It is one of those Mondays where I am glad to be back to work. That is not because it was bad this time, but rather because I have new ideas and new focus and want to apply them.
Friday was the Celebration of my friend/brother Jeff's life in Sacramento and it held some surprises. First was a pal from film school showed up I had not seen in 8 years and we did some catching up, as well as resolved to keep in closer touch. I told him that I would like to do some projects together but we will have to see how that goes. Additionally Laurie's best friend surprised us by showing up from Oregon. She is still like family for all of us and a ball of positive energy so it was good to have her there. The turn out was very good and there was nothing but love and support, both for Jeff and for those of us left behind. Nicholas gave a great Eulogy and I talked for 10 minutes, it was good to get it out. In the end the entire event was much more cathartic than any of us thought it would be. When it was over though it was as if all the energy in our bodies had been drained from us. We were all in our respective bed far earlier then usual. In my case I was surprised that my dreams had returned (they had been missing since that day in Pennsylvania) and they were positive and refreshing.
My former roommate, Gordon Garb, showed up at the memorial and reminded me that TEDx was this past weekend, which I knew but because the client still(s) has not paid me for all the work I have been doing, and I had to use up my reserves paying one of my artists so he wouldn't quit, I had not bought tickets. Gordon surprised us and bought ticket for all of us and on Saturday showed up and gave Nick and I a ride to the event.
At TEDx the speakers were all pretty good but two stood out. The first was Tatjana Dzamboza who works in AUTODESK's 3D scanning research unit. She spoke on the advances in PHOTOGRAMETRY, where you use multiple photographs to reconstruct a 3D model of an object and how that is being applied to reconstructing the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan that were dynamited by the Taliban. They were able to build a 3D model of the Buddahs using tourist photos and pictures taken by expeditions before they were destroyed.
The other speaker who stood out was Dr. Robert Rubin, an
Sunday Nicholas and I did a Father's day tradition, a trip to the movies. We went to see HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 ,which was wonderful. The film was beautiful and I think did some things that I had never seen done in 3D animated films before. The design was beautiful (and I saw my pal Peter Chan's name in the design crew which was cool), the music was wonderful and it really set me to thinking about where I want to go next, after this project winds up next week.
I am standing on a ridge between video film and digital and I am not sure where my heart really lies. After the TEDx event I spoke with Tatjana and when I told her what I was working on with BCM (using game theory for teaching) she was very interested and wanted to talk further. At the same time I have been wanting to pursue my video further. What will I do? Well I think I will leave myself open to the opportunities that present themselves and go where the gods lead me.
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