As I’ve gone MIA the last several months, I thought I’d holler out to blog land as we’re about to head to Siggraph in Los Angeles! Do you want to know what I’ve been busy working on? (Believe me, you definitely do…) Come to the Animation Mentor Birds of a Feather event this Tuesday at Siggraph! You may or may not see something awesome. =)
Tuesday, July 27th @ 2:30 pm in Room 301A. Be there!
Happy New Year folks! Let the elusive debate of whether it’s twenty-ten or two thousand and ten begin!
This last year was one heck of a year! Starting the year in New York working at Blue Sky Studios, moving to Utah to work at Lumenas Animation Studios, and finding myself at the end of the year prepping for a move to California. The year didn’t go in any way I planned or ever imagined but it was one heck of a ride.
So we’re a month into 2010. I made the drive out to California the first of January, packing away my Raving Rabbids and Magic Bullet. I’m working for a bit out at….drumroll…
Animation Mentor! It’s a truly incredible environment to be in and I consider myself lucky to be here. I’m getting to work with the students, still get to animate, and work on some pretty cool projects. If you’re an AMer, you understand how amazing the school is. If you’re not, check out the video they have talking about the company and the work environment over here.
Cool, eh? Like I said, lucky.
If last year taught me anything it was to expect the unexpected. I’m curious to see where I’m at the end of this year and all of the adventures I’ve had. I’m sure it’s going to be a blast.
So there are stories to be told, but I’ll let those out bit by bit. For now, greetings from sunny California!
It’s been quite a while since an update! I’m still alive and kicking.
Work is going great. I really have the best job in the world at Lumenas and have the great opportunity of working with an amazing team — a true blessing. It’s been great seeing things fall into place and see our company grow. The end result is going to be stunning.
I’m a Springboard mentor at Animation Mentor this term. Springboard is a class available before starting at AM in class 1, to learn about Maya and get used to the technical aspects of the massive application before diving into animation. It’s filled with info that I didn’t learn until class 4 when I bought some Digital Tutors DVDs to learn more about Maya. It’s definitely an excellent resource for those not familiar with Maya.
In other non-animation-related news, I’ve started a photoblog. It’s been wonderful being able to get back to some hobbies after work and have time to pursue them. Spring time is slowly creeping in here in Utah and you can’t help but get outside on those beautiful days.
…is beautiful.
After a six day, seventy hour work week, it was so nice to slow down and just walk through the park with a friend for a few hours. Last week of Fall it looks like. And yes, that tree was THAT bright.
Tuesday, November 4th. If you’re here in the States, GO VOTE. Do it now.
Alright, let’s see if I can do this. I’ve slowly been composing my thoughts/feelings/everything about all of last week! It was an incredible experience and has been dubbed the best week ever by me. 
(Warning: It is impossible to sum up this much awesomeness. What follows is only a smidgin of a look into what has happened over the last week and a half!)
So I flew out after work on a Friday with another AMer/Blue Sky-er, headed off to San Francisco for graduation. After a crazy delayed flight, we made it into SF and met up with a bunch of friends downtown! Despite being totally exhausted, we stayed up late and I went on 25 hours without sleep the first night!!
The next day was graduation from Animation Mentor. It totally was one of those experiences that words just can’t do justice for. It was incredible to be a part of it. AM really knows how to make an event amazing. It was SO great to see my classmates from the last 18 months from all over the world! And then to get to hang out with them!! And no, I didn’t trip walking across the stage!
That night after we finally left grad (we all like to talk!) about 50 of us met up at Boudin for dinner (and convinced them to stay open late for us!!) and then headed to Medjools to party. It was an amazing night with amazing friends. The great Chris Derochie was hanging out with us (QUACK, QUACK!!) and noticed how people were dancing. So long story short, a group of us got a bunch of people doing the macarena randomly. SO COOL and hilarious!!
The next day I took off to LA with a friend of mine where we met up with a zillion more friends for Siggraph. We stayed at an amazing hotel (part of The Shining was filmed there!! FREAKY!) and had awesome company. Staying with good friends is a must!
The week is impossible to sum up. Spending the day talking and laughing with friends, with studios, with random people! And then at night partying! AM through an awesome party for students, alumni, mentors, industry people…it was great!! Blur also through one heck of a party I got to go to with a good friend. I have not laughed so hard in a LONG time!!
Top 10 Grad/Siggraph moments (In no particular order!):
(Man! There are so many more!!!)
I did not get the chance to participate in FJORG as I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it out because of Blue Sky, and so I had chosen to drop out instead of keeping my team waiting. But they did some awesome work and it was a blast to get to know so many of the FJORGers and see what they turned out in 32 hours!!!
