Siggraph - The First Couple of Days!
I’m down in San Diego for Siggraph! I got in on Saturday and it already seems like I’ve been here a long time! It has been a ton of fun so far. I’m completely amazed again at people from Animation Mentor. To go to a place you really haven’t been, share a hotel with people you barely know and spend your day with people you’ve never really met face to face, and to have a blast throughout it all - that’s pretty amazing stuff. As soon as AM people find each other, they’re completely enthralled with one another, joking around and chatting like really good friends. Oh wait, we are really good friends. Excellent.
So yesterday I met up with Jeff which was awesome in itself and made my way down to where AM graduation is going to be today. I think we’re going to be blown away by everything going on. There we “met” a few more AM people - Aja, Christoph, Henry, Richard, Ryan…a lot of people! It was SO good to see a lot of AnimationMentor staff there again as well. I believe they are some of the most amazing people on this planet. It was a blast to sit and chat with them and joke around as we did a few things. Can’t wait for today.
The rest of the day was spent running into other AM people and chatting with them, watching some work in the animation theater, and then grabbing dinner together. We actually ran into even more AM people on the way there, I had a lot of people call to meet up with us, and we filled up the patio area of a pub and grill in the Gaslamp area. It was a lot of fun to sit around and chat, make jokes, do impressions of Bobby, Shawn and Carlos, and of course have some good food. 
The rest of the night we split up, and a bunch of people came over to my hotel where we hung out in the lobby. This is no ordinary lobby - tons of couches and huge window seats with lots of pillows. We chatted the night away about animation, tips for demo reels and resumes, and various banter about all sorts of things. Again, I’m amazed by how close AM people are. This school is amazing!
If you’re here for Siggraph, make sure you stop by the AM booth starting on Tuesday! Chances are I’ll be around that area a lot!
