Going to write down my thoughts. Even if I haven't been in these forums for such a long time, I've been thinking about how I've gotten here. I had to write an essay on how the thought of my future career has changed for the past 18 years. Believe it or not, Mine-imator had a huge impact on this.
I found Mine-imator when researching Minecraft animation programs after I had been inspired by Minecraft parodies back in 2012. Fast forward 2013, & I've found MI with a quick Google search. This was at the time when it was at v0.6.2. Now it's on, what, like 1.2.0? It's been improving with every update & I'm quite proud of how far it's come.
Animating in MI pushed me to be creative in a blocky world & honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Despite the 4-year hiatus I've had from it, I've learned from a lot of you here & other communities about myself. I did want to pursue to become a 3D animator or modeler, but realized that it wasn't meant to be. I needed a career in STEM, so I thought of "What if I create the programs that make MI?"
This is what got me into coding. Now, I'm a computer science major, going on to transfer out of CC into a UC to become some combination of computer science & environmental science.
Would I have gotten into programming if I haven't found out about Mine-imator? Probably, but I wouldn't have gotten into it as young as I have. Perhaps I would've chosen the biology route first, & find out later it wasn't for me. Or perhaps medicine, as I desired to be a doctor when I was younger, but find out that it also wasn't my route to partake.
So, this is how I'll express gratitude for MI, its developers, & the community. Thank you all for the past 7 years.
Probably this won't be seen by many, but if you do see this, thank you for reading & being a part of a wonderful community. What's your story to share?
(Also, mods if I posted this on the wrong category, feel free to move or delete it. There's some things that have changed around these parts haha)