My Hard Drive Has Fallen to the Dark Side - But the Force is strong for Canadian Padawan accepted to Jedi Academy

Welcome to the rebellion.

Rebel commander Pincro Mator here (A fantastic Star Wars name if ever I heard one thanks to the handy Jedi name generator at blueharvest.net).

A surprise assault by devious, imperial forces (in the form of a sudden hard drive crash) have shut down this base's computer systems. A replacement system has been purchased from the Hutt and is being smuggled here under the noses of the empire. For the time being (about two weeks), we will be posting infrequently, if at all.

Thank you for your patience.

Before I do sign off though, a big congratulations goes out to 21 year-old Sheridan College Applied Arts and Animation student, Randolph Lizarda. Lizardo, herewith dubbed Dolvan Galia the Corellian by yet another Star Wars name generator, has just been accepted to this summer's Jedi Academy, George Lucas' prestigious and much-sought after internship at Lucasfilm Studios in San Francisco.

The Filipino Canadian Lizarda, er, Dolvan, was one of four applicants accepted out of 1, 500 applicants. With seven artistic brothers and sisters, Lizardo is used to competition. But after immigrating to Canada when he was 12, he found his own, unique direction.

"I was into it when I was little, then I got more into it in high school. In Grade 10, I took one of those career surveys to find out where you fit in. I fit into the animation industry," he said

The Toronto star shares details of the young padawan's journey here and here.

You can also check out his very impressive Sheridan portfolio here.

Animation is a challenging thing to do right. Making a character move is relatively easy. But it takes a real observation and judicious choices as to what subtle movements will convey emotions and desires and reatiosn to things around the character that bring an animationto life. Lizarda's portfolio has that in spades.

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