Californias’ Best Kept Secret

CSU SUMER ARTS 07

In terms of animation education, one of the best programs I have seen is CSU Summer Arts. When I got out of high school, I really wanted to learn stuff about animation. I think it was something I saw in an issue of Amiga World Magazine (I’m dating myself) that prompted me to check into a computer animation program that was being run by this organization. Back then, all the stars of computer animation gathered at Humboldt State University. We did films using swivel 3d. It was great! It was the first time I really knew that I wanted to make films. The CSU summer arts program has been running for 21 years now.. Lately, its been at Fresno State.

This Year I had the privilege of being a guest artist for the 5th time. Rick Vertolli has been the guiding light of the computer graphics program at CSU summer arts. The range of Guest Artists is really amazing. We had Mike Wellins, who is an independent film maker and director. He works up at Leica. Rusty Mills, who has been a Producer/Director for many projects including Pinky and the Brain and animaniacs. Brian Boyd, a TD from Pixar was their to talk about all aspects of color, lighting and also rigging. Chuck Harvey, who trained under Milt Kahl was also one of the guest artists. Chuck, having worked with the greats, had so much inspiring artwork to show. His collection of animation art blew everyone away. The subject of this years workshop was character development. The students got to take acting classes from a teacher from Second City and then develop that character using a CG rig. Things like Walk cycles, Pose Tests and Acting scenes are some of the work being done. The students were also lucky enough to get a tour of Pixar, which usually is impossible to do for a group this size.

Another great thing about summer arts is the fact that alot of other workshops are going on around the campus. There is an energy that really feels great. Students are working till 2 am. Its an intense experience. One thing that should be noted is that 80% of students receive some sort of scholarship. When you think about how expensive animation education can be, this is why Summer Arts is the best kept secret in animation education. The culmination of the work will be on Friday, the 27th of July 2007

-Andrew

Annecy Links

I was going to give an update about the stuff I saw at Annecy, but Cartoon Brew beat me to it. The most memorable film I saw was Peter and the Wolf by Suzie Templeton. It was a stop motion film. It was about 30 minutes. I was in awe watching the film. The overall feeling was great. The cinematography was also amazing. It was a different take on the classic story. One thing that really impressed me was the lack of expressions that Peter had. When I say he had a lack of expressions, I mean that they did not animate from one to the next. All you needed to know about what the character was feeling was told with one pose. I really felt for the characters in the film. Ultimately, the film won the Annecy Cristal award and audience favorite. I think this is due to the strong story. For me, it really does come down to how the story is told. I cant sit through alot of films because they just have no point. Ok, maybe they were done with some strange method, but I want to be transported. Peter and the Wolf did this for me. Here is the link from cartoon brew:

annecy on cartoonbrew

Annecy Info

For those of you who will be in Annecy this year, there will be a few Pixar talks related to Ratatouille. I’ll be talking on Wednesday the 13th. Two other animators, Ross Stevenson and Patty Kihm will also be presenting material. Click on the link below for more info

http://renderman.pixar.com/annecy.html

Congratulations "Virgin Voyage"!

I just wanted to tip my hat to Andrew Gordon, Scott Clark and all of their students who worked so hard on their class project last semester “Virgin Voyage” which recently took an award for “Audience Choice” at AAU’s 1st annual Epidemic Film Festival in San Francisco. For those not familiar with previous posts about this project, Scott and Andrew recorded improvisation performers and had their students put it through it’s paces, simulating a working production environment. They designed characters and sets, laid out the sequence, animated, and lit and rendered. It’s great to see innovative teaching and great student work get recognized. Congratulations again to everyone involved!

Adam

5 great student films

A bunch of us animators are going down to the Cal Arts producers show on Thursday. One of the people here at Pixar pointed us to some of the films that did not make it into the show. Here is a link to five films that were not accepted but are very well done. Congrats to the directors for making such great films.

5films