I LIED

OK, so my last post wasn't actually my last post before class starts. I realized about 30 seconds after I posted that my first mentor had been assigned, and I felt the immediate need to announce it here! His name is Elliot Roberts and he is currently working at Pixar, although he has also worked at ILM, Tippet, and Blue Sky Studios (all of which are amazing). He has worked on very cool stuff like Ratatouille, PotC 2, Charlotte's Web and Robots, and I'm sure he's working on something wicked awesome at Pixar as we speak. Neat!

All Systems Operational

Webcam, check. Scanner, check. Sketchbook, check. Tablet, check. Quicktime, check. Maya, check. Copious quantities of ram required to run Maya, check. Calm mental state and sense of readiness ...check?

OK well maybe I still don't feel ready, and maybe Totoro is still suggesting that I'm not prepared, but at least all my stuff is ready to go!

At least I think my stuff is good to go. I ended up having to get Maya 2008 b/c Studica.com took down Maya 8.5 like a day before I went to buy it, so hopefully I don't run into any problems since 2008 technically isn't supported and hasn't yet been tested with AM content. I'm sure it'll be fiiiiine, and besides, there's always PLE!

Anyways, this is probably my last post before AM actually starts (2 more days, woo) so lets hope that the big kids don't make fun of me on my first day of school, and that my next post is full of awesome and positive goodness.

One Week to Go!!

It's so close! It's making me completely crazy that all the orientation videos show all these amazingly awesome features of the website that we can't actually access yet. I think that the designers of this program are specialized in torture as well as animation. Anyways, I'm super stoked and super nervous and feel like there's way too much to do, but hopefully I can handle it! I'm sure blogging isn't the wisest use of my time, but at least I'm keeping the blog going. Yay for me!

So in other news, I went to see Paprika last week (by Satoshi Kon, guy who did Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers) and the whole movie was pretty much pure insanity, but I really liked it. For the majority of the movie I almost felt like I was being attacked because I was constantly being inundated with very strange visuals, music and plot, but the movie was very well directed and carried out, and I recommend it if you like bizarre movies.

Time to go for a walk and some tea, wish me luck in my last minute scramble to get ready for next week!

Oh and PS: Heroes starts tonight!! Even if you've never watched it and hate super heroes and think it sounds really lame (which is what I initially thought) you should definitely give it a try. I have yet to meet someone who has watched a few episodes and not liked it, so give it a go! If you already watch it, please be satisfied in the knowledge that you are awesome.

Totoro is staring me down!

Well, one week left to go and I can log onto the orientation site! I have a poster on my wall of Totoro, and he's staring at me out of the shadows as if to say "you are not prepared." It's similar to this picture, but much darker since it's printed on fabric, and I think we can all agree that nobody stares quite like Totoro.

Anyways, the Illusion of Life is finished! I regret my decision not to take notes, but I did most of my reading at a coffee shop with tiny tables that barely accommodated the book+latte, and between a dog, a bag full of dog treats, and the giant heavy book itself I already had enough to lug around.

What a good book though! I know I've already mentioned its awesomeness before, but it really is genuinely interesting, besides being just plain useful. In the words of Ron Burgundy, "Compelling, and rich." It also makes watching the old classics again extremely fascinating, although I probably drive my bf insane since I have something to say about almost every scene and I'm sure don't shut-up as much as I should.

So what next is the question. I guess the Animator's Survival Kit will be my next coffee shop book of choice, but I feel like I really need to start figuring out Maya! Mostly I just plan to panic a lot since at this point there's no time to do much else, so wish me luck! Oh and btw, all you fellow students I meet are really not helping the situation in the the least since you ALL seem to have experience! What's up with that? Where are all the inexperienced people!

Time's a ticking

Wow, I can't believe it; there's less than a moth left to go! All of my high hopes of becoming well-read, amazing at thumb-nailing, and an expert at Maya have been completely crushed, and now of course I'm even more nervous about starting than before! I'm almost done IoL at least (which let me remind you again, is amazing) but I've had trouble finding time for much else.

I'm sure I could've got a lot more done, but between having a puppy, going to Penny Arcade Expo, working in a fridge (don't even get me started on my horrible job) and practicing Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution in preparation for Rock Band, I've had no trouble whatsoever putting things off.

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) was fantastic by the way! If you like video games, table top games, or are just kinda nerdy, you'd probably like it. It was also pretty cool that the final round of the Omegathon featured Halo 3! Bungie had been suspiciously quiet all weekend, so I guess that's why. I don't even like fps games very much, but it was pretty awesome when they started hinting at the game with little video clips, and then the curtains opened and all sorts of blue smoke started pouring out while the Minibosses played the theme music, and the crowd went crazy of course. The showdown between the two contestants was equally awesome and epic, and the whole thing made for a very worthy and intense finish to the expo. Oh an also, we got Heavenly Sword for free (about a month before release) and I bought some awesome Miyazaki loot as well.

Anyways, the whole point of this post was supposed to be what a horrible person I am for not preparing enough, so if I don't get my butt into a faster gear soon please tell me how much I suck.