As a close to our week, we decided to take a bunch of us to Disneyland!! It was such an amazing way to end the week! It took forever to get there (shuttles! shuttles!) but it was hilarious all along the way. 12 of us went, rode plenty of rides, double bounce walked down Main Street to the Wall-E soundtrack, analyzed duck walks, ran around like a bunch of goons, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Disneyland is so much more enjoyable when surrounded by insane animators!
We also had the chance to watch the fireworks above the castle and to see the Fantasmic show. It was such a brilliant time. There’s nothing better than being with amazing people you care about, that you fit in with, and that are just as goofy as you are.
The song from the parade at Disneyland right now totally fits with us and AM right now. Cheesy or not, I love it and it makes me smile!! Play it, I’m sure it will for you. I know for us that went to Disneyland, it means a lot!! Our AM family, our close bonds, our dreams totally coming true!
Well, I’m realizing that this post doesn’t even begin to convey the week. It was honestly one of the most overwhelming experiences and the best week ever so far! It was so great to be surrounded by such genuine, loving, amazing people for 9 whole days! A huge thank you to everyone that made the week that incredible! It showed me just how lucky I am to be a part of Animation Mentor!
I’ve been waking up with a smile on my face every morning, especially since getting home to New York. Work is tough! I love it, but it’s tough! And so far this week as I start to struggle all I have to do is think of last week and I’m immediately laughing to myself like a geek! It means so much to me and I am SO grateful to have been there with everyone! For all the events not talked about, thank you! AM knows what they’re doing and it’s such an incredible place. Again, HUGE thank you to everyone that made last week what it was. Inside jokes to laugh at for a lifetime, eh? LOVE IT!!
I’m not sure why we choose to color eggs. I dropped one of mine so it got a sharpie quick face. A quick minute break amidst short film madness. Woo! Happy Easter everyone.
So here’s my first third of my film in layout and then the rest on there as the animatic. It is really, really cool to see this translating into Maya. I’m enjoying it a lot — it’s starting to come to life by seeing it in there. It’s rough but that’s cause it’s only layout!
This week I’ll get a lot more done for sure. Last week was just crazy. Thank you to all of you who sent such incredibly kind messages after last week — I really, really appreciate it and it means so much. Animation people are amazing!
As an ending note, I thought I’d pass on a lil’ quote. Every week at Animation Mentor we have video news with a bunch of people at AM offices. This week Bobby started it off and after mentioning a few things school wise he said something I absolutely love:
This is Animation Mentor — the place where your dreams become reality. And the only way that happens is by pursuing and pushing yourself forward and working super hard.
We’re in week 9 and things always tend to get a bit hectic and it’s that final push for the term. And amazingly enough everyone of us struggles at one point or another questioning if we’re really cut out for animation — it’s just part of it all. So it was great to hear him say this. This morning I was talking with a friend that’s about to get a great job in the industry. Talking about his excitement (as I was bouncing in my seat in excitement) he noted how he hasn’t been this excited before. Then we said how it’s because it’s a dream coming true. That doesn’t happen every day — and I absolutely love seeing it all happen for my friends. It’s an incredible feeling when I hear about another person having that dream come true. Awesome.
It’s been a bit of a interesting week. Thursday morning I woke up to a hilarious video comment left for me by a fellow AMer that had me to the point of tears laughing. It was off to a good day. Unfortunately that day ended up suddenly being my last day at my job as my position was no longer needed. Funny how those things happen. What’s funny is that it’s not that it happened that bothers me the most, but the fact that i was disappointed in how my team reacted — or their lack of reaction. A year and a half there and not so much of a goodbye. Ah well. It was a stressful day.
The nice thing is that I’m seeing this to be a nice little blessing in disguise. I’m so excited to be done and to be able to focus on my film at Animation Mentor. I’ve been smart with my money and with a little balancing I think I can make it work. I’ll really be able to put all of my efforts into making a good film and still manage to even get a little sleep. As for this late posting, well, I just can’t sleep. I’ll also be able to put even more into the AM community which I’m very excited for. Everything happens for a reason, right? So here’s to yet again another unknown. I was amazed and humbled by the reaction of several AMers. Once again amazed by the people in the animation industry — they are genuine, loving people and I’m grateful for all of those I’ve gotten to know so far.
So now to my film — this week I’m working on my layout. I’ll finish up the first pass of timing on the 1/3 of it tomorrow and I’ll post up on Monday as usual. But for now as a bit of a teaser, look at my guy!
Side note! I have a new niece — Olivia was born today! It was a great reason to get off work and drive up there. She’s a doll and her bigger sister was even singing to her.
Animation updates are coming…a little sleep and then I’ll post up tomorrow. It’s been a good day.
I'm Alexiss! I finished my short film at Animation Mentor in June 2008. I then headed to Blue Sky Studio to work on Ice Age 3 and then Lumenas Animation Studios on The Legend of Santa Claus. I'm now working at Animation Mentor, animating and working on awesome projects!
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