More goings on...

So, I had another meeting today with Vince DeQuattro. This time other faculty members of the department. When I arrived at the meeting,  I was greeted by Vince with "this is Andrew, and I would like every to give him a round of applause for getting this idea going". That was pretty cool, but I was also turning red a bit. Vince then when on to say how he and Chad (modeling genius and technical guru) at my school were talking and remarking
"that they were kicking themselves for not coming up this idea themselves".

To really elaborate on the idea and what it is would be this. An online office for coordinating online and onsite students both grad and undergrad to get collaborative projects off the ground and work in a studio production pipeline. The opportunities that this will give the students is enormous. This is the sort of thing that every student in Computer Graphics should be doing. I have no doubt that the work we churn out will be amazing. It is my goal to see this program develop some very remarkable shorts that will garner recognition for everyone involved.  These are the things that are going to get us on the path to our careers. The thought it is hitting me that demo reels, portfolios, and websites are nice, but this program is the thing that will get us to Pixar or Dreamworks. This is a bunch of students getting together and saying we don't have to be Pixar or Dreamworks to create some damn good shorts that people will love. It's the people that grab life by the balls and run with it that are successful. This is exactly what myself and other students are going to achieve. This is what I have been dreaming of doing for so long.

Also, since I will now be at SIGGRAPH this year, I am going to meet Vince at the Conference. This is another step towards realizing what I want to do and see it accomplished. When one door opens, it leads to another and then another and another. Eventually all those doors lead to the place I want to be. I am looking forward to going back to SIGGRAPH and meeting all the new faces, and reconnecting with those I met last year. Though I know that there are some who I met last year that won't be able to make it for various reasons, and I wish they could be there. I would love to see many of them again and talk about how their lives has changed since last year. After all, a lot can happen in a year.

Today was a damned good day!!!

So yeah, last night I got the acceptance letter for being a SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer. Now I know I'm going. And I really didn't think there is anything that could possibly trump that news. But something did.

I had a meeting today with Vince DeQuattro, the Director of the Animation and Visual Effects Department at AAU. I was really only meeting with him to discuss my career path, classes I should take, and the choices that will effect my career. I walked away from this meeting getting far more than I ever expected.

We discussed how online students tend to feel disconnected from the school because we are so far away and are missing out on things. He then said he wants to setup and online office for on campus and online students to  meet and collaborate on projects. The office would then have a student rep to communicate their questions or concerns to Vince. He basically just said to me that the office would be mine to control. I would set the hours, and be the student rep. He asked me to send him  a headshot so the students know who the office instructor is and know who to talk to when problems arise. He told me since some students might be nervous about talking to him because he is the big cheese of the department, I could voice their concerns and questions to him directly if they were too nervous to speak to him. This was a damned good day. I just went from being an AAU Student to being AAU faculty. Only in my wildest dreams could this have happened. This is one of those defining moments when the unexpected happens. This is the moment when careers are made.  I'm beside myself with happiness.

Accepted!!!

Yay. I just the acceptance letter to be a Student Volunteer. I'm going!!!!! Made that decision rather quickly.

Too tired for a title...

Finding a way to start these things is the biggest pain. Anywho, I am continuing work on my character animation for class and I finally am beginning to fully understand how computer animation works. The one thing I have heard over and over is arcs, arcs, arcs. Now in my animation, my character is running up the stairs and falling back down them. I was reaching the point were I was regretting this decision because I just couldn't get it to look right. Then it hit me. Make the run up and the fall down one large arc. Then I realized it applies to more than just arm and leg movements. It applies to everything. I got it now. :-)

Next up is the debacle over the SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer acceptance letters. I did not get one and my app was changed to incomplete for reasons I do not know. Even though it showed as being complete since December of 2010. I'm still not entirely sure that I want to go, but even at that I would be upset that I was denied going because of a technicality.

I also still have it in my head that I want to move but that also has changed a bit. I'm now thinking of moving to San Francisco so I can start attending school on campus rather than online. I feel like there is so much I am missing because of conversations I have been having with the director of the animation department at my school.

That and there is also a another issue now. While several months back I had no ties to Indiana that could really stop me from moving. That is not entirely the truth now. I will still leave everything behind if that is something I must do, but now it is more complicated. There is someone now that I don't know that I could really leave behind. I'm certain that if push came to shove, I would walk away to pursue my career. But as before, I will leave if I must. I'm just sort of torn. Life has a funny way of throwing you curve balls.

