Annecy-NYC-LA-SF-Paris

After graduation, I thought I would need a long, well-deserved break... Well, that didn't happen until Christmas week!
Summer 2010 was awesome!
It all started with the annual trip to Annecy; where I was able to show "Trevor" to recruiters... French TV Channel TF1 even interviewed me! I was asked about the recruiting process only. Maybe next time it'll be about me, right guys? ;-)

After a couple of jobs in july, I flew to NYC and stayed there a couple of weeks, then I went to LA to meet with some friends who work at the Disney studios. I had always dreamed of stepping inside that building! I didn't do just that, actually, I had a grand tour of the place, meeting great artists who share their passion for animation and always had some time to spare for me. Seeing their cubicles, all the artwork on the corridors was just plain awesome! No pictures allowed unfortunately... But trust me, their next projects are going to be amazing.

Probably the best part of all this was going to the Animation Research Library, where they keep most of the artwork used in the movies. Seeing original Mary Blairs upclose is stunning: no book print will do justice to her colors!
Another dream come true was visiting the Imagineering building. They were far more secretive of their projects, and we weren't allowed to see much, but it was so exciting. When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was an Imagineer!

I then flew to San Francisco to continue my animation journey... to Pixar Animation studios!
Again, I'm lucky to have some great friends, so we had lunch there and got a tremendous tour of the place. Pictures were only allowed in the famous atrium! There was a lot of construction outside, we were told they're expanding the campus. A lot of Toy Story 3 artwork was on display, since this was their latest picture.
Another great place to visit was the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio. Being a hug fan of Disneyland AND of models, I had a blast!

Going back to Paris was like returning to reality: a lot of work awaited!
I started working on the visual development of a new animated series as a freelancer, and worked during the day at TeamTo studios as an environment designer, but I'm not allowed to show anything just yet.

OK, just to say that this was not all about bragging, here are some digital sketches I did during that period!