first assignment

I completed my first assignment.  We had to copy 15 thumbnails in black and white.  This is to help us understand value and implying detail.  The next assignment was to come up with 15 of your own thumbnails and pick our 3 favorites.  Then we had to make full size painting of these.  I also have to come up with another full size painting for my Digital Matte painting class.  My idea is an overrun city area or car park.  Kind of like in I am Legend the movie.

lighting and rendering

I had my first Lighting and Rendering class.  We will be going over a lot of texturing along with lighting and rendering.  So I'm glad I took this instead of the texturing class.  The professor has a good course outline set up and good methods of teaching.  This professor has worked on some pretty big movies and he seems very knowledgeable.  Now that I've had all four classes, I think I made some very good choices.  These four classes should teach me everything I need for environment design.

I had my second digital Sets class yesterday.  Its going to be an interesting class with a lot more photography instruction than I was expecting.  We will be going on a field trip this coming saturday to Red Rock Canyon.  We will be taking panoramic, hdr, long exposure shots.  This will be a whole day trip, we are even camping there for the night.  I will take a bunch of pictures on my own, but the lesson should be fun.  We will be using these shots for our project in the class.  The project will be pretty much what we want, as long as it uses the photos we take we can implement any of our own ideas.
Ive been working on my first big assignment from Environment design.  We have to find 15 digital paintings and replicate them in black and white for about 30 mins per painting.  This is exactly what I've been interested in so this class will be my favorite.

classes

I finally had some classes today, the two I was looking forward to the most.  Digital Matte Painting and Environment Design.  Environment design is exactly what I'm hoping to do when I get a job, and the professors work is so amazing.  I really hope I can do the same quality of work some day.

My lighting and rendering class was cancelled on Saturday so I havent gone yet.  But I think it will be a good class.  Im excited to finally have some homework.  Its difficult to practice on my own, but when I have an assignment I always work hard to finish it.

I got all the classes I was hoping for, this should be a great semester!

first class

I had my first class today, called "Digital Sets".  There is a lot more photography involved than I was expecting.  But I didnt realize how important it is this area of 3D.  I thought the class was going to start out too advanced but it was a very easy first class and the professor seems great.  We just went over the history of digital environments and he showed us some inspirational clips.  I am expecting to learn a lot in this class and its exactly what I was looking for.

School

Yesterday we went to Santa monica beach.  It was pretty empty, its too cold for everyone around here.  The pier was pretty neat, there were a few street performers and lots of little shops.
We got a tour of our school.  Its a very interesting place, multiple buildings, some connected by catwalks.  None of us really remember where our classes are, but we'll find them.  They had lots of student/professor work all over the place and some really nice computer labs.  I look forward to my first class of monday.

Arrived at Oakwood apartments around 10pm on Wednesday January 4th.  I unpacked immediately.  We went to bed early, everyone was tired from the drive.
Thursday we went and got all our groceries and walked around west hollywood for awhile.  Everything is so much different around here.  We are almost surrounded by mountains and there's different plants and trees everywhere.  It hits 80 degrees most days this week.  We drove past a bunch of movie studios, I remember Warner Brothers and Disney.  There are so many shops lining the streets.
Our apartment complex is very nice.  Its huge, we haven't really explored it yet, other than the hot tub. Our apartment has a small balcony, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, plenty of room for us.