Yesterday August Packard ’27 took over H101 for “Deleting the Default Cube,” an artist talk about their path through animation and their recent trip to Blender Conference 2026 in Amsterdam.

August`s story includes working as an animation assistant intern with faculty member Dirk Tiede, to hearing about Dirk’s presentation at last year’s conference, to spending a summer on research and grant applications that led to Montserrat’s Professional Development Grant. Their animated short Eye Of The Needle, starring a very determined tomato pin cushion named Guy, was also selected for the Suzanne Awards film festival at this year’s conference.

Thank you, August, for sharing your process with us, and thanks to everyone who came out (and to the snacks for doing their part)!