Fall '09 Show Reel

As darn near everyone and their sister knows, I've been looking for work in visual FX (film, TV, video games) for kind of a while now. A few days ago I cut together a brand new demo reel to showcase the skills I've been honing of late, particularly in the past year or so. Constructive feedback is both welcome and appreciated... but of course, a productive job lead would definitely be preferred. ;)

Happy Graduation, DAVE Students

I already shouted this out on Facebook and Twitter... but why not here too?

Congratulations to all my friends in the 30th class of the Digital Animation and Visual Effects school of Orlando Florida. You guys rock to no freaking end. Now get your asrses out there and make some crazy Hollywood $#!t that looks damn freaking cool! ;)

SIGGRAPH 2009 in Louisiana

Laptops and gawky long lines at Starbucks by day, loud drunken antics and scantily clad women by night... This is the dichotomy that is the SIGGRAPH graphics and interactive media convention hosted in New Orleans.

New Orleans in and of itself is an enigmatic town, in some ways reminiscent to me of Boston, but with it’s own distinct southern flare and funk. From the airport to the infamous Bourbon Street, the town is an abrasively rebounding historical city with a cool jazz and blues backbone and a late night stench that gives New York a run for it’s money. It proved an interestingly bizarre backdrop for a nerd-fest such as SIGGRAPH, complete with hordes of technology pros and job-hungry creative geeks like myself, all swarming to attend.

In addition to trying to network while pimping our demo reels, my buddies and I had a very interesting time both in and out of the conference. From playing with crazy new technology by day to exploring the Bourbon street area at night, some of the week's antics included:

• Out of form for myself, I actually gave the GPS in our rental car a chance and as typical for those devices, it did try to get us lost/killed a couple of times on the first day. However, after adequate threatening, the damned gadget smartened up and played nice for the rest of the trip.
  
  
• When sampling a nice Mom-and-Pop diner, my buddy Andrew cautiously asked a waitress if the restaurant’s jambalaya had shellfish, explaining that he is allergic, only to send the dish back to the kitchen to the tune of a loud and concerned southern black voice exclaiming, “Really?!? Shrimp is shellfish?” It was a shocking had-to-be-there moment, which landed on the safe side of the line between dangerous and humorous. In spite of the incident, I still highly recommend Duffy's Restaraunt in New Orleans who, in my opinion, has a charming wait-staff and the BEST damn pancakes in the south! =)
  
  
  
• 2-3 AM on Thursday, I briefly got into Rockstar Games’ after-party party which happened to be just down the hall from my hotel room. Unfortunately, I quickly found myself at the realization that no one there was up for networking with a guy like me at that hour. Still, I gotta hand it to them, pun/cliche or not, those guys really do party like rock stars!
  
  
  
• In my last blog entry, I noted that we had an unusual layover traveling from central Florida to New Orleans. Well, on the way back, we flew through Houston of all places, for a complete route that looked like this...
  
  

A Jungian therapist could ask what this shape looks like to you, but I say it just means that one should always read very thoroughly before clicking anything when booking a trip online. (Yes, I know there is likely an ad for a travel website to the right of this.) Oh well, just call it one of many crazy routes taken in my life. :)

Flyin' Round the South

This week, my roommates and I are attending the SIGGRAPH computer graphics exhibition in New Orleans. We haven't even arrived in New Orleans yet, and I already can tell this is gonna be an adventure. First off, when I initially booked the trip, at the time, I could not find any affordable packages with direct flights to Louisiana. Thus, at the moment, I am typing this from Tennessee due to the unorthodox route indicated below.

Also, to add further wackiness, my zany roommate Andrew has proved in his own little way that you can get away with saying "bomb" on an airplane. :P

This is only 3 hours into the trip with the terror alert level at black watch plaid... feel free to stay tuned... ;)

Customer Support

As anyone who follows me on Twitter can infer, I had an amazingly frustrating time this past week dealing with the Dell computer company's customer support staff. I am tempted to go on a rant about it here, but I have to admit, the whole experience has already actually left me a little ranted out right now... as well as slightly fearful that some of what I say could be misconstrued as racist against Indian people. So, I'll just keep this post short and share the following classic web videos, obviously created by people who have shared my pain at some point. Please enjoy...

Hoping Everyone Had a Happy 4th

Today, I thought I'd break my latest bout of blog-neglect by saying:

I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July yesterday! :)

I'm glad to say that I had a good time, at least until some serious cookout gluttony that left me juggling a food coma with nighttime indigestion. However, after reading the news this morning, I found myself uplifted to see that certain tourists in New York had an extra-special and historically good day yesterday.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2009-07-01-statue-of-liberty-crown_N.htm?csp=34

Climbing Lady Liberty and enjoying the view from her crown is pretty high on my list of awesome childhood memories, but when visiting the statue in more recent years, I have to say, it was downright saddening and scarily metaphoric of those times to get stopped short in the pedestal, finding one's self unable to truly enjoy Liberty in the name of security. Thankfully, things look very different now and the next time I visit New York, I plan to reacquaint myself with a very special lady from France! :)

Explainations

Earlier this week, I had intended to write a blog entry detailing my experiences taking a road trip with some buddies to attend the Evolve 3D animation conference in Fort Lauderdale last weekend. I had also intended to explain my last brief and weird blog entry a bit. Unfortunately, more serious obligations hijacked my week and this is the first time I've been willing and able to blog since the last entry.

On the topic of Evolve 3D, several days later, I really don't have too much to say about it. With the exception of one really good speaker, the conference was actually quite a letdown on the whole. The event started really late, half the speakers weren't very informative and the whole "job fair" portion only consisted of six recruiters with only a few seeming serious about looking for talent. Suffice to say, I seriously doubt I ever would pay to attend Evolve 3D again if it becomes a recurring event. As it turns out, rather than the actual event I traveled for, the adventure of taking the road trip to Lauderdale and back with wacky friends is what made the weekend worthwhile for me... and on that note...

For anyone who was concerned by my last blog entry: The comment about my buddy Dwight in the last entry was because he had arranged for us to stay with different people on the way down and on the way back. However, on the way back, we almost got lost and were delayed both by a redneck speed trap and a GPS with PMS. Thus, the people who lived in the mansion where we stayed on the way back were all fast asleep in bed by the time we got there and it felt like we were breaking and entering when we quietly arrived very late and settled in for the night. Fortunately, when the sun rose, the residents all turned out to be incredibly nice and hospitable people who I still can't thank enough.

All that, along with an unconventional church service, too much fast food, more artistic nerd banter than you can shake a stick at, a mini Dexter marathon and a road trip playlist that mixed ska with Irish rock... No wonder I had a hard time catching up on Monday. :P