Pixar Wrap-Up.....

Ok so now that I have some time off I can finally update this thing. I got a bunch of my pictures together from my internship and put them up. You can check them out here. They are a few pics from around the facility and from the Autorama. I also added a few of my assignments to my demo reel. I'll compress the rest and put them up soon. I got to intern with 3 of the best animators I've ever met; Curran Giddens, Veerapatra Jinanavin, and Blake Johnson. These guys are awesome, you may have seen their work before, if not check'm out. To prove that it is a small industry, all four of us said our goodbyes not knowing when we would see each other again. Well 3 weeks later, Curran, Tun(Veerapatra) and I were waiting together in the lobby of Blue Sky to start our first day. Blake probably would have been there as well but he went back to school. It was awesome getting to work with them again!

While at Pixar we got to spend a lot of time with the story department. All three of my roommates were in story. These guys were so cool and amazingly talented; Jeremy Spears, Alex Hirsch, and Eric Fountain. I can't wait to see them again. Speaking of super cool and talented friends, While I was out there I got to see a really good buddy of mine, the guy that introduced me to Animation Mentor, Mike Safianoff. He lives in Emeryville. Even though I didn't get to see him that much it was still a lot of fun...we hadn't hung out since we were both living in Orlando. I also got to see another buddy of mine that I hadn't seen since I went to the Art Institute, Scott Trosclair. He's an extremely talented lighter....you may have seen his work before, he's been know to light some assignments for us AM'rs. And Speaking of AM'rs I got to meet the leader of the pack...that's right...I got to have lunch with Bobby Beck!!! Bobby is so great. It was really great to thank you in person for starting a life changing school!

While at Pixar I learned so much, I can't thank them enough for having the intern program. They made us all feel so welcome and taught us soooo much.....no kidding, I have a notebook that I brought with me...by the end I was squeezing in lines in corners, anywhere I could find some space to write. I'd like to give some special thanks to the People that I really spent a lot of time with....Andrew Gordon and Travis Hathaway you guys are awesome, Victor Navone, You were such a great mentor, your guidance really took my work to another level, Michal Makarewicz, super mentor extraordinair, Adrian Molina and Austin Madison, thanks for teaching me Risk, Carlos Baena, Doug Dooley, Dave Mullins, Pete Sohn, Mark Andrews, and Matt Majers....you all are so generous, I really can't thank you enough! And everyone else in the animation department, you were all so generous with your time and advice! So that about wraps it up without writing an entire book. It was the hardest and most rewarding experience I've had in animation. Some stand out moments would have to be: Meeting John Lasseter and getting to ask him questions, having our Ratatouille dialog assignment critiqued by the sups, Mark Walsh and Dylan Brown, and watching WALL-E come together and seeing dailies with Andrew Stanton.

Enjoy the pics!

-Stephen