A string of updates.

Well, it's been close to two weeks since I last posted something worthy. Work is picking up, and the new show is really pushing me, which is great. Here are a string of updates of what's been happening in the past week.

SharkBoy, as we like to call it in house, is going well. We're doing a 38 shot sequence for the show. There are many facilities working on this show; Hybride, CafeFX and ILM are just a few. It is a totally 3D show, so we're getting both left and right eye image sequences, which we'll be pulling the greenscreen and applying the correct depth for stereoscopic viewing. Other than that, we'll be starting six day weeks this week, so I will definitely have less time to update this log while I'm hard at work working overtime.

Over the Easter weekend I was up in Vancouver visiting friends and family. I had a great time, and got a chance to relax and chat about all manner or items before coming back. Everyone I saw, except one, is in the visual effects field. It's kind of funny. We all worked together for a former company which has since gone under, and now we're doing our own projects. One is a co-founder and co-owner of Atmosphere VFX, specializing in matte paintings and invisible visual effects, and is continuing their excellent work for the Battlestar Galactica series. Another two are the owners of Mondolithic Studios, which has done magazine covers for Wired, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American and the like. We chatted about a range of subjects from science and politics to movies and visual effects.

I also finally got the chance to see two films which have been on my list, Ray and Exorcist: The Beginning. I extremely enjoyed Ray, and Jamie Foxx deserves that Oscar. The Exorcist, on the other hand, was disappointing and cliché. Even though I'm not a fan of horror, it didn't really spook me, like the original one did. I really liked The Ring, Saw, and some other horror movies, and appreciated them from a filmmaking and storytelling perspective, but Exorcist had neither, and I didn't emphathize with any of the characters.

On Thursday of last week, I picked up my pre-order of the fancy gadget they call the PSP. I had an enthralling time playing Wipeout Pure and Lumines on the plane ride up and back from Vancouver, and am easily spending my lunch breaks addicted to it! The screen quality is amazing, and I'm finally glad that I can get my gaming fix on the go. My PS2 has been retired for some time now, so this was a step into portable gaming.