Seeing others where I began

It's been an interesting past couple of days, on a last minute cancellation I found myself on a bus to Boston on Tuesday night to attend the CIMIT conference. This was a pretty great trip, granted it was only for a day it felt a little bit like a vacation. Our demonstration went well, it was truly heart warming to see a lot of the things I had worked on functional and working in front of a crowd. I forget sometimes how fun it can be networking and interacting with the crowd as well, and how second nature it's become. It's sort of funny now that there has started to be familiar faces at these conferences, one in particular is John Able. I've grown used to seeing him on my travels and it's sort of neat to get into a good conversation with him. He really gave our prototype a critical eye and I think we survived haha...

What I really want to write about in this blog post is actually about the people working there ironically. The group that went down to CIMIT was just phenomenal and beyond any sort of camaraderie we all had during the trip, they were just great at interacting with people as they passed by. I was truly impressed with some of their networking skills and their ability to draw them into games like Spore and Trauma Center. It was also really great to see and hear from Ann and how the team in Learning 2008 was doing. I feel a bit awkward talking about the team in this light but I feel so proud of them. Hearing about Elliot Masie's new challenges for them and their experience in general is just so cool. It's sort of come full circle... A year ago I was in that place, a year ago on the plane ride back I was hoping that this ride wouldn't end, and so much has happened in that year. I know an experience like what we do at the Learning conferences is a bit changing, and I can't help but wonder if in a year from now this team will feel as I do today and be proud of what the next team has accomplished. I feel awkward saying proud, it implies some sort of ownership I think so maybe it's not quite the right word... but in any case it's pretty awesome. Seeing how much we've grown this past year, how far we've begun to push our boundaries, and wondering what will happen in the rest of this year; makes me sad that there's an end in sight. In that respect I know all good things must come to and end, and that I must move on but I can't help but feel like the Emergent Media Center has become much more then a place of work but also a bit of a family. It's nice to feel like I belong, I haven't always felt that in life. It's going to be mixed feelings for me when I graduate, but I'm even more excited to see how the EMC will progress... and be proud knowing that I was there to help it take some of it's first steps.

Im gettin really good at barely gettin by

It's been far too long since I've last blogged, trouble is free time has become more and more difficult. I'm not really sure where to begin... I've been working pretty intensely on CIMIT these past couple of weeks to try to prepare for the CIMIT conference in Boston next week. Unfortunately I won't be attending, in fact I'm the only Lead not going but that's ok I've got plenty on my plate to do and no time to fall behind. Doubling up on hours for CIMIT has made it hard to put in a good week for the UN, even harder trying to get everyone organized enough to have a meeting. I'm pretty excited with what progress we've made thus far and I continue to be amazed by the scope on these projects... and by scope I mean impact potential they have. This has been really apparent with all of the press we've received these last couple of weeks. You can find all of the links at the Emergent Media Center Blog on my right hand panel, so I'll spare you all of the URLs... needless to say I've become really comfortable being interviewed and having intense conversations about emergent media and well a lot of things. This past week we had the Emergent Media Center's Grand Opening, this was quite the event. I freaked out before hand and got a resume, cover letter, and portfolio CD together with some amazing help from Ray and Ken at work. I was able to hand of a few of my resumes that night to companies like America's Army, EA, and some others. To be honest I had a great conversation with Scott Connolly of Population Media Center. He went to Africa with us and so it was sort of fun to be able to catch up with him, and really since Africa I had been curious to see if they may be getting into the game space and perhaps looking to hire. I really think I could enjoy a position with them, not only would I be working on media for social change (a worthwhile objective), I'd get to stay in Vermont, and maybe even travel a little more =) Yet at the same time I can't help but be enticed by the prospect of working for America's Army. After a bout I had with a certain governmental organization last year, I still would be interested in working with the government. Beyond all that though, I haven't really had time to think ahead too much. People asks me what my plans are, and well I could tell you my outlook on Senior production, CIMIT, or UN stuff, what art assets I plan on working on this week, what paper I need to write, but beyond that well... I need to get through all of this first. Oh that reminds me, when I was working on my resume... It's pretty awesome to be able to put United Nations on there =)


As far as other stuff goes, I've completed the Forest Level assets for the game Lauren and I are working on. I still need to tweek a few things but for now I'm actually continuing onto the next environment I'll be modeling. I had been nervous trying to combine senior production and art seminar together, but it's been working out for the most part. It's hard though because in class I'm just doing things that are so far different then anyone else, and most of the atmospheric effects Buck can't help me with. I had been really nervous for our critique because of this, I wasn't just showing one asset, instead I was showing 20 swfs containing loop animations, stills, and movement cycles. I was surprised that Buck had been so supportive of it and really I think he likes it. In all reality though I'm so happy to start on this new environment, it's sort of refreshing and exciting at the same time. I remember at one point I used to think it daunting to start a new project or character but it's not like that this time for some reason. I sort of like receiving a new piece of clay, and it can turn out to be so many different things... it's exciting... Especially knowing what I know now of new maya rendering techniques.


I don't think I have anything really too thoughtful to put in here... I haven't had much of a social life as of late, but it's ok I'm doing a lot of really great things. When I think of how I'm doing, I always think that I'm just "Surviving" or "Getting by" but I'm not... I'm striving ahead, working hard, and hoping it all pays off =) I'll leave you with a render of a snow scene as a teaser for our game, sadly I can't get all of my renders up here or blogspot would kill me.

Oh! One last thing, Champlain's Team for Eliott Masie's Learning 2008 just left today! I'm not sure where to find them online, but I'm sure Ann will blog down there. Be sure to follow them on what is sure to be an intense four days. It's sort of weird seeing them go off, Learning 2007 was sort of my entry into the Emergent Media Center, and it feels sort of like the torch has passed on. Best of Luck to Kate, Dan, Austin, Chris, Max, and Vanessa! My thoughts are with you guys.