alexiss dawn

I just got back from an incredible week in San Francisco. It was so good to get to see so many people from Animation Mentor again and hang out with them. So here’s a quick Readers Digest version of how the week went down.

Wednesday I flew into San Francisco early in the morning, got my car and drove downtown. I found where ILM/LucasArts was and then hung out at the Golden Gate Bridge until it was time to actually to head over there. I knew if I left to go somewhere else I’d just get lost. Plus it was a great opportunity for a couple of pics.

I had lunch with an Animation Mentor alumni that’s working at LucasArts. He also took me on a tour and I got to see a lot of absolutely amazing stuff — dinosaur skeletons hooked up to wires to animate on a computer that they used for Jurassic Park, original Star Wars costumes, background paintings, and of course animators there that I know because of AM. It was great to just have the opportunity to sit and talk and see some pretty cool stuff.

Afterwards I decided to drive to Berkeley and go to Animation Mentor offices. It was SO good to see a lot of the staff there again. Animators don’t shake hands — they give hugs and jump up and down. Hehe.

That night my friend from Poland flew in and we ended up hanging out at a coffee shop and then staying up talking until like 3 am just talking. It’s great to be able to talk animation and not have the other person just give you a blank stare.

The next day we got up early to pick people up from the airport and then headed over to Emeryville to go to Pixar. The studio is really incredible to see. I got to meet up with a couple of the animators there and have lunch with them and just get to talk. I also got to tour the studio which was great to see in person. It was a lot of fun to meet up with people there that I had met at Siggraph and just talk with them in person again.

That day we also had the AM open house so I got to see A LOT of AM people and really get talking with them. It was so great to see so many of the graduating AMers as well as a lot of noobs. We all went to dinner at a place kiddy corner from Pixar and just had 50ish animators hanging out there and talking.

The NEXT day we drove down to Redwood City to go visit PDI/Dreamworks. We got a quick tour and then had lunch with a few animators that work there. They were all so amazing to talk to and I “knew” all of them but hadn’t met some of them face to face. Very cool.

The rest of the day I walked around SF with some friends just touring, visiting spots and getting food. Lots of fun. We walked from Fisherman’s Wharf to Coit Tower. Dang. SF is full of some mega steep hills. Lol.

And then finally there was Saturday. This was a day that would take a novel to even begin to let you know how great it was. I went to breakfast with a bunch of people that were graduating and then went to Fort Mason where grad was going to be to help. I ran into several mentors I knew there — lots I had seen throughout the week — and just got to talk with them again. Pete Doctor was gave an incredible speech at grad. I also ran into several people I had met at Siggraph and have been emailing. Again, it was great to see them in person again and be able to talk. Graduation was amazing — I knew so many of the grads and it was great to meet them in person after talking to them over the last year. The energy and excitement there was just incredible and once again Animation Mentor managed to pull off yet another stunning celebration. It’s impossible to describe the energy there.

One of the mentors I had met the day before offered to help if we needed suggestions on a place to eat that night. I ended up calling him cause we could only find the “Burger Meister” and it just didn’t smell good….at all. He ended joining us for dinner and we got to talk for a while before heading over to the grad after-after party. The place I had reserved ended up deciding to book a couple of other parties as well so there just wasn’t room for us. We ended up getting everyone to leave and then walked up the streets of SF to find another bar. It was an incredible site to see so many animators all together walking along. Cassidy got a great panoramic shot of a bunch of us walking.

This trip was just a really great way to start this term and the start of my short film. Such an explosion of excitement and so many people that I just love and getting hugs left and right and getting to talk with mentors and being on an even playing field with them. AM really is just a family and it was so great to be at home with them. Just like everything else with Animation Mentor, this week exceeded anything that I had expected.

And as a side note — every time I get on a plane I’m amazed by the clouds. I love the view when you get above the first layer and are inbetween these massive clumps of clouds. Just a few pics…

Many, many thanks to everyone who made last week incredible — the amazing AM staff, the mentors, and my fellow students. It was so great to be there. And congrats to the graduating classes!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 11:38 am and is filed under Animation, Animation Mentor, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.