I am back…again!
Heya!
Wow! It’s been awhile since I blogged! I keep letting it slip, but from here on out I will be more diligent in posting. I promise!! A lot has happened since I last posted! Summer happened! I can’t believe how fast the last couple months went by. It seems like yesterday I was handing in my last assignment then woosh! September! Lemme summarize what happened: AM bbq, Graduation, Siggraph and work.
It’s been crazy! One trip after another and absolute fun on all of them. It was great to throw myself back into hanging with animators. They are a fantastic group of people and I don’t feel out of place with them. We have this understanding of each other and it really feels like a family. I’ll do posts about grad and siggraph in a bit to show off some pictures. For now I’ll talk about the bbq!
It was super cool! A friend of mine was awesome enough to let me stay with him again so I could finance the trips. We’ve become great friends and his girlfriend is hella rad and they are very welcoming to me. Great people. I’ll stop gushing and get onwards! AM had a job fair for alumni and current class 6 students before the open house the day before the bbq. It was so fantastic that they did that for us. Gave us a chance to mix with recruiters and possibly get hired. What we didn’t know was they showed them our work (those who were attending) so that the recruiters were prepared if they wanted to potentially interview someone. Luckily I didn’t know about that cause I was nervous enough as it was. It was my first time meeting recruiters and I was rather jittery lol. There was a lot of students/alumni that I knew there so it helped take the edge off. I talked to almost all of the companies there in the couple hours we were given. I knew the whole visa thing would be an issue for most smaller companies there so I wasn’t expecting much. I was suprised when one company was really responsive to me and the recruiter remembered my work! I was floored! He offered a reel review, which was awesome, and we had a good laugh together. I walked away feeling better about myself and my work. That’s a huge thing for me!
The open house was chaos! So many people kept coming up to me and saying hi. I knew more people this time going into it so it was great to see them in person. Laughed with the Stickam crew and the Utah crew a lot and had a fantastic time. Met a bunch of new people and some were new to the program. They found out I was a peer buddy and alumni tutor so they asked a TON of questions. I talked pretty much non stop from the beginning of the open house till we lights went down in the theater. We went to the opening of Wall-E together. The movie was amazing! The crowd was amazing! A completely amazing night! My ride back to my friend’s place was cool cause his friends (who were about to start the program) asked me another load of questions. We had a great conversation and I noticed it seemed to take longer to get there lol. Didn’t bother me cause I love chatting. My throat was so raspy the next morning! But I pulled it together for the bbq!
The bbq was fantastic! It was full of great people and great times! It was overcast and somewhat windy, but it was a great temp for me. I am used to cooler climate compared to SF Bay area so I was finally cooled off. Other people would say it was cold lol. I got to meet new and familiar faces and really just have a good time. It was nice to be recognized as well and just talk shop. And talk we did. I talked the whole day and laughed till my sides hurt. So many awesome people and so little time. Walked away with some great friends that I was sad to say goodbye to lol.
The AM Gang!
The rest of the time I was there I was shown the sights by my friend and his girlfriend. There was a cool exhibit by a Blue Sky story artist at a museum. It had the storyboards he worked on for Horton. Rather cool to see them in person. I am fascinated by artists and how they work. We also went to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz. I rode my first coaster there! His girlfriend and I rode the wooden coaster. It was interesting. The bouncing and feeling like you were riding a toothpick took a bit to get used to. After the first couple turns I let go and enjoyed myself. She might turn me into a coaster junky like herself yet!
The coaster I rode on the Boardwalk!
I came back super excited and super tired! I was all fired up to get working on new shots and planning my changes to my short film. I had to work a bunch of overtime at work to cover my trip to grad/siggraph and make monies so it basically ate most of my free time up. But the trip to come was fantastic! I will write about it in another post!
Good to be back in action! Stay tuned and keep rocking!
~Spilly
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