SIGGRAPH HERE I COME!

So back in February I entered in a contest to become a student volunteer for SIGGRAPH. I found out the news yesterday that I had won and I will be able to volunteer this August out in LA for 1 whole week. If no one knows what SIGGRAPH is, here's a good way to get to know about it:

http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/media/Siggraph5.wmv

There were over 2000 applicants and only a couple hundred were chosen. I wanted to say thanks to Sharon for editing my essays for me!! I truly appreciate your help!

I am really excited to have this opportunity to go and see all of the coolest, latest greatest technology, and hang out with the best of the best in the industry. This will hopefully be a good starting point for me to get to meet some great people and make some new friends. I'm excited to see what happens.

Another little update on me. I finished CAN last month (Character Animation) and it was by far the best class and experience so far that I've had here at Full Sail. My teachers and lab instructors are some of the coolest and best people to talk to and gain knowledge from, I am truly indebted to them!

This month is Advanced Game Techniques and what it involves is creating buildings modularly, laying out the UVs, creating Ambient Occlusion maps, Normal Maps, Spec maps, etc etc. and Texturing them in photoshop, all in 1 lab. It is a very quick class. In lab, they give us 2 assets that we have to build and do all of the above that was mentioned in under 3 hrs. It can be stressful and there have only been about 2 times where i've gotten full credit. I have come close by 1 or 2 points the other times though so it's not too bad.

I know that I keep saying this, but I promise that i'll have some of my animation from last month posted on here to show soon. It shouldn't take me too long to get it, but my other classes take priority over anything else right now.

Also, thanks to the people who still comment on my blog and still keep in touch with me. Thanks for being great friends and supporting me!! I don't know what I could do without you guys. It means a lot to hear from you and be able to laugh. I look forward to seeing some of you soon and show the things that i'm working on. I hope everyone is doing good and I love all of you! I still think and care about everyone all of the time even if I don't talk to you on a regular basis.

p.s. I will try to get a picassa album started soon so I can post pictures from my trip to disneyworld etc on here soon. I know my family wants to see what i've been up to so i'll post the link once I get it up. Take care everyone....KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Full Sail University

I just wanted everyone to know that i'm officially going to a University now! It sounds so much cooler to know that I will get my degree from a University rather than real world education, lol. I'm excited about the change for the school. It certainly gives it more prestige than it already has. Check out the full story about the change here:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-bk-fullsail032408,0,3428704.story

I have always thought of going to a University so this is a great addition for me. I get the best of both worlds. Doing what I love to do, what i'm passionate about, and also graduating from a University. I am currently a Junior right now and by the middle of the year, I will be a senior than a graduated student! I am excited for the remaining year. So many cool projects to work on and I'm excited for the challenge.

I hope things are going well for everyone. I obviously made it back to Florida in one piece. The flight wasn't too bad, but it did take awhile for the plane to arrive. It was an hour late and I was already on a 2 hour overlay at the Houston airport. I ran into another one of my full sail friends who will be graduating next month and we were able to talk and kill some time during the delay. It was nice to not have a full plane also and we traveled at about 600 mph. It took about 1.5 hrs to get from Houston to Orlando, normally its about 2.5 hrs, but the captain said that since they were running a little behind, they would fly faster to get us there. Another cool thing about the flight was that I got to sit by someone I know and we watched the Incredibles on my laptop. I wish I would've remembered to take some videos of the flight because while we were up in the air, we were passing a storm and there was lightning flashing all around which was so cool to see from above the clouds. I have never seen that before and I thought it was cool to see it from a different perspective.

I will try to post some of my projects on here soon. Once this month is over, I should be getting some more of my animation on here.

That's it for now. Keep moving forward!

p.s. thanks for coming up on sat mom and dad to hang out with me. I enjoyed my time with you and look forward to talking again in July when I come back to visit.