Howdy. I got a fancy little Samsung P2 media player for Christmas, and I’ve finished up the few Jess Riegel videos I put on there. So, I need some ideas for free movies to watch, to make my morning schoolbus ride a bit less boring.
Ok well I dunno how interested you are in opensource stuff and 3D design, but there’s this one movie called Elephant’s Dream that was completed nearly entirely with Blender 3D by a non-profit group of people. It’s pretty cool, and represents what can be done when an open-source community works together on something.
There’s several other Blender-made movies here as well (I think Project Peach is still in development, not sure though):
Very interested. I’m running on completely open-source software (on my Linux partition which is used for everything but gaming and syncing my media player), except for MP3 codecs and the like.
I’ve also recently bought “The Essential Blender” book, and have been reading it and trying the tutorials. Much fun, indeed. I’ve done mostly head modeling so far (which I find easiest), but I will get into more geometric stuff later.
If you’re that interested in blender, you should really head over to www.blenderartists.org , there’s a great community over there where you can ask for tips, read submitted tutorials, discuss techniques, and see other people’s work, both unfinished and completed stills/shorts/games.
Studying? School is so painfully easy at this level - I spend maybe an hour per week (yes, week) on homework/studying, and I’ve maintained a 4.0 GPA all year. I can’t wait for college…
I basically challenge my brain on my own time with computer programming, troubleshooting, reading up on computer skills, photography, mastering Linux, and other various projects.
My rationale for not studying on the bus (when I take the bus anyway…I drive to school a lot now) is that it makes me queasy when I read while driving. Plus it’s usually too dark in the morning.
EDIT: Looked it up. That sounds interesting (despite the bashing of it on Urban Dictionary), although I am in the Honors program in my district. The Honors program here is pretty selective; it requires an IQ and creativity test, and there’s only ~25 students in it per grade level (3rd grade through Freshmen). It’s challenging, but I’m still not truly challenged. I will probably do the “Running Start” (take college courses in High School) program as a junior, though, and that may work out well.
That sounds kinda like IB - I’ve been earning college credit the past 2 years with my classes. It’s very rigorous, though. I’ve got a 4.6 gpa and am still only #21 in my class.
The IB grading scale is different. 4.0 is the max for everyone not in IB…I think, it’s a weird weighted system. But I’ve got a 4.6 out of a max 5.0 I could get.