alexiss dawn

This weekend I had the chance to visit the Walt Disney family museum in San Francisco. The museum is located in the heart of the presidio area, and almost seems a bit hidden. (Make note that if you enter the address into a GPS, it will take you to somewhere downtown, and not the museum!)

The museum is full of stories, movies, quotes, pictures, props, and all sorts of knick knacks collected from Walt’s life. You start out learning a bit of his ancestry, then follow him throughout his life from his school days, to his many attempts in starting business, his successes and failures, and through his last days. The place is huge with eleven separate rooms and it takes several hours to get through if you want the full experience and the chance to read and watch everything that is posted, but it’s well worth it if you take the time.

You’re not allowed to use cameras or cell phones, so i scribbled notes of quotes on the back of my museum guide so that I could post them up here. So without much introduction, I just want to post up a few quotes that made me sit back and think while I was there. It may have been said over 70 years ago, but these still apply. So enjoy and be inspired!

“The point must be made clear to the men that our study of the actual is not so that we may be able to accomplish the actual, but so that we may have a basis upon which to go into the fantastic, the unreal, the imaginative - and yet to let it have a foundation of act, in order that it may more richy posess sincerity and contact with the public.

A good many of men misinterpret the idea of studying the actual motion. They think it is our purpose mereley to duplicate these things. This misconception should be cleared up for all. I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things, based on the real, unless we first know the real.”

- Walt Disney to Don Graham, December 23, 1935

“Walt said, ‘That’s what I want to see in the pictures, I want the character to be somebody. I don’t want them just to be a drawing.”

-Friz Freleng, animator

“Walt encouraged his artists to study human and animal movement - not to duplicate reality, but to use it as a foundation for convincing reality.”

“You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality.” - Walt Disney

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!

At grad with Spilly, laughing it up on 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!

Animation Mentor Party!

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!!

Blur Party!

Blur party much later!!

Top 10 Grad/Siggraph moments (In no particular order!):

1. Walking a “straight” line at the AM party!
2. Lame fishing line dance moves!
3. Mel’s Diner, meat earrings, My Girl, pancakes!
4. “Shhhhhhhh!!”
5. Seeing people I haven’t seen in SOOOOO long, laughing with people from different studios!
6. Crowd surfing Shawn!
7. The Biltmore and it’s many crazy sleepless nights!
8. Frank and Ollie tribute!!
9. Randomly yelling FJORG! down every possible hallway!
10. Being with AMers for 9 straight days!!

(Man! There are so many more!!!)

AM party with AMAZING people!

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!

Crazy 3d animators in their lovely 3d glasses!

Still excited after a long day of craziness!

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!

All of us crazy animators at Disneyland with Walt Disney!

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!!

Well folks, I think that’s the first time I didn’t update on a Monday in 18 months! It has been one heck of a last couple of weeks. I just got back from California tonight where I had an absolutely incredible time. I drove down with 5 other Utah AMers to San Francisco for the Animation Mentor BBQ, open house, and job fair. I also organized a Wall-E screening for 174 AMers — whoa!! I could banter on and on about everything that happened — it was so great to get to see everyone! And to get to meet so many people I hadn’t met face to face yet. It seriously is an amazing situation to be in — the passion that everyone has only amps up when we get together. I felt like a little kid at Christmas all weekend.

(Image from Carlos’ blog)

So the job fair was great — AM brought in several studios that we could talk with and drop off our reels. I have to admit I spent a good portion of the time getting distracted every time I saw another AM alumni walk in. We had the open house right after and then we all went to dinner before we headed off to see Wall-E. It was just a never ending night.

The BBQ was great as well — spent all day and night with AMers. I think we all forget to eat much — so many people to see, so many people to talk with, eating comes last.

So a great weekend. As for some news, well, I have some. I am headed to New York to work at Blue Sky Studios! Crazy! It was completely unexpected and caught me off guard to the point that I was speechless! I’ll be working on Ice Age 3 out there! I’m really excited for so many reasons — the experience is going to be great. It’ll be great to work with some of my mentors from Animation Mentor as well. It is definitely intimidating but that challenge is what makes it exciting!

(This is what I have felt like this week! Fitting, eh?)

A huge weekend — I didn’t want it to end. I love the people from AM. Our family there is incredible. A big, big thanks to everyone that made the weekend incredible. From going out at night, to meeting for lunches and dinners, thank you guys. You made the experience incredible!! THANK YOU!!!

And we’re back! Well, I’m back! Just got back from California late last night. Man alive, that trip was fun. It was so beautiful down there. I got to go to Disneyland for a few days — man is that place packed!! Word to the wise: avoid spring break week. We don’t get spring break at AM so I didn’t know! It’s pretty cool how much they’ve put into the different lands though to make you feel like you’re in the wild west or a jungle. The parades and fireworks were great too. But during the nightly fireworks they have Tinkerbell fly around the castle. This person is hanging by wires swinging quickly back and forth around the castle and through fireworks. I swear she was about to slam into the castle. Has to be an exhilarating job every night I’m sure.

I also got to visit Dreamworks Animation in Glendale while I was down there. It’s such a beautiful campus and it was great to get to talk with people. I swear, when you bring so many passionate people together the results are so amazing. It was great to just have lunch and get to talk with some people and get to see the campus for a couple of hours. Many thanks to those who made it possible — I had a lot of fun. I left smiling and completely inspired.

One of the nights I spent in my hotel for my last Q&A. It’s always such a bittersweet moment — spending 12 weeks with these people and having to switch to another class!! We stuck around for a long time just chatting with out mentor about all sorts of animation stuff. It was a jam packed inspiration session that left me pumped for this next term. It really was an incredible class and it was great to have such an awesome last Q&A. “Work to learn, not to earn” and “It’s all about the entertainment” were two of the things we talked about. Ain’t it true.

A few people in the LA area heard I was in town and we ended up getting together for dinner and drinks on Friday as well. It was so great to see these guys and just hang out in good company and talk “shop” and about AM. The energy whenever animators get together is absolutely incredible — perhaps that’s why studios are such amazing places. These people are awesome!!

A great trip and a great way to kick start my final term at Animation Mentor! Now it’s back to work and time to finish up my film!

Here’s my final assignment for class 5! Worked on refining the timing and posing, jumping into a few more details, and not get too ahead of myself.

Oh, and the ending after the credits. That stems from a Q&A session with my mentor and class and a 4 am video chat with several other AMers the other night. Yes, we think we’re hilarious. Gracias to John and Teresa for that!

Class 5 has been incredible. It’s definitely been the most challenging class at AM for me so far. So many different elements are involved but it was great to be able to explore so many areas. I was able to jump in deep with other classmates and develop my understanding of appeal a little bit more. Probably the biggest thing I’ve learned this term is to stand by my ideas. It was so incredibly tough for me at first as I was trying to find a story idea that would please everyone. Just as a heads up for those of you who haven’t hit class 5 yet — it’s not possible! No matter what your story is, it just won’t fit everyone’s tastes. You just work to make the best story you can. So a huge thanks to everyone that supported me again this term over at AM — you guys are family and I appreciate it!

I’ve had an amazing mentor and group of people in my class this term. It really is an amazing process to see films develop from ideas, to pitches, to boards, and on. Probably the most creative time I’ve been able to be involved in.

Anyway! I’m off to California for the week! There’s no break between terms this time around, but during week 12 there’s technically not as much to do. But I’m still bringing my laptop with me to animate! Addiction? Possibly. But more like I’m knee deep in production…and I love it. I leave in 5 hours and I have yet to pack…or sleep. See ya guys in a week!

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!