Well, the title pretty much says it all. Who wants to meet on Saturday, August 26th at noon? Location is at Luckbat HQ in DUMBO (Brooklyn), and yes I have air conditioning.

Please let me know if you'd like to come, or if you'd prefer another date. Hope to see you there!

The date looks good for me. See you there.

This will work for me too.

Hi Mike,

I'd like to come.

Joe

Two's company; three's a user-group meeting!

Here's my location:

135 Plymouth St. apt. 211B (use side entrance on Pearl St)
Brooklyn, NY
three blocks from York Station (F line)
four blocks from High Street Station (A,C lines)

E-mail me if you need my number, and I'll be sure to leave the side door open... since I don't have a doorbell! (For those of you who've attended a previous meeting, this is a new location--same building, different apartment.)

Barring work popping up that weekend, I'm definitely in.
Gerry

Great meeting Mike, sorry I had to split early. I hope you all continued to have fun! Nice meeting the "new" guys, too.

Gerry

Yeah, it was a blast! I'll start thinking of fun stuff to do for the next one...

Oops, I was just checking in to what time the meeting started tommorrow on "Sunday", when I realized that the meeting was today (Saturday). I must have read it wrong last time. Bummer.

What'd I miss!

Joe.

Sorry, Joe! Better luck next time.

What you missed:

1. The NYNJAs watch a 3d animated spec commercial, and analyze where it all goes wrong.

2. Mike, Gerry and Duke showcase their latest WIPs.

4. Mike gives a tutorial on E-Z targa alpha-channels.

3. The NYNJAs enjoy delicious fresh bagels, pizza and gourmet chocolate.

Sounds like I missed a good one, and am especially bummed about the bagels, pizza and chocolate.

Oh well, when's the next one?

Probably in early October.

I had a good time as always. Thanks for hosting Mike

Thanks.

By the way, who did the spec commercial?

I dunno, some guy. I linked to it in my post, so you can critique it yourself, if you like.

[Edit: Whoops. The moderators removed the link and changed it to an underline to confuse people. Not sure why.]

For the Next User meeting, when ever it may be. I have an Idea for an exercise. Time permitting, I would like it if every member in attendance would Bring an example (Video clip or whole movie) of animation that inspired them to become animators or to atleast davle in it as a hoby. This could be CG animation (flash or 3d) or conventional animation or combination there of. Then, when the Movie or video is over, have the presenter give a synopsis as to why they pick that particular film. In a sence we're basically comparing our favorite animation and descussing why it's our favorite.

As I was hammering out the details for this excersise I had originally wanted it to be kind of like a secret thing, that no one would discuss on the forum what they were going to showcase. The reason for this would be because I wanted to avoid some one saying that they wanted to show a certain pixar film, then have some one else who likes pixar decide that they're gonna show a different film because some one else chose their first pic. Then all we'd wind up with is 10 hours of pixar.

Then I thought that if people posted their picks for a topic, Say I wanted to do Bakshi's Wizards, some one else being a Bakshi fan might write me saying that's my favorite movie too!!!! lets work together on a colaborative presentation.

So that being said, and if you all agree that this would be a fun excersise, my pick has to be Ralph Bakshi's "Cool world". . .



Just kidding



My pick is Don Bluth's "The Secret of NIMH"

Works for me. The most pivotal animation for my development would probably have been Akira, as it was the first animated feature I'd ever seen that wasn't aimed at 7-year-olds. At the time, I wasn't even aware that sort of thing was allowed. Watching an animation wrestle with such grandiose themes and imagery made me realize that animation could do a lot more than just sell toys.

To this day, I still seek out animation that pushes the limits of the medium.

Sounds like a great idea.