LOCATION:
Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
State Building (corner of Wakefield and Queen streets)
13th floor (room 1307)
Auckland

DATE:
Thursday, 21st June 2001
5:30 to 9:00pm.

WHAT HAPPENED:
Well, What can I say. This was one great meeting as I had suspected - An amazing 35 people turned out to this meeting (Compared to the few that came last time)... Which was not surprising given the advertised meeting included the SplineGod himself, Larry Schultz!

I started off with the few people who came early by showing some more 3D animation I'd downloaded off the web. Some new stuff from Steve Stahlberg, Warcraft III, and a few other groovy little animations...

Just afterwhich Larry arrived...

FROM THE VOICE OF GOD(OF SPLINES)
Larry was one very cool guy - having personally lurked around the LWML since its beginnings, and reading many a post from him, it was finally nice to be able to place a real face/voice to the name.

After I officially stood up, and opened the meeting with a little introduction (which in itself was a bit unusual since most of the meetings are so laid back - This was a first!), we got right into it...

Larry began by introducing himself and Foundation Imaging, followed by the fact that apparently Ron Thornton, One of Foundation Imaging's founders and someone who had influenced many LightWave users (Babylon 5 was one very good reason why I chose to use LightWave) had been in New Zealand just a few days beforehand! Hopefully, he may be back before the end of the year, and if we're lucky, we can convince him to pop in for a natter!

Larry pretty much filled the evening, talking about Foundation, his own 3D career and how he got into it, demo reels, what was happening in the industry, Foundation Institute, good working practices, and much more... I must say that it was a real education for many of us. Here are a few snippets of advice from the man himself about demo reels and applying for a job in the industry:

• First and foremost, NEVER rush a demo reel out because you feel pressured. Take the time to do a good job.
• Best work first, older best work last. Don't pad out a reel with bad work because you feel you don't have enough - If you need to, make some more good stuff.
• It's important to include a shot-break down with your reel
• No more then 3 minutes maximum - Between 1.5 to 3 minutes is a good timeframe
• Resume/CV's should not be more then a page.

We then followed the rest of the meeting up with some cool Foundation animation that Larry had bought with him!

...AND MANY THANKS!
Thanks to Larry and his Wife Camilla for coming along and sharing some great insight into whole industry and Foundation imaging! This time around, AUT provided some cool munchies, wine and refreshments (many thanks to Bob King).

To our professional visitors, Bill Boyce and crew from HuHu enterprises (The Buzz and Poppy guys) and AJ from TV3 (Who also was the only person to bring a demo reel!).

To the keen and interested hoards, and to the group of people from the National College of Technology and Design... It was great to see so many faces!

For those who missed this meeting, you missed some great advice and a great evening with a LightWave veteran! Thankfully, Larry was kind enough to leave the Foundation Demo Reel with us, so I'll be bringing that back into the next meeting for those who missed it!

Until next month - The meeting is planned for the first week of July (Possibly thursday the 5th, but I'll post out an update)


Kevman