And lastly, my because of the extremely increasing inability I have towards sleeping, my doctor has prescribed me sleeping pills. Real genius idea there too. Everyone doctor I have ever been too has a complete medical history of me, both physical and mental. There is a part of me that is saying "wow". This guy just handed a BPD patient a bottle of sleeping pills. Smart move. Now to clarify, this is not meant to sound that I'm suicidal. Very far from it in fact. But BPD does cause sudden shifts due to emotional instability and patients of BPD are very prone to self harm in one form or another. In my opinion, I don't think it's a wise idea for a doctor to hand out the means to commit acts of self harm to a BPD patient so easily. 

On another note, one of the supervisors whom I found out was badmouthing me behind my back got into an extreme amount of trouble for said badmouthing. Basically the supervisor was bad mouthing me to the wrong person. (aforementioned person in a previous paragraph) The supervisor had to have known that the first thing that would happen is she would come to me and tell me what was said. So, needless to say. I nailed the supervisor to the wall. I have a certain level of moral integrity to the point that if you have something to say someone, say it to them. Not behind their back. This kind of thing will make me pursue an act of retribution very quickly. And everyone who knows me knows this. I sort of have this reputation for being the person not to fuck with. I think I'm seriously just going to have shirts made up that simply say "you've been warned"

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm going to bed now. :-)

*insert attention grabbing title here*

Yep, I'm still alive... barely. I'm nearing the end of my semester and just about every bit of energy I had is fading. There is something like 3 and half weeks left and now it's getting very heavily loaded due to trying to get everything done on time. It also doesn't help that I've been sick for the past 4 days and working at the same time. I'm the time of person who would be on my deathbed and still go to work. People have told me that I push myself too much, and I know they are right.  But I tend to think, you don't get to be successful by not working your ass off, and pushing yourself to your limits and beyond them.

It is also getting to me that I have pretty much no time whatsoever for any kind of a social life at all. Granted, not that I really want one, I'm sort of a loner. I just want the option. I would rather spend time by myself just chilling and watching movies than hanging out with a large group of people who don't really know anything about me. I'm really more the type of person who randomly finds a kindred spirit and hang out with them a lot. But I don't really even have the time for that. And there really aren't many of those where I live. Artistic types don't exactly come in large quantities in Indiana.

Also, there has been a bit of confusion regarding the Student Volunteer statuses for SIGGRAPH 2011. First my app said "rejected", and then it said "incomplete". I'll admit that I breathed a bit of a sigh of relief when I saw it said rejected. I'm really not even sure that I want to go this year. I keep thinking that I saved all this money for the trip that could be more useful if it were focused elsewhere... like moving to L.A.  Now I certainly don't have enough money to move there yet but with some more saving, it could be possible within the next year.

I would also like to move there because it would give me the chance to get away from a lot of people here that are just breaking me down mentally. Not to go into much detail, but scary stalker types are not good for the psyche. Especially when those scary stalker types have been repeatedly told "NO" about a thousand times. Then being asked by said stalker type, "Why hasn't somebody snatched you up yet?" and I have to reply, "Uh, if anyone does, it won't be you." Hello restraining order.

Also, I did buy and watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Now when I watched it in theaters, I reacted a bit differently. It was probably the excitement. When I got it and watched it at home, I couldn't help but think it's good, but damn it is just dragging on and on. Too much Harry, Hermione, and Ron walking. Not enough focus on Voldemort and his search for the Elder Wand. Not enough focus on Snape or the goings on at Hogwarts. These two things were just as important as Harry's search for the Horcruxes, but it seems like they were just given a backseat to Harry. I know he is the title character, but c'mon.

Now it also time for a walk down memory lane. This song came on the radio during a drive to work this past week and I thought 'WOW'. It's been a while. Not only is it a great song, but also the very first song I learned to play on guitar. Here is probably one of the best live performances of the song. One man and his guitar, in the pouring down rain. It doesn't get much better than that.

Untitled

So, I suppose I'll do the post of schoolwork now. Even though I'm really sort of not interested. This is my 2 point vertical perspective drawing.

That having been done and out of the way. Come my next day off from work, I'm going to pay a visit to the local police station and request that they better monitor the speeders on my street. The person who hit the cat last night had to have been going at least 60 mph and my street is 20 mph zone. One day, it's not going to be a cat dying in the middle of the road. It's going to be a child.

RIP Kitty

So what was originally going to be a post with updates of schoolwork is now something else. For the past couple of months there was a cat running around that belonged to the people across the street. Needless to say, they really did not take care of him and I had been putting food on the front porch so he would at least have food and water.

