7/20/13 The Departure from Ringling

 Blucifer is getting to be a familiar friend this summer. After work Friday I was back at the airport and winging my way to Tampa. 

Mel the Mule Deer was waiting to get me to hot, humid Florida after midnight.

I have to say, there a lot to be said for having a hotel IN the airport. I was able to disembark and walk to the check-in desk in under five minutes and in bed as soon as possible. It still meant only 6 hours of sleep before I had to get up, get the rental, and drive to Sarasota, but it meant I could leave my bag in the hotel room, walk down a flight and get my car, and return the same way: no shuttles, no extra time getting to a hotel and back. 

I got to Ringling at 9:00 and Sammi gave me the grand tour. 

Here she is in her element: the Computer Animation and Game Design floor. The walls are covered with movie posters signed by Ringling Alumni who went on to work for all the major animation studios. 

Sammi shows off Maya, the $3600 software that is the cream of the animation tools. 

At one of the old school, hand drawn animation desks that are everywhere. 

In the Game Art Design studio, showing off her Sculture building. The paper on the walls are filled with the building of Ringling Campus, from which they create a first-person shooter game. She also managed to tuck a Tardis on campus during the game design. 

Sammi in front of her dorm. Note the fog on the lens. We'd step out of the air conditioning and into the sauna and the camera just couldn't keep up. 

At her dorm room

The jungle climate does wonders for the hibiscus. I am not a hibiscus. I remember intellectually how oppressive that humidity is, but getting back into it? Totally, crushingly brain numbed. Zombies have more personality than I do after walking around in it. 

One of the Tarzan trees on campus. Also rains spiders on you if you shake the vines. 

Walking around the courtyard at North Campus

Over on south campus (most of the traditional arts are over there) at Sammi's Figure Drawing class. 

Her game design building in the flesh, er, mortar

We had a closing ceremony in here back on the North side before packing her up and out and heading to Universal. 

The dining hall straight ahead, library to the left. 

 We got her giant box taped up and brought down to the UPS guy, back up to the dorm to try and straighten up as much as possible, and back down to turn in keys. Once she handed over her access, we realized we'd rolled her luggage down and had no way back up to say goodbye to Emily and Marc and Sue. Sorry guys! On the way to the car, we ran into the President of Ringling, who'd spoken at the ceremony and chatted with him for a few minutes before hitting the road for a bite of lunch and the two hour trip to Orlando.