Evolve CG 2011! Who's going???

[SF]Three9

Hey everyone

So Evolve CG is this coming weekend in Orlando, Florida, and im so excited! while I'm sure a lot of you going will have to travel, it's nice having it 25 minutes away from my house . Just wanted to see if anyone's going. I'll be present for both days and plan on going to the after party afterward on Saturday. We should all get together and have a lil polycount mafia going on in the corner

m4dcow

I completely forgot about this, but I'm still undecided on whether I'm going. I also live close by so I still have some time to decide.

What sort of pass are you getting?

[SF]Three9

I got the 150 pass; the one that gets you into everything except any master classes. They now have a paypal pay later feature with (i think, don't quote me), but the first 6 months there is no interest. I still haven't paid a penny for my ticket yet.

I really hope people see this and post; I remember someone made a thread for Evolve CG last year...after the event had passed lol. M4dcow you should go! I mean, ontop of it hopefully being as cool as last year, there is a game room for prizes and a party you get into for free Saturday night .

Plus, how can you not be excited to see Manny and his lil hat he wears ...He came to our campus (UCF campus downtown) to speak and someone asked the typical "how did you set yourself apart" question, and his response without even pausing to think was "I was a badass."...One day, I'll be a badass, and I'll wear a cool hat too

m4dcow

For me it's deciding on whether to bail on current plans to attend this, but it seems like i might :P.

I graduated from FIEA in December and had 2 opportunities to go to Manny's presentations, the first one I spaced out and forgot (but it was in the weeks preceding our vertical slice presentations). The second time was after I graduated and my roommate who is in the new cohort told me about it after it happened.

BadgerBaiter

Is this a yearly event at the same place? Might be able to plan it into visiting my friend in Fl next summer if so....

m4dcow

I think this is it's 3rd year, it was in south Florida in previous years. So it will probably be in Florida next year too, but I'm not sure how soon they announce dates and location.

[SF]Three9

Come on I'm sure plenty of people are going! Let us know!

Oniram

this may actually be the last one. the first two were in Ft. Lauderdale, and there was always the concerning issue that no one got their tickets until the last week. i had heard some talk about this being the last one either for good, or at least until 2013, because for the most part, the host of the event, Manny Fragelus, has had to dip into his pockets for each one of these events. He gets kind of pissed off about it usually, but for the most part people pull through in the last week and ticket sales almost double.

this year however, im not going. the first year was "meh" with some awesome people saying "look at my amazing work.. now here's what you need to do to establish yourself." and went on long rants about putting ports together and applying for jobs n whatnot.

last years was amazing. the guys from Naughty Dog, Blizzard, and Dreamworks put some insane vids together on creating levels and characters. it was a really awesome experience.

this year however, the lineup seems to be geared a bit more toward animation and film as opposed to games. so i wont want to drive 3 hours and pay for a hotel for that. luckily tho they offer the online version of the conference, where u can stream the videos for a week after the event. kind of nice.

generally tho, it is a great event. its one of those ones thats trying to build itself up, but i guess money is just too big of a factor for it to continue. even if the event itself doesnt happen, i think they should still do the annual challenges. this years wasnt as hyped up as the last one, but it was still a good competition. i had 2 friends of mine place 2nd and 3rd in the character portion, one friend placed 1st in the env comp, and another friend placed 3rd in the animation challenge.

[SF]Three9

Yea i was going to enter the comp but didn't have enough time from when i heard about it and the deadline, was going to do Robin Hood!

Last I heard they had no plans of canceling any future ones. Last years was suppose to be the last, but a surprisingly large turnout kept Manny shooting for future events. He spoke at my campus I wanna say something like 2 or 3 months ago and sounded pretty confident about future events

Oniram

yeah. he spoke at mine as well a few months back, but i was talking with one of ladies from career services who had been on a conference call with Manny and a few others who are helping with the event, and he said that if he continues the event, it will not happen again until 2013

[SF]Three9

aw man that sucks . The East coast needs more events like this and more industry!

[SF]Three9

dont want to spam this thread, so I'll give 'er one last bump :P

[SF]Three9

Wow...whoever didn't go to Evolve CG you are totally missing out...today was amazing, and the after party was ridiculous...nothing better than partying directly with big name people the entire night

BadgerBaiter

Well, if it looks like there will be one next year, I shall go, my buddy lives in Fort Pierce and I could get it to coincide with a visit

Razgriz

There won't be one next year, unfortunately. There just aren't enough people going. I didn't go to the first two, but it seemed like a fairly small crowd. A friend said that full sail, the place it was hosted, didn't even get any good advertisement until a week so before it took place, which doesn't seem to make any sense.

I honestly found lectures ranging from subpar to decent, but nothing past what you couldn't get in a good gnomon dvd. I felt Josh Nobles presentation to be the strongest - not a great deal of new information, but I learned a bit and he was a neat guy to talk to. All around I felt it was worth it, if only to chat with guys like Shane and Manny.