Alright, so now that I posted a brief school update....
Here is a long overdue update about everything else!
First off, I'm really sorry about not posting about the AM BBQ. I just couldn't figure out how to summarize what a good time I had. It was so exciting to meet everyone and oy it was amazing....
I went down to the bbq with my boyfriend Mike and we had such a great time seeing the sites and visiting the AM office! This trip was just all around spectacular! I think one of my favorite parts was seeing WALL-E opening night with an entire theater of animation students! This pic is the line of all of us AMer's....
Adjusting to life after the June trip to San Francisco was difficult to say the least. It was an amazing trip, however, soon after returning home I got stuck in a real rut. I really wanted to be back in California hanging out with everybody. The trip was just too quick and so much fun. I think that starting class 5 really hit me hard too. I realized how close I am to finishing AM and all of the doubts about being good enough flooded my mind. I've read enough posts by fellow students though to know that all these feelings were normal. I just kept trying to push on knowing that those feelings would eventually pass and I now can say they have! :)
I spent this past week down in LA at Siggraph and to say that it was amazing is a complete understatement! I've never had so much fun! I was able to spend a whole entire week with my friends from Animation Mentor and my batteries feel so recharged.
I went down to Sigg as an 18hr student volunteer, so I ended up getting the full conference pass for free! I flew in Sunday night and met up with everybody to have some Pizza and we ran into all of the fjorg animators which was fun! Then I spent most all of Monday volunteering, so I unfortunately couldn't go to the Ed Catmull talk. :(
Tuesday though I was able to sneak into the AM job qna panel before I had another SV shift. I must give a big 'Thank You' to the AM staff for all of the events they put on, because they all turned out to be so informative and well put together!
Tuesday night was the Animation Mentor party..but being as I'm 20 and not 21 I couldn't get in.. which was a bummer, but I found something totally wicked to do instead! I spent most all of my night at the Nokia Theater! I watched the computer animation festival and then after that they had a Pixar Studio night! I sat in the second row when John Lasseter presented Frederick Back's "The Man Who Planted Trees." It was such a surreal moment I was beside myself, lol. First off "The Man Who Planted Trees" was an amazing short film and I couldn't believe the quality of the film and all the hard work that went into it. Hearing Frederick talk and his passion was so inspiring! Hearing John Lasseter talk was extremely exciting as well, lol, it was weird seeing him right there in front of me and not on the bonus features on my dvd. :) Then he introduced Leslie Iwerks and they presented The Pixar Story documentary. (which I must say is my new favorite movie) :) lol, I can't wait for that to come out on dvd...it'll be a keeper for sure. I walked out of that theater with all the passion and inspiration in the world... I was just so recharged and confident that "this is what it's all about." My passion and drive to succeed are back and stronger than ever. I feel like a little 7 year old again with the burning desire to animate for a living.
(here's a pic of Shawn Kelly crowd surfing at the bird's of a feather..lol, it was seriously way too much fun!)
I thought for sure that night would be hard to top, but then came the Frank and Ollie tribute on Wednesday morning. That just solidified everything I had felt the night before! It was incredibly inspirational to hear the wonderful panel talk about two of the greatest animators! AM bird's of a feather was Wednesday afternoon and was yet again another great time! Robin Linn talked to us and I learned so much about how to get in the door and just tons of helpful information!
The best part of my week though was Friday by far. It was just such a magical day and great way to wrap up an amazing trip. I spent the day at Disneyland with a group of 12 AMer's! Talk about a great time! We were double bounce walking down main street to the Hello Dolly songs in WALL-E, analyzing how a duck's feet kept slipping as it walked across in front of us... It was just so great to be surrounded by a bunch of cool animators in such a fun environment! I truly felt like a kid again! The fireworks show and fantasmic and all of their "dreams really do come true" theme just really rang home for me. The whole day was just so much fun! I feel so lucky to have been able to share that experience with all of my classmates... lol, I'm so glad they put up with me when I was extremely hyper and when I crashed energy wise as well...hahaha, man, such good times.... I can't wait to do this again! Thanks to everybody I was with, for truly making this one of the most unforgettable moments ever. This trip will continue to inspire me as I crank away on my short film!
Oh, and I have to add a pic of Johnny V in here! :) he wasn't able to join us a Disneyland, but we gave him a right good scare in the stairway of the hotel, lol...which was indeed the hotel that parts of the Shining were filmed in ;)
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