Week 1 update...

Ok, so It’s been a few days since my last post and more has happened to write, though here is the jist.

Day 2: I went into the studio today, well one of the buildings; they are all separated and scattered around Wellington (did I mention that it’s windy here, like serious, easily 50 mph gusts on a daily basis). At the Wexford building, I met most the HR people I have been emailing these past few months. What a lovely bunch, they were all extremely nice and very informative on what I’m going to need to do over the next few days, this includes, banking, tax info, housing, how to bill payment, health care, where I’ll be working and with whom. I was also given my rental car and driving lesson. This was actually quite easy, a lot easier then I had anticipated. That was pretty much my “first day,” though I didn’t really do any real work.

Day 3: I went with one of the housing dept women, Marilyn, who took us to a few apartments. After seeing a few places I went into the Rongotai building where most of the modelers work. I was given my desk but had to wait for my computer, which was being built. (Quad-core processors with 6 GB of RAM…nice!). I hung there for the day with Simon reading some workflow papers and then that night a bunch of us all went to dinner. The food here is great, the coffee is even better. It’s weird though because you don’t tip here and tax is included with the price of food, makes splitting up the bill at the end of the night very easy.

Day 4: This is Thursday I believe. Thanksgiving though we didn’t do anything special since they don’t celebrate it here of course. I now have my computer and was called into to view dailies for the show I’ll be working on, Avatar, very happy to be apart of it. I also got the pleasure of meeting an acquaintance of Simon’s from ILM, and apparently a fellow Pittsburgher, VFX Supervisor Joe Letteri. He’s won Academy Awards on all three Lord of the Rings films and King Kong, yeah, I’m looking forward to working with him to say the least. I was also assigned my first model, which is going to be a lot of fun, though I can’t say anything more then that. That night Simon, Jose and I had went out to my new favorite Wellington restaurant Chow, fantastic Asian cuisine, and they actually make a mean Mojito, hard to find that.

Day 5: Today I got a formal introduction to more of the modelers I will be working with. An extremely talented and even nicer group, very welcoming. I learned a little more about the pipeline and actually started to do some real modeling, was nice to get back into the swing of things. Man on man do they have some powerful scripts here, very impressive stuff. That night we were kind of “initiated” with the tradition of Friday’s Beer o’ Clock. Basically at 5pm everyone at the building hangs out in the rec-room where they supply loads of imported beer and chips. The whole team kicks off the weekend the right way. We were also fortunate that it happened to be the day of “Burning Sheep.” Similar to “Burning Man” in the States, this celebration involves a ton of Weta people, as we are called, a beach, beer, food, fireworks, and a 10-foot long wooden/pine-covered sheep…oh yeah, and a large fire! It was awesome, getting to know the people outside of work, partying on the beach and enjoying some pretty fantastic amateur fireworks under a crystal clear beach, I’ve never seen more stars in the sky.

Day 6: Today Simon and I signed the papers on the house that we’re renting. It’s more like a mansion, being that it is 4-bedrooms, fully furnished, and right on the water off of Karaka Bay. Seriously, this place has one of those views that I have only ever dreamed of, don’t worry, pictures will sure be to follow. We are looking for a third roommate to enjoy the place and then will have a nice guest room for whomever decides to visit us…you have to visit us, now more then ever. Other then all that, ah…we went bike shopping to commute to work, and are looking into renting a car while we’re here to get around in the rain that sure to come this winter.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll try to post more next weekend, hopefully we’ll have internet set up in our house soon, we move in Thursday.

New Zealand Bound!

Well the “Shannon Thomas North American Tour 2006” has officially ended. Hitting San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Tampa, San Diego, and San Jose in only 3 weeks, my relaxing month off turned out to be a lot more strenuous then I had thought. Though after all was said and done, in that month, I successfully accomplished all I needed to. I acquired my Visa, sold my car and most of my belongings, and moved out of my apt, all with only a few hours to spare actually. But finally the day that seemed would never come, had arrived. It finally hit me.

Day 1:

I wasn’t dreading the 13 ½ hour flight because I knew I could sleep through most of it since it was at night. Despite a little bump in the road when I checked in at LAX, (thanks again Jess and Anna), everything went really smoothly. On the 450 passenger 747 Qantas Airbus, I got a lovely window seat and the seat next to me was actually empty, bonus. They also had a large selection of movies and shows to watch for the in flight entertainment so that made the trip a lot more enjoyable. I slept for about 6-8 hours after the dinner meal, I had the penne pasta. In the morning, when I woke up, they served breakfast and after that we landed in Aukland, in all it really wasn’t bad at all. Lastly, there was a very short 1 hour flight to Wellington.

Again I got a window seat and got to actually see New Zealand since the sun was now up. From above the first thing I noticed was how green it was, secondly was how it was barely populated. Although I’ve never been to either, I think it looks like a combination of Hawaii and Ireland.

Once I arrived at the Wellington airport a runner form Weta picked me up and drove me to my hotel. He gave me a quick little intro to the area and it all sounds great. The Duxton Hotel is by far the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and I’ve been in a lot of them. It is a 2 room suite with an amazing view of the peninsula bay and mountains. I took a few hours and walked around the city here at lunch and noticed there were a lot of people running and eating outside, though compared to the states there are very few people in general. It is extremely clean and the air is perfect. I loved that I didn’t see one homeless person or a single Starbucks, there is however a MacDonald’s, Burger King’s, and SUBWAY. The cars driving on the other side of the road is pretty weird cause in some places they don’t have the double yellow line and it looks like its just one-way but it isn’t. So far though, the best thing is just how nice everyone is. It’s like they’re all in the best mood, very un-American, more like the way it should be, extremely approachable.

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m gonna meet up with my buddy Simon in a little bit here, grab some dinner and then tomorrow I head into Weta for my first day. No modeling yet though, just paperwork, HR formalities, and getting my bank account set up. Thanks for checking in, more later...

-Cheers.

Happy Feet Dances to Top of Box Office...

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/19/box.office.ap/index.html

Happy Feet Hits Theaters

Today is the day, my first film hits theaters, and apparently to good reviews. Not that I had anything to do with the story process but it's nice to see that people are enjoying it. Its extra special cause my good friends Landis and Adam also worked on the film up in San Fran at Giant Killer Robots. Weird that its both mine and Landis's first films to hit theaters. Congrats to you both.

I am also very fortunate to have received a credit for Modeling under the Rhythm & Hues section, so stay tuned for the credits and take a peak.

Let me know what you think of the film, I'm going to see it tonight.

Text Editor for new Maya 8.0 Book...

A friend of mine/former teacher, Tom Meade, is writing an update of his book "Maya 6.0 The Complete Reference." McGraw Hill will be publishing again and he asked me to be the Text Editor. He is tackling a ton of new subjects including a lot on dynamics, ofcourse the usual 3D modules, and he is also focusing a lot of time adjusting to the new Maya 8.0 interface. Lastly, there will be a case-study featuring the short film "WORM," which I also worked on with Landis and Anna Fields, and Roger Ridley.

The book will be out sometime early next year and I'll keep everyone posted when you can get ahold of this must have book for any 3D artist.