Tonight he was hit by a car. He was still alive after being hit and died while I was holding him. I never kept him because I already have a cat and tried several times to bring him in the house and they were constantly fighting because of territorial issues. I wish had kept him in the house now. This just sucks. He was so adorable. So long Furball.  :-(

A bit of a mixed bag

Yep, so I come equipped more uploads. First up, another assignment from Perspective class. This one was the reflection drawing. We can use Photoshop now and there is a very visible difference from my pencil drawings and my digital drawings.

Also, since I refuse to use youtube because the compression on the site sucks and pretty much destroys any quality of any video, and I can't post directly from Vimeo, this is the link going to my class animation blocking part 2. It's coming along rather nicely.

http://vimeo.com/22270511

Also, I don't know if anyone who reads this has ever seen the movie Strange Days and I don't really feel like going into what the film is about, but it has one of the best endings ever. An entire film that was comprised of violence, doomsday theories, paranoia, and at the heart of the film was 2 people in love with each other. One realized it and the other did not. It was not until the end of the film that the character of Lenny finally realized he loved the character of Mace and went after her. This is romance and passion in my opinion and the song helps a lot. So here is the actual scene. 

And here is the full song that played during the scene.

And yes, that is Ralph Fiennes who portrayed Lenny who also plays Voldemort in another film. See how I segued there. lol

That's right boys and girls. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 hits the blu-ray tomorrow. And yes I will be buying it and totally geeking out for hours on end. Cheers!! :-)

Now I'm disappointed. It's actually Friday that Harry Potter is released. I could have swore that it was the 12th not the 15th. Tuesday is always new release day. That is crap. I won't even be able to watch it when I do buy it. :-(

It's pumpkin season

Yep, more assignments. For texturing class, we are texturing a photo real pumpkin so we can later composite it into a pumpkin patch photo without being able to tell the difference between the real pumpkins and the fake pumpkin. And here would be my pumpkin after painting the color maps.

I can do this!!!

Yep, I'm rather happy now that I finally landed an A in my character animation class. Granted B+ grades are not bad, but I'm one of these people that when it comes to what I want to do for the rest of my life, I must get an A. A little neurotic sure, but what can you do. He is also a tough instructor, and he has been hard on everyone in that class. That is to be understood since he was a character animator for Pixar. This guy has probably seen it all, and is likely not easily impressed. So I figure getting an A on an assignment with him is something to be proud of. Honestly, I was reaching the point where I was thinking 'crap, what if this was a bad decision and I don't have what it takes to be an animator?'

I think I'm getting it now though. I'm really beginning to fully understand the graph editor and how I make it work for what I want. I also think the instructor for my animation workshop is totally awesome as well. He gives me some of the best ideas with what I'm doing, and helps me to get the most out of what I'm doing. He also complimented my scene and saying he really liked it and the story. In a way with him, I feel like I'm in a collaborative project because he helps me so much. He's pretty damned cool.

So now I will continue onward, and keep myself learning so I can go down this road towards my passion. At this point, I am a bit on cloud 9 and really feel like someday when others go through animation classes, maybe, just maybe, my name will be mentioned as one of the greats. In the words of Rapunzel, "I've got a dream" :-)

Something else and this is entirely Tangled related. I admit I work in retail. It pays my way through school, so I can't complain too much. (even though it sucks) Anyway, where I work has several Tangled displays and they all have little Rapunzel dolls, and even Belle and Aurora dolls, and little Disney Princess dresses for little girls and all that. I keep looking at them and thinking to myself, man if only I had a daughter, I could buy her all these things that would probably make her so happy. Kind of a scary thought!!

Midterm grades are in....

Character Animation. B+
The instructor for this class is a tough one. But I figure hey if I walk away from this class with an A- which I'm confident I can do, I'll be happy.

Fundamentals of Texturing and Lighting. A

I'm not really surprised by that. If there is anything I know it is texturing and lighting. I could probably do it blind. Really not trying to sound arrogant there.


Perspective. C

This will get better now that we can use Photoshop for our drawings. Give me a pencil and I'm like what does this do?

Give me a Wacom tablet and I'm a drawing badass. lol

Putting things in perspective

My 2 point light and shadow drawing assignment. The instructor is letting us use Photoshop now. Give me the choice between markers and my Intuos 4. I choose the Intuos 4!! :-)

Once before I sleep....

I've completed half of my animation blocking and that was the easy part. Making one of the characters fall down a flight of stairs will be the interesting part and now post more music from this kick ass album before I head off to sleep.

A fave band... new music

Yep, so this Dutch band that I've been listening to for quite some time just released a new album and I'm excited. It's a concept album based on a graphic novel. Art plus music....  yes please!!!!