Today I was happy to introduce my cousin, Ria Lu, to some of Davao’s best computer graphics artists. Over coffee and later on dinner, we had hours of animated discussions ranging from industry secrets to hilarious anecdotes. Christopher Cubos of Fwendz.com, among other things, and Kenneth Ong, my erstwhile partner in one of Davao’s earliest web design outfits and now holds his own as a respected commercial graphics designer, were in attendance. Too bad, though, that Ray Rubio of Cubepixels wasn’t able to join us. I’d also invited Ray because he was a first-prize awardee by Corel in an international contest this prestigious brand held a few years back.
Ria, originally from Davao but now lives and works in Manila, studied 3D animation (even including computer game development) in Japan from 2003. She was a scholar of Japan’s Monbusho (Ministry of Education) for three years, and –thankfully!– she is back in the country for good to contribute to the development of our local animation industry. And hopefully, she will decide to get involved in Davao’s in particular very soon…. Currently Ria is teaching part-time in an animation school in Makati.
In fact, Ria is excited about Davao. One concrete plan that’s now taking shape (and after only a few hours of talking) is to immediately come up with showcase pieces. One of which is to spice up my blog! I have fond hopes for this, but for now it’s a secret plan. I will only discuss this here once it’s already up and at ‘em! Nothing revolutionary, but I believe that it could set a snazzy trend. 
Other ideas have already started to gestate, and I hope that it will spread like a virus and infect all CG artists here in Davao. The reason why I introduced Ria to Kenneth and Christopher was because she asked me to help her touch base with local artists. And according to my two colleagues, there are quite a number of practising CG artists, students and enthusiasts here.
Hopefully this will be the "trade wind" that will breathe life once more into the IT and e-services industry of our great city. A wind that, instead of carrying Davao’s talent to far shores, will bring them and more back home.
[...] Dabawenyo is proud to announce the collaboration between cousins Blogie the blogger and Ria the anime guru. Through my mental meanderings, cousin Ria has created Dave, the blog’s mascot of sorts. Dave [...]