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So today is my last day at Pendulum....man for a sentimental guy this sucks.
It is crazy an internship that was supposed to last until March has blossomed into a freelance position and now a job as the senior animator waiting for me upon my graduation. Pendulum sees an investment in me from my hard work on LA Rush as I see an investment in them because these guys are going far. I wish I could tell everyone the deal we just landed that unfortunatley I wont be apart of.
So backing up my files and gigs of music I so happened to download legally from iTunes then it is time to clear the desk.
People just dont get this lucky. Students are not supposed to leave school for almost a year then return with puplished video game titles and commercials under their belt. Hence, school is going to be much different. Back to classes and sitting among some talented students along with people who just dont care. Back to setting your own schedule and constantly seeing the friends that mean so much to you. I am excited that I get one last shot at school...should be a blast.
So that is it for my time here or for now I should say. Time to go on my sabbatical and leave the state I have come to love. My mother and sister are flying in to Diego tonight then Sunday I will drop my mom off at the airport while my sister and I make the three day trek back to Detroit. A little time off, a little catching up with friends, then back to Savannah! |
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So last week was by far the best damn week out here on the west coast. Started Monday with me driving up to LA to go to an animation master courtesy of Pendulum flipping the check. After the confrence for the day I picked up Missy (whom just got an animation internship...ROCK!) in Westwood then we high tailed it back to Diego to pick up Sean and Christine flying in around the same time that night.
Finally after getting everyone together and grabbing some In N' Out (because someone was about to implode if we didnt) we headed back to my hole in the wall and caught some Z's.
Tuesday we hightailed it to LA did the Siggraph thing and was blown away by Electronic Theater this year. We spent the night in LA then did the same Wednesday ...siggraph thing, CG Char event (which rocked and which basically was a 4.5 hour lecutre with some of the best animators in the biz). After CG Char we finally headed to the SCAD party. Man it was awesome to see so many great people whom I have not seen many since November and many more in over a year. Just one big reunion! That night we planned on leaving after the SCAD party and high tail it up to Frisco but plans were a bit skewed when Pendulum made plans for everyone to get together and eat. I could not apologize enough to my buds for basically dumping them in LA but frankly it was business and since Pendulum flipped the check for Siggraph the LEAST I could do was go with them to dinner. Yet...when Pendulum does dinner...WOW! We went to this amazing place in Beverly Hills called "Mix". This is one of them 30 dollar entree and 15 dollar starter places where the owner also comes out and introduces himself and makes you feel comfortable. Man...now I know how all them Beverly Hill fucks live when they dine out.
After dinner I booked it downtown picked up Sean, Missy, and Christine...all whom were groggy and tired and we got on the road around midnight for Frisco. Stopping at a Denny's so the girls could change and everyone who didnt eat could have a VERY LATE dinner I grabbed some coffee and recharged for the late night ahead of me. We arrived in Emeryville around 7 am and I was just feeling like crap. A night with a ton of caffiene and no sleep really wrecked havoc on my system. But who could feel down on such a nice day!? For this was the day that I have saw the light of heaven.
PIXAR FUCKING ANIMATION STUDIOS! HA HA HA! There was a HUGE perk driving Sean back to the bay area for work and all four of us wide eyed wanna bees (well three because Sean works there) were just wowed all day. I got pictures coming but here are some highlights.
-Ate a bowl of cereal in the atrium
-Viewed the artwork, maquettes, etc hanging all over the place.
-Attended the wrap party for Pixar's next short film (no not "One Man Band"). Sean worked on the film and we were invited to attend with him.
-Free cookies at 4pm!
-Walked through the animation department!!!!!!!!!!!
-Saw everyone from Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), to Bud Luckey (Boundin) walking around.
-We were also given a private screening of "One Man Band" in the Short Story Room with a few other animation interns and the supervising technical director of shorts...aka Seans boss! "One Man Band" is going to be shown before Cars and is just an amazing film! So incredibly well done and the characters are top notch! Bill Paulson (supervising TD) also went into a Q and A with us and told us certain problems with the short and how they overcame them in the technical aspect and also how the animators worked with some of the rigs. WOW!
-Finally we walked the amazing grounds of Pixar and I had to take the mandatory picture of myself infront of the big gates on the outside. Seriously pictures are coming soon it was an amazing experience! Christine and I kept looking at each other with uber geek out smiles out of pure shock in realizing we were walking around Pixar Animation Studios!
Sean and Missy also hooked me up with a Pixar shirt with Luxo on the front! I was totally not expecting it and they are just so damn cool! Now my fellow animators I get to walk around the halls of Monty with a Pixar shirt on my back! You cant get these suckers at any store!
Can you tell I was a bit excited by the experience?!
