So 2010 is almost over... There are a lot of things that could be said about the past year and some of the years prior. I'll focus on 2010 cause really the prior years weren't so great. I'll start with movies. Inception was awesome to say the very least. Tangled completely renewed my faith in Disney and made me feel like a kid again. How to Train Your Dragon is certainly the best film from DreamWorks Animation to this point. Tron: Legacy was a movie that I was very much looking forward to seeing and was very let down by awful it was. Something really important to me was the Diamond Edition release of Beauty and the Beast on blu-ray. This is and always will be my favorite film from Disney and it has a magic to it that many animated films don't have anymore. Beauty and the Beast is the film that made me absolutely fall in love with animation even though I didn't really know it at the time.
This year also saw me go to SIGGRAPH 2010 as a student volunteer. The full rundown of SIGGRAPH was covered in another blog so I will not go into full detail about it other than to say it was spectacular. Meeting people who are creative and love many of the things I love was the best. This also was great because it had been over a decade since I had left Indiana or even flown so going to Los Angeles was great. This trip was even better considering I almost didn't get to go due to a health emergency happening that tapped all the funds I had saved for the trip. I am certainly looking forward to Vancouver.
Every year is a major learning experience and this year I learned a lot about myself and many other things. It has been sort of a life changing year. The thought that I am at last pursuing my passion is one that never escapes me. Where I will go from here is to continue working on and improving my skills as an animator but also see how it fits with the bigger picture of my life as a whole. Things like where I want to be, and how I want to live are questions I am beginning to ask myself. If anything, I would like to come out of my shell a bit more. I am notoriously shy though most who know me personally would not think that, but I am. I would really like to be more sociable and try and get out there and experience more of what life has to offer. The one thing I am absolutely certain of is that Indiana is not the place for me as an artist, but more importantly as a person. So... Happy New Years to everyone and remember that no matter how hard it gets, always continue to chase your dreams. Dreams are what make life worth living.
