AiC Event talk

I had the pleasure of arranging and setting up a panel talk at the Art Institute of Colorado which took place last night, Nov. 10th. The Alumni coordinator and I have had this in the works for over 2 months now!

A few months back we received a demo reel at work from a current graduate and unfortunately it wasn't very polished and looked very "stock" - meaning it had every class assignment in it and lacked any extra ..... pep.

And I got to thinking, so many of us up at NetDevil graduated around the same time as one another that we were fortunate enough to get an awesome gig soon after graduating. I was wondering why that was, why were we different. Then I thought we should give a talk!!!

Now I've had my problems with the school in the past and I'm still upset to see how things are running at the school, but they have been making BIG improvements!! I know for myself, while I attended I was ALWAYS seeking out mentor-ship and knowledge when I couldn't gain it in the classroom.

And I know for myself if someone from the industry hosted a talk about what to do to get your foot in the door I would have soaked that up!! And that's exactly what I wanted to give to the current students and other Alumni still seeking a gig.

The idea was to host a no holds-barred type of forum and let it be a free for all letting the students ask questions and at the end to receive feedback on their work. I was able to round up some colleagues and had a total of 10 speakers from work to speak. It was fantastic because we an array of experience from Seniors, Leads and jr. artists who have moved on up. And it went extremely well!

I really hope lots of students took away nuggets of good information from us all. And I want to thank Shandra and AiC for hosting us. If I get the opportunity to do another talk I would be more than grateful too.

Remember to keep the dream alive and never let anything get in your way from achieving your dreams!

Nov. the Great

Nov. is going to be a great freaking month!

1. CTN Expo - boom! I can't wait, JBL and I are going to have blast.
2. 4th month of swing dancing
3. LOTS OF MOVIES!!!

• Toy Story 3 on DVD - I've already devoured all the extras and going through the extra commentaries. :D
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World comes out on DVD next week!! Such an underrated movie, and it's unfortunate it didn't do so well in the theater. But I hope it sees a long life on DVD.
• And movies releasing in the theaters - Megamind, 127 Hours, Due Date, My Dog Tulip, Harry Potter, Tangled, Black Swan, Faster and Monsters should be playing at a local cinema!

4. Family time - Thanksgiving is coming up, and my family unfortunately is getting smaller each year so it makes harder but makes it much more meaningful for us to come together. Also a reminder to be thankful for the friends I still have and the new friendships I'm building.

5. Life Drawing

6. Giving a speech at the Art Institute of Colorado with my colleagues from Netdevil, should be a fun time.

Austin Film Fest

This is my first time at a film festival, and the overwhelming feeling I have feels just like the feeling I had when I attended my first Siggraph show. I feel a bit out of my element, but I share a common dominator with other artists here. We love film.

And after sitting in my first writing panel I may be one of a few storyboard artists here... I need to capitalize on that and see if I can't meet/ make some new friends!!

And I have verbal confirmation that my stubbornness has been rightfully so, the past few years of not breaking my rules just to create a film. Every freaking thing I've been striving and preaching about is truth as I've just been hearing, and from "A-list" studios. This is very reassuring.

It's time to move on and take my game to the next level. Excited, I am hungry to already get back to work after only a day, and can't wait for what lies ahead of me!


more to come from the festival when I get back home.

I heart Cintiq

Man, I was struggling on my 4X5 wacom to finish up the rest of my animation for the commercial, and I decided to go into work and use a friends Cintiq. After two full days of grinding I was still not finished, a friend of mine was nice enough to let me borrow his personal Cintiq to use at home and I was able to finish!

AND man! I don't know how I've been completing work without one! They are so freaking nice! I was actually looking at buying my buddies but I just recently dropped a ton of money on my car so am gonna have to let it pass!

Luckly though, I have learned my lesson and know the style of the next animation and will be better planned ahead of time so it wont be as difficult. Hardest part on the last one, was 3 characters and staging. Clean up went smoothly using the cintiq as well, so nice working on one.

I also worked a bit on my starry night painting that is posted here, I should only have about 8-10 hrs of work left on that, then I'll post an update. Oh and I wont be able to show any of my work from the commercials until November 5th! So stay tuned.

I will also be giving a talk down at the Art Institute of Colorado on November 10th. I've been in talks with the school about setting up an event and I've rounded up some colleagues from work and we are all going to be sharing some insight. The goal is to go down and have a no holds barred type of forum, we are running with the title: "Your Degree, Reality, & You."

We want to be as open and honest to the students as possible! Should make for a fun evening. Next time I post, I'll post some artwork instead of just boring text! :)