Ok...then we woke up Friday said goodbye to Sean and I drove Missy and Christine back down to LA. Missy had a plane to Catch at LAX and we made it in great time to wish her well and say goodbye. After dropping Missy off I took Christine to the best store in the world..."Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash", then we split a Tostada pizza from California Pizza Kitchen before embarking to Santa Monica/Malibu so Christine could finally touch the Pacific Ocean and see how truly blue and prettier it is compared to the East Coast.
After Malibu Chris and I drive back to Diego crash and wake up early the next day so she can make her flight home. I had so much fun with all three of these guys all week that the minute they were all gone I felt empty. ...guess that means the week truly rocked so much!
So that is it! Spelling and grammar must suck in this entry since I could care less about checking it this time. But now all you national readers know why last week was the best week ever. I got one heavy fire burning in my gut full of inspiration and I am coming SCAD to rock your faces off!
Only three more days at Pendulum then I start the drive back to Michigan in a week! It is tough! Cali grew on me like none other the past nine months and I am just the luckiest guy alive to have gotten this opportunity. No worries...I am headed back to School to do a short film ...then back to the real world part deux to finally settle down and officially start my new life in California!
snoogans |
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Holy shit!
That is the only way to start this entry. My hero and favorite athlete of all time has just clobbered le Tour de France for the seventh year in a row. No one has ever won more then five tours in a row or in total. This guy Lance from Texas had less then a 30 percent chance of living with testicular cancer that spread to his lungs and brain, overcame that....then won the most prestigious and hardest cycling event in the entire world SEVEN times in a row!
And now...he has retired. Man...seriously I am actually sad that next year I will have to root on my "second favs" in the Tour and not Lance. My buddy Reid who used to be my RD the first quarter I was an RA emailed me from Paris and hopefully will send some nice pictures of the riders on the Champ's D'lysee.
Funny...looking down at my left wrist is a yellow "Livestrong" band that I have worn daily for over a year now. It actually means alot for me as there were many cases this year I needed to be reminded to livestrong for certain family members, myself, or even some friends. This band actually has some deep meanings to me and has never been worn as the fad fashion of the year with all them stupid colored wrist bands out there. I was looking down at the band thinking to myself...hmm...when will I take this off. That is a question to be answered...a year is a long time to wear a yellow band.
So enough from me! I am just super stoked that Lance won seven in a row. Certainly has given the american audience a ton of exposure to the dominant european sport.
VIVA LANCE ARMSTRONG! LIVESTRONG ...man what a ride I actually watched this guy bike over 10,000 km since he started riding and never got bored. |
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What can I say...life has been good. To start off last week I was taken out to dinner by my two directors and was offered a full time job after school and promoted to senior/lead animator now and for when I come back from school. It is just such a great feeling to have work lined up for after school with such a great company headed in an amazing direction...and even more amazing to leave school for a job as the lead animator. Very excited.
Now lets see what else has happened. Well moved to a new apartment for my last month here and the two new animators that we just hired took my old pad. So now I live in a furnished apartment with an awesome view of a canyon/valley. Then last sunday after changing my car's oil and filling up the tank of gas me and my sweedish bud Mattias headed up to OC to chill and spend a lazy sunday in the sunshine of Cali. I am going to miss this place like none other when I go back to school. We watched "War of the Worlds" which was a friggin amazing movie with flawless special effects then drove home freaked that at any minute tripods would start walking from the coastal hills and start zapping everyone on the "5". So at any rate death was on our minds after watching a film where a billion people die. Then lo and behold all of a sudden we break really hard and have to narrow down to one lane on the interstate...why? no not a broken down car or car accident but for A DEAD FRIGGIN BODY! I have no idea where this guy came from and frankly I think he was an illegial immigrant trying to run across the interstate at night for the hills as this was a little south of the border check they have out here. But dang...cops where there before the ambulance and the only thing covering him was a jacket over his face that one of the cops put over it while the ambulance came. So right there in the lane next to me as I was merging was a dead man pretty badly beat up and just lying there lifeless on the interstate. Events like this really make me feel mortal.
Anywhoo other then the runner across the interstate I have been having a blast out here and frankly do not want to leave. Needless to say progress on the pre production has been very slow for my next short and I better vamp up on that a bit. Either way I look forward to doing my own thing and soon enough guess it will be time to start on it.
Oh oh oh! Almost forgot! I went to comic con on Saturday which in San Diego is the largest and most famous comic con in the world. Within minutes of walking on the floor I got to see some awesome footage of the next zelda game and then not 20 minutes later run into Ray Harryhausen (sp?) himself! The guy was just sitting there and I immediatley went up to him shook his hand and commended his amazing work. Then I got my picture taken with this legendary animator. A little later in the day we got to see a panel for the upcomming movie Aeon Flux and on the panel was everyone from the creator to the star Charlieze Theron answering some Q and A from the audience. We at pendulum almost did a segment for the film but had to turn it down as we were heavy into LA Rush...which I also got to see finally at the Midway booth. ...didnt get to play the game I slaved over though because some 8 year old kept hogging it! Then again he seemed to love it and that made everything worth while to see your first title being played by the public. ...even though you worked on the story cinematics only.
