Thanks for asking.... I love the new job. Yep, I'm working in video and since the department I'm in is pretty new, I'm able to coerce them into using cgi animations pretty often. It's a great chance to force some cool graphics stuff onto an otherwise pretty stodgy atmosphere. The above is the endframe of an animation I did for the open of a quarterly news update show here in California.

Even as I love the new job, I love the new city more. San Francisco is such a great place to be -- so much more alive than Phoenix ever was. And there's a thriving CGI community here. It's really exciting. I've met folks here who do 3D work, know AfterEffects backwards and forwards, all that. It's nice to be able to have a casual conversation in a cafe with someone about the finer points of boolean operations and not feel out of place.

Happy New Year, Brent, and everyone. I wish everyone the best in 2002.

• Dex