#Foster's back from Aus!
G'day Bruces and Sheilas!
I'm back in one piece from my "walkabout" in Australia and what a time I had –
best vacation in years. I met many of the major 3ds users in Sydney, Melbourne
and Brisbane, and had a chance to discuss opportunities "down-under".
In the first week Andrea and I were consumate tourists and toured the Sydney
area for a few days then flew off to Cairns for a 2-day, 1-night (slept on the
deck) sailing and scuba-diving extravaganza on the outer Great-Barrier reef.
After some trouble equalizing the pressure in my middle-ears I got to see some
of the most extraordinary and mind-blowing underwater sites known to man.
Thousands of varieties of multi-coloured corals and fishies – I was in a
euphoric state for hours after my dives <g>. The second week was dedicated to
flying to different cities to talk about 3ds opportunities etc.
In Sydney, I was Adesk's guest-of-dishonour at the Sydney user group and met
many of the local 3ds users who mainly seemed to be doing TV work. Adesk
Australia treated me with extreme hospitality, as did everyone on the whole
trip!
In Brisbane I met, for the first time, the world-famous
explorer/writer/animator Michele Bousquet who tolerated me quite well for one
night in her tropical island retreat (thanks Michele <g>). The next night I
stayed with forum-regular Garry Hargreaves and his lovely wife in his
brand-spanking new country/suburban mansion outside Brisbane after a "barbie"
(bbq) at the home of the owners/editors of Australia's Multi-CAD magazine. We
imbibed more beer than I can remember <g>, but still stayed coherent
(relatively) and sensible (sort of).
Melbourne was the final leg of my tour of cities and there I met Glenn
Melenhorst: the famous, and rightly so, guru of 3ds in general and 3ds
character animation in particular. I spent the whole day with him and prevented
him from doing any serious work, at all. He works in a mega-huge
post-production facility, called AAV, which has all the latest and greatest
equipment (D1, Digital Beta, Abekas, Quantel Harry, etc) that would put
Hollywood to shame. His 486's are etherneted directly to the Abekas – no
frame-by-frame to tape rubbish here, ya' know! Got a chance to look at the
somewhat old, but powerful Quantel Harry and finally realised where that
archaic animator pro interface came from!
I had a wonderful time overall, and was just blown away by the hospitality I
received. It was a constant struggle to pay for anything at all! I've decided
to apply for immigration to Australia and, if accepted, would probably choose
Brisbane to be my "base-of-operations", since it's largely unexploited in terms
of 3ds and the recreational opportunities look great. It's a bit like southern
Florida weather-wise and has the all-important watersports we need.
Hope you enjoyed my little account of my adventures.
Martin