Finally the main event of the day was seeing my hero and favorite director Kevin Smith! This guy was just crude and hillarious as usual. He even told some kid whos mom died that he fucked her to death! He as always has no limits and was just a fav for most people at the convention. It was great to finally see him in person and hear him talk about some of my favorite movies and so forth. We had some pretty good seats as well in the packed 6500 seater room.
Comic con was great and I plan on returning next year. So many people dressed like storm troopers and whoever their favorite hero was it was great! I even got a picture taken with an authentic link and bluntman and chronic!
Hopefully I will get some pics up for you kiddies soon to feast your eyes on. Then again...I no longer have an internet connection so dont expect them soon.
Any of you guys coming out to Cali and want to meet up during Siggraph call me! I will be in the LA Area Monday, Tuesday, and some of Wednesday. Monday I will be there for about half a day since Pendulum is hooking me up with a master class and I need to get back to SD early to pick up some buddies from the airport so Tuesday may be the best bet. |
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Forgive me if there are any crazy spelled words in this entry....i busted my pinky finger two days ago playing footbal (because i never learned how to catch correctly) thus it hurts like a mother f-er if I accidently type with it. ...so rest assured the following text will have many grammical errors...then again dont they always?
happy 4th everyone! I had a nice 3 day weekend and spend that time catching up with my buddy Dave whom I met at Michigan State. He introduced me to all of his buddies and we basically spent the entire last three days together. It is so great and hillarious that out of the 15 or so guys I have been hanging out with I am one of two white guys. I love chillin with my asian compadres.
So saturday night was footbal, food, and fun at La Jolla cove in a park right next to the Pacific. Yesterday was relaxing. riding one of my new friends "mini bikes" (picture a crotch rocket motorcycle at 1/3 scale and only able to to 30 mph), and getting some new gear. Picked up some nice shirts at J-Crew and Bannana Republic so I am now STYLIN!
Also yesterday was crazy as I ran into an old friend from scad. After going to church my buddies and I were standing outside then I see a familiar face ....My jaw dropped as Julie Lund was standing right across from me. I met Julie my first year at scad. After that first year she transfered to a university in Idaho and I have not really spoken to her in two years. Then out of the blue I run into her in San Diego. We chatted a bit and I am sure we will run into each other again next week.
Finally today spent the evening again at my buddy Daves phat pellacio hollywood estate in the hills of Del Mar. Bunch of us guys played some ball then bbq. Finally since his house is on a mountain top we got to see some fireworks down in the valley to finally make this 4th official.
So that is it. It was a great little vacation. More updates later when my pinky heals. I jammed that sucker good catching a football and can hardly type this.
Oh one more thing...cheer on my man Lance Armstrong going for number seven in the tour de france. Seriously its unheard of now to win that many and even more so from a guy who was on his death bed. Also since he is an American Winning in a predominantly european sport it makes it even better! GO LANCE GO LIVESTRONG! |
| » I gots me a car! |
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Well my parents have been gracious enough to loan me a car for my adventure out in California. What was supposed to be an internship ending in March turned out to be a full time job and work until the end of August. Next year I will be living out in Whitmarsh Island on Johnny Mercer Blvd. thus really needed to start looking for some wheels. I WOULD ride my bike everyday but as stated in a previous post riding in Savannah sucks.
My dad called me today saying my grandma will sell her car to me and I could not be happier. Ok...no I DID say my grandma so trust me I am by all means NOT going to be styling in this car. It is a Grand Marquis Luxury Sedan. Hence....the older generation usually buys this car. Yet...I gotta say...its a car and I am not complaining. Furthermore the thing is so spacious inside and feels like you are driving a La Z' Boy.
Either way I am very grateful for this especially for how cheap I got it for. Next year will be much easier getting to and fro while working on my next short at Monty. No more bumming rides or taking SCAD transportation.
Jun. 24th, 2005 @ 11:26 am
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| » PSP WOW! |
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Holy cow! Nice perk of working in this industry is the gifts you sometimes receive after a crunch. Today I was given my PSP and am totally blown away by this display. It is huge and so friggin crisp. Heck...the system even comes with headphones, a protective case, ac adapter, and even the Spider Man 2 movie! Time to put this baby to use!
Picked up Ridge Racer with a few of the other guys at the studio and tommorow we will test out the wi fi technology and see what it is like playing multi player.
...oh and another great perk of being considered an "industry proffessional" is that any video games, DVD's, or music you buy are tax exempt!
Jun. 21st, 2005 @ 08:52 pm
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| » Fun Times in Southern California |
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Man could the last two days get any better?
