This, like two posts from before this one is also copy-pasted from my personal blog. Link bellow.<\/p>\n
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Last Friday was Playgrounds festival in Amsterdam. We were supposed to be there at 9.30 in the morning, but I can tell you, at 8.30 I was already wide awake on the train, admiring the rising sun on the horizon and watching the fields through the tiny window, while traveling at 160 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n
It all started about 45 minutes before. I just received text from Marina that she and her sister will be late to the train and they are boarding the next one. I never traveled by train in the Netherlands, so I was still going to wait for them. And that\u2019s where the fun started. This train station is much bigger than the one in Ljubljana, for example, so 10 minutes prior to the next departure we were looking for each-other, without luck. They already got the tickets when I still didn\u2019t know where and how to buy them. \u201cWhere are you, Dex?!\u201d \u201cI finally found that \u2018service station\u2019 thing, and am waiting to buy a ticket\u2026\u201d and when I heard a distant \u201cFuck\u2026\u201d in reply I knew that\u2019s not good. I did notice a machines in front, but I normally prefer human interaction when buying stuff like that \u2013 at least when I\u2019m doing it first time \u2013 I figured\u2026 The next moment I noticed there\u2019s a spot, and approached the counter. \u201cI\u2019d like to have a ticket for Amsterdam. Will I still catch the train at 8.25?\u201d \u201cYes, just go to the platform 7.\u201d That\u2019s pretty interesting thing to hear, when the watch says it\u2019s 8.23. I jumped through the first door on the train, and 20 seconds later we were moving. This is gonna be a good fucking day.<\/p>\n
Nine artists\/studios presented themselves during the day, some of them pretty damn famous. BUF, Polynoid, Psyop and Pixar would probably be considered the bigger players in the fields of animation. All of them were interesting in their own way. I loved how Julia Pott has a good sense for talking and explaining, it felt as she was talking exactly how she felt. Polynoid guys have their VFX skills above the clouds (at least for me), yet they seemed just like any of us during the presentation. On their slideshow, amongst the big achievements was a \u201cbad ass coffee machine\u201d! Moniker showed their cool internet mouse tracking project. I took part, backthen, it\u2019s interesting thing. BUF was a little more official, but I still admired the footage they have shown. Then FIELD, I didn\u2019t really know what to think of that, but they do have nice programming skills I think, though it wasn\u2019t really my taste. Psyop guy was interesting, he looked like the biggest badass to me, but he seems to have good sense for emotions and feel. One of the most jaw dropping things came next, when some guys who make animatronics displayed their projects. I didn\u2019t know much about this, but animatronics are basically robotic visual effects. They showed us how they made the head in the Prometheus, the one that explodes in the lab. Rex Crowle is the game maker, they make one cool game for PS Vita (or something), with really nice twist to it but I don\u2019t remember the title. In the end, there was a lady from Pixar. She showed us nicely how Pixar works, but she seemed to have a cold so she had some problems talking. It happens. Still, if I had to chose my favourite presentation there I think I\u2019d pick Polynoid or Psyop; because even though they are really really good at what they do, they seemed down to earth.<\/p>\n
On the Monday, Roberto (another Erasmus schoolmate) and me went to take a look around the location of filming our trailer. It was cool experience, we walked around school finding interesting places. I was really impressed, and glad, that he seemed very excited about the project. I like that kind of people in my team. On Tuesday they presented us next assignment, which will be making a(nother) promo film. This is gonna be an interesting project. Everything I saw, seems to be exactly the opposite to how they want to present themselves. More or less\u2026 but the purpose is good. Now I just wonder what can we, the animation students do about it. In the evening there was a group of my Erasmus schoolmates and I asked them, if they feel like participating at the filming of the trailer. Many of them were in and I was impressed. For the last week I couldn\u2019t get many people, but now in a single evening I got entire team. So it turns out, if you have a plan, people are more likely to be interested in. Gotta keep that in mind.<\/p>\n
Anyway, this Monday, we\u2019re filming the trailer. If everything goes by plan (that basically means nobody finds out the last moment that they can\u2019t participate), it should go well. I\u2019m looking forward to it. I like to change my mediums I work with every now\u00a0 and then. So switching to Video after several months of being limited to Animation.<\/p>\n
Apart from school\u2026 It happens every once in a while that here, in Rotterdam I really feel down. That happens after extended period of raining, and lack of sun. Just a few moments ago I told my friend \u201cNow I finally know how you girls feel during the PMS. I want to die and I want to kill everyone and I want to cry and I don\u2019t know what to do with myself.\u201d I\u2019m not sure if that goes for all of you, but she said that kind of sums it up. So if it happens that during that time we also suddenly have a lot of work to do for school I start to doubt if I will actually pass this exchange. But sometimes everything falls in place, and I feel very excited about everything.<\/p>\n
So far this exchange is basically giving me what I came here for. The production kind\u00a0 of knowledge and\u00a0 experience. And it was doing it good.<\/p>\n
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