Animation Mentor BBQ

7-12-2009 Attended the Animation Mentor annual BBQ in San Francisco.This event is usually held shortly after the graduation ceremony the night before. AM students from all over the world attended this event. It is a special thing to meet face to face with people you usually communicate with via the internet with nothing more than an avatar as the visual reference to their person. Everyone was genuinely excited when they met everyone else, especially their mentors (here I am with Kenny Roy, my class 5 mentor)

or any one of the Animation Mentor founders Bobby Beck,

Shawn Kellyand Carlos Baena, as well as Maya guru extraordinaire Kevin Freeman.

Classmates (Eddie Villegas)
ex-classmates (Madhur Chopra)
and acquaintances (Ghaydaa Sleem and Sabah Yazaji) who came all the way from Dubai were also in attendance. Ghaydaa is an accomplished artist and animator which makes her a rare talent in the Middle East.

Finally met Heather Kilber who communicated with me via my blog page before she joined AM, she is as bubbly in person as she is on the net but her magic is her student weekly news when she was in the Maya Springboard class where her talent of showmanship and editing really shined.This event has brought people from all walks of life, backgrounds, ethnicities and ages where passion for the art of animation is the single common denominator. It was like a large gathering of one big family, which is rare to find these days with this much excitement and positive attitude.