Wednesday, July 9, 2008

New Demo Reel!


So much for being able to relax on the weekends!
Animation Mentor announced a few weeks back that they would be having a job fair in Emeryville , CA, so I decided to go!
I have been working on more animation tests and was able to complete one to put on my new reel.
The job fair was really fun! I got to talk to alot of studios, and it was a great opportunity to meet alot of cool people. After fumbling over my words at the first booth I felt more comfortable the rest of the day. After the job fair we hung around at Animation Mentor headquarters and I got to meet alot of my friends from school in person for the first time! It was incredible! It felt very natural talking to everyone because we really did already know eachother. There's nothing like talking to friends in person, though. I met alot of people too from previous classes. It's so cool to be able to put a face to the work I've been admiring. I even met a couple of students who were about to start AM.
That evening we all went and saw Wall-e. Man, the animated movies are on a roll this year! I saw Kung Fu Panda a couple weeks ago, and of course Horton. I was actually lucky enough to get to see Horton again on my flight to CA.
The next day AM hosted a BBQ where I got to see everyone again and meet even more people. My friend who I was staying with lent me a jacket, and it was quite the conversation starter. Apparently it was a prototype for something and it had buttons on the front. Not clothing buttons... Ipod/ dvd player buttons. Ya. weird. I looked bionic.
It was great to see my friend again too. She was actually my roommate in college. Another college friend happened to be visiting at the same time, so that was even cooler!
When Gail (my friend) picked me up from the airport, she brought me straight to an indoor rock climbing place. She even had a change of clothes for me! It was really fun! It was kind of like American Gladiators. THe floor was springy like a trampoline, and it was challenging to try and stay on course on your way up the wall.
The few days that I was there turned out to be quite the workout. On Sunday we went dragon boating. What is dragon boating? It's kind of like a big long canoe with many people paddling. Everyone had a paddle and paddled on one side. Gail races with a group so I went to one of her practices.
On Monday we played tennis. I am really bad at tennis, so it was more like a long game of fetch for me, but it was really fun. We were supposed to go rock climbing again, but my foot started acting up again from the tennis. Ahh well.
For my trip home, I was supposed to take a train, but due to flooding in the middle of the country, I booked a last minute ticket on Greyhound from San Francisco to Boston. I don't know what I was thinking. 3 and a half days on a bus. It was only supposed to be 3, but I should've known better. Despite being extremely tired and rather stinky at the end of the trip, I don't totally regret it. I made some good friends along the way, saw alot of the country, and had the ultimate people watching experience.
I also learned that rather large people look for rather small people to sit next to on the bus...