Here is the run down.
FJORG!:
Monday - The competition started at 7AM. I was so excited and nervous and completely out of my element. Good times. It took us until about 5PM that night to finalize on a story, draw up some storyboards and model the set and props. We started animating at 5. From about 9PM to 2AM...they started playing really loud techno music—I mean like body-thumping, crazy-ass, dance all night long techno music. They also staged all kinds of other distractions, but the techno music part was the most notable.
Tuesday - I slept about 40 minutes around 4Am. I got back to animating. I also textured, colored, and lit our animations. The most notable distraction on Tuesday was the Brazilian dancers. Yep, two beautiful, hardly dressed, Brazilian dancers came into our room and danced for about an hour. Thank goodness I was almost finished with my work...I was having a difficult time focusing at this point. Sleep deprivation and beautiful women will do that to a guy. It all worked out though, I was able to study some key animation principles in our lovely dancers. We finished the contest and went home for a much needed shower at 5PM. Next up, off to an Animation Mentor party that night. It was great to meet all my online classmates. I got to bed around 1AM on Wednesday.
During the competition I met tons of animators from the industry. They stopped by to give us talks and critique our work. I also met the co-director of Shrek the Third, two storyboard artists from Disney, and all kinds of other talented folks from the entertainment industry. I only wish that I wasn't sleep deprived through the whole thing. I didn't have to go up to them, they came up to me. FJORG! was really cool like that.
Siggraph:
Wednesday through Friday - We hit the Siggraph show all three days. Siggraph basically showcases all the latest studios and what they are up to, some cool new technology ideas, and an animation competition screening some really cool animated works from all around the world. This is different than FJORG! And the best part, at night there was all kinds of crazy industry parties people could go to. My only regret was on Wednesday when I decided not to go to the acclaimed Blur Studios party. Apparently, Carmen Electra was there dancing the night away. Ah well, maybe next time.
Anyhow, I had a blast and felt blessed to have been able to participate in this unique endeavor.
Below, you will find my latest animations. The really rough blocking of my multi-character dialogue shot, the animation my team created at FJORG!, and my latest character animation reel.
