Animation Mentor (class 1.1)

So classes have officially begun! This week is "get to know your classmates and Mentor" week. I'm quite anxious to start the animation lessons.

Today I "met" most of the class. Some experienced in some forms of animation, others with no experience at all. I look forward to seeing how everyone grows. Even those with no experience will be of benefit, as their input and critiques help others and themselves grow. Those of us that are experienced have loads of experience to give to the rest of the class.

Render Farm Update

Yesterday I got a price quote for the raw materials to mount my render machines to: aluminium and acrylic with stand offs. After some creative calculations, I believe I can afford to start piecing together the mounting panels one at a time.

After purchasing the initial aluminium paneling, I will aquire the standard mounting pieces for a motherboard installation. After drilling holes into the aluminium that match the form factor mounting, it should be a piece of cake to finish the the project.

Fun Times

It's been a while since the last update, but I definitely have some news.

First off, my new site is up and running (mostly). I still have to add graphics, polish a few sections, and add tutorials and files to the "freebies" section.

Attended the Austin GDC. Had a blast partying on 6th Street... oh and saw some neat stuff at the Conference. I was impressed by 3DS Max 2010's CAT system and I wish they'd port that to Maya some time, but I know they won't. The CAT system is a set of tools to quickly rig and animate (procedurally) custom character rigs. During the conference I also so the Xaitment AI suite. Very cool stuff. This suite easily rivals Autodesk's Kynapse middleware. I saw the new SpeedTree at the Intel booth and boy was I blown away. Being able to create procedural or custom vegetation that looks that good is amazing. Unfortunately they do not sell the modeler application seperately, and I have no need for the SDK.

I met alot of cool people; some professionals, some students, some.. just random people. All in all I had a blast, though I hear that the Conference Expo floor was a lot smaller than the previous year.

I have also begun work on two of the three shorts I have planned. So far, I have partnered up with an outstanding artist for Titanomachy: Christian Syaap. Right now he's creating concepts based on direction from myself and a little inspiration from games. I have also started work on Inner Demons, though it is not as far advanced as the other project.

I am working on an unrelated piece for my demo reel; something to show various forms of movement and some character/character interaction. I am still holding out hope to get another job in the game industry.