Seriously work is going very well (back to normal work weeks) and I just had a blast these past two days. Yesterday after work myself and three of my buddies from work all decided to get away from San Diego (can you belive it?) and drive up to Irvine to see Miyazaki's newest film "Howl's Moving Castle". We could have easily seen it down the street but nothing like an adventure in one of the nicest and most "normal" places in OC. So after work we piled in my car and when we got to Irvine we stopped at an Ihop to get some dinner before heading to the movie. This movie theater is located in literally the most beautiful mall I have ever seen in my life. Ok none of us in our group could care less with a mall but this one just screamed "California". I mean it was the typical outdoor mall that you always find in So Cal yet just had such an amazing ambiance to it. Huge palm trees, stores more toward my budget, heck...it even has a ferris wheel and carousel in it! The movie theater itself is also huge with an Imax screen and about 30 other screens showing various movies. WOW! Seriously I know I sound like a 13 year old talking about this mall but just trust me on the cool factor this place just reeked.
"Howl's Moving Castle" was fantastic! If you like anything Miyazaki has done in the past be prepared to just go on a wild ride. Time went by so fast watching this movie because I was so engulfed by it. I absolutely loved this flick and must see it again this week. Studio Ghibli just puts one amazing flick out after the next.
Julian (roomate) and my buddy Mattias decided at last minute to go to Disney Land today. I opted to stay back and go for a bike ride. Sorry Mickey...them coastal hills were calling my name. So after sleeping in a little I put my trusty road bike in the car and headed over to La Jolla. WHEW! First two miles were some insane hills that took you right from the beach to the top of a coastal ridge. I loved each and every hill and just struggled up each one of em. Sounds crazy I know yet trust me its a sweet pain and every one of them feel like a little goal for the moment. The steeper and longer the hill the better. I basically biked north along the coast and made it past Encinitas before turning around. On my way back there was a little state reserve that had a HUUUUUUGE STEEEEEP hill going up a mountain that I didnt see on my first leg of the trip. So I decided to take the harder route and partake in some beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.
All this biking in the South West makes me realize just how crappy the cycling is in Savannah. Flat, industrial, rowdy drivers in pickup trucks. It sucks...and I am not to thrilled about getting to cycle those roads again. At least Whitmarsh Island, where I will be living this fall, has some bike paths. However, being spoiled by huge vistas and amazing views of the Pacific really get you thinking about whats ahead! ...then again school rocks and I am looking forward to being apart of it again. ...then of course move back out here and continue on with life.
Oh yeah one more thing....
I never in my life have seen so many beautiful women while on a bike ride. AND SOME OF THEM CYCLE! Man...thats like a prereqisite for marriage for me. ...Hopefully :)
Jun. 18th, 2005 @ 07:35 pm
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| » PHOTO TIME! |
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http://www.robtmiller.com/photos/vegas6_05/
There are some photos from my trip last weekend with my dad to Vegas. They start off with some shots off the interstate in the Mojave Desert, then our hotel "The Orleans", then a bunch of pictures of Red Rock Canyon on our bikes. My dad has the other set of pics with me cycling so you will see mostly him riding. He is 50 years old and can kick any of your asses for crying out loud he even had surgery on his leg four days prior to this ride. The photos do ABSOLUTLEY NO JUSTICE to how steep some of these hills are and how long the grades were. Finally some pics of "Bellagio" and "Paris" then us on Mt. Charleston right outside of Vegas. If you look closely you will see me kneeling besides snow! Oh and all the trees knocked down were a result from a giant avalanche earlier this year. ENJOY!
and!
http://www.robtmiller.com/photos/savannah4_05/
There are some pictures of when I visited Savannah last April. The pictures are pretty self explanitory. Keep a close eye on the storage unit on top of Matt's car as it evolves from a regular old crate of plastic with a snail logo to a mean eating shark faced radar doppler!!! Best prank I think I have been privledged to participate in! Also most of the pictures of my bud's were taken in Juarez...my favorite joint in Savannah. They make one mean margarita!
Soon I will upload all the pictures of my road trip with my dad and brother Patrick. There are well over 500 pictures to sort through so give me a few days on those!
Until then...let me know how you like them! I will make this a normal thing now whenever I snap some photos! ...or so I hope.
Jun. 16th, 2005 @ 11:22 pm
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| » Earthquake!! |
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Well apparently when I was driving home from Vegas Sunday morning an earthquake hit right near me yet for some reason I never felt it in the car where as all my buddies and co workers in San Diego did.
Today a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit off the northern coast of Cali and now there is a tsunami warning in effect for the entire US Pacific Seaboard. Thankfully I live far enough inland (5 miles or so) and on top a big hill.
Honestly though and thankfully looks like nothing will happen.
Jun. 14th, 2005 @ 09:36 pm
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