position as an Art Intern at Zoo Media. Where I started from the 16th of June. And tbh I really was quite excited, because omg I have a job now! But getting to the workplace, on my first day was the worst, no taxis would want to go there and it's raining cats, dogs, mice and pigeons - like Zeus himself smite them. But that's okay, I could still walk, only 20 minutes away, should be easy right? Lol no. The winds were so strong and unruly, the moment I opened my umbrella, it flipped and then immediately unflipped. So yeah. and I was drenched by the time i got to my office.

At the very same time I entered, there was another intern starting the same day as me, who would end up being my first friend there! Besides the 3 people I already knew from college. She's pretty chill and she's kinda good at carom.

Anyways, I walk in and I see... a kind of office I've never seen before? or well, I definitely didn't expect this. It was really... really... gay. Not in a derogatory way. I felt like I was with my people. Queer people! PRIDE FLAGS EVERYWHERE. (honestly could've been just pride month, but I can confirm. Queer people.)

And it was open, no cubicles, I was so scared of cubicles. I would not have enjoyed working in a cubicle. And it really was such a collaborative environment. People were moving from one table to another, taking like they were college-mates, just chilling around the place. And they have 2 loft areas: One for a pool and a carom table. And the other one with floor couches? Cushions? to just chill or sleep on. Very cool! These things made me feel quite relieved about choosing to work here. Because I was scared it was would be a boring, silent, stick to your work kind of office.

I really can't say what I was given to work on, but I was working on a pitch deck template with the other intern that I mentioned earlier, and I guess we work okay together, we just need to get on the same page, and tbh doing that on the first day is a hard ask. But that's okay, it's whatever. It was going fine, the two of us were working on google slides, since we didn't really know what the level of freedom was, and they said they liked it so - YAY! Except I suddenly spiked a fever? My first day and I'm literally dying. How could this happen to me? I endured it for about 2 hours before slowly waddling over to my HR contact, very sadly and guiltily, who allowed me to go home. And that was my first day!

Okay, I'll keep it short from now, because the next two days, I could not go to work, I was bedridden and felt very guilty about not working. Anyways, after that on Thursday, 19th. They had a pitch the next day and they were scrambling to get anything approved as the client was rejecting everything! I had to redesign the whole template for the deck and then editing and revising the finished deck. This was honestly fine, basic Photoshop stuff and page layouting, and proof reading. I was already quite comfortable with doing these things, and it wasn't really hard.

And that led to me staying back till about 12 am. The deck wasn't even really finished by then because some of the creatives wasn't ready yet. But I was willing to wait. Unfortunately my supervisor made me go home. It was really fun staying back, because it was just me, my supervisor and a handful of full-time employees trying to figure out what exactly the client wants, because they kept being very indecisive about things.

Already two very different, first two days. One abnormally short, and the other abnormally long.

And my last day of the week Friday, was actually really uneventful, except for the fact that I had to come in at 10:30 and I woke up at 10. But I did end up reaching at 10:45. Also I only did a few things just helping out here and there. and left at the very appropriate time of 7:30. So that's what a regular day at the office is supposed to be like! I got a taste of everything in my first week.

I don't know if I like being employed, not because I don't want money or experience, it's more so the fact that I don't get to do what I want. It's always gonna be for some brand that has a set style, so experimentation is out the window, but we do get to use our creativity and do things our way as long as it fulfils the clients needs. I'm guessing here. Idk, I'm just an intern, why are you asking me?

And that's it.

bye :)