Edinboro University of Pennsylvania Animation Department ranks among best in U.S.

Some good news from the Edinboro Universtiy Alumni Newsletter:

"Edinboro University animation program ranks among best in U.S."

(my photo from CTN Expo in Burbank CA)

My second old Alma Mater Edinboro made a mark in the Top 25 East Coast Animation Schools and Colleges for 2022, going up against heavy hitters such as School of Visual Arts, New York, New York and Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. Edinboro is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

Nice to know the 'Boro's is still slugging it out, in spite of the Covid lockdown, and the university being merged into the new Pennsylvania Western University with Clarion and California (PA) universities. While my career didn't go as far as distinguished alumni as Bill Waldman or David Filoni, I'm still grateful to Edinboro and the teachers there.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/cal-u-clarion-edinboro-pennsylvania-western-university/

 https://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/top-25-animation-schools-and-colleges-east-coast-2022-college-rankings?bbeml=tp-C46_VSp1tEOjDZGH79Bxrg.jHRPclhkYSkmX4fZFEa4tcA.ruNUcP2v3eEe6VooTH0KwzQ.lL5bAGYhnBU-JVBjexw41pQ

 https://www.edinboro.edu/news/edinboro-animation-ranking-2022.php?bbeml=tp-C46_VSp1tEOjDZGH79Bxrg.jHRPclhkYSkmX4fZFEa4tcA.ruNUcP2v3eEe6VooTH0KwzQ.ld5bES-qOg0KxyCl7z4_MOA

https://www.edinboro.edu/academics/schools-and-departments/cahss/departments/art/index.php

https://www.edinboro.edu/ 

USC's end of the year show - First Frame - 2018

 Phenomenal student work from USC's animation department! A bit chopped up so the viewer only gets a tiny taste of each project, but worth further investigation. Try the Vimeo link below if the embedded video is still blocked.

Trailer First Frame 2018 from Hench DADA on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/263436786

Planet Dolan

Stumbled across this on YouTube...

(copyright Super Planet Dolan)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3D_ZXHwaKekKwbO_LM48OQ

On this channel, Danger Dolan, and his cute kitty pal Shima answer 10 of your most burning questions about just about anything... as long as it's some common sense question that can have a weird answer.

Dolan, who reminds me of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, will come up with the most absurd answers to obvious questions. Shima can be counted on to come up with clear, scientific explanations... In other words, the right answer.

Have a good Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy!

Behind the Scenes of Zootopia: Gnomon Alumni Panel

It was a packed house in the old Quonset hut auditorium as the Gnomon School of Visual Effects hosted five Zootopia artists, sponsored by Walt Disney Animation Studios. While the buzz for Zootopia may have cooled off a bit, the advances Disney has made should give them quite a lot of momentum at the box office for a while.

https://www.gnomon.edu/community/events/behind-the-scenes-of-zootopia

 Alberto Abril (Animator), Chika Saito (Modeler), Diana Zeng (Lighter), Dylan Ekren (Modeler), and Tyler Bolyard (Look Development Artist) each spoke about their time working on Zootopia, and their learning experiences at Gnomon and the other schools they attended.

They all seemed to have enjoyed working at Disney, and I must admit, I kind of envy their talents and the opportunities that they have had.

Studies of animals in the wild were shown, along with a pencil test of Walt Disney's Robin Hood. Special plugins for Maya, such as Xgen were discussed, along with lighting strategies, not to mention good old-fashioned hand drawn art for development.

Just the development of fur and hair seemed to consume a lot of time and resources. There was some "recycling" as one basic species model of a gazelle/deer was tweaked with different horns, fur color and different outfits to create extra background crowd characters.

(my photo from CTN 2015, copyright Disney)

Unfortunately, there will be no streaming of this presentation due to copyright issues. 

However, I did do a little digging to bring some examples of their work.

Here is Chika Saito’s Modeling Demo Reel 11/30/12

https://vimeo.com/55329417

 Alberto Abril's reel,

 http://www.albertoabril.com/

 Diana Zeng's blog,

 http://dianajzeng.blogspot.com/

 Dylan Ekren's work,

https://www.artstation.com/artist/dekren

And Tyler Bolyard's Facebook,

https://www.facebook.com/tyler.bolyard 

Just being on the grounds at Gnomon is always interesting. Their campus is the old Television Center Studio lot in Hollywood. The buildings are characters in themselves. There's a mixture 1930's and 1940's architecture that has a "Diesel Punk" feel to it. Add in the extra plumbing and cables with Gnomon's high tech interiors, you have some cool, gritty movie exteriors right there.

I'm trying to find out more about the history of the place, but it's past seems kind of murky right now. Which makes it that more interesting. UPDATE:

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16421261/6311-Romaine-St-Los-Angeles-CA/

The original home of Technicolor, set in a 1920's Art Deco style. There has to be more than a few ghosts haunting that building.

25 Animation Related Blogs that will explain more about animation

Animation Re-creation is number 16 on the "25 Animation Related Blogs will explain more about animations" on boredwiki.com

(copyright Time/Warner)

 http://boredwiki.com/list-of-animation-blogs/

Posted by Alicia Mehra.

Many thanks!

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus - CXC

Managed to stumble on this while channel surfing in Ohio before Christmas.

Very good discussion.

Will have to get back down to Columbus someday soon.

Learn Maya in 1 hour - Speed Course

Courtesy of CG Meetup

                     

http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/learn-maya-in-1-hour/

Siggraph 2015

Didn't get there in time for any seminars or movies, but lots of learning opportunities for students to make their own toys, robots, gadgets, etc. Young people are doing more with laser cutters and 3D printers.

 

Also demos on more total immersion with virtual reality systems. The vendor floor was smaller than usual, but the Foundry, Autodesk , Mocha and some pipeline system companies were there.

Matthew Luhn from Pixar at Woodbury University

All day session at Woodbury today with storyboard supervisor Matthew Luhn from Pixar. Some great stuff on storyboarding, especially when he shows how vital it is to hammer out a story before you commit to millions of dollars in animation. Matthew covered things from not crossing the line of action to "stacking" a shot. I'll try to update this post with more details asap. Glad I made it:)

(copyright Matthew Luhn/VanArts)

http://matthewluhnstory.com/cartoons/

http://www.vanarts.com/

Teachers as Performers NPR

This a bit off the track, but I agree with the premise: While we need rubrics and learning outcomes, students also need the intangibles.

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=343729767

I would quietly quote Mr. Incredible to myself before I would walk in the classroom:

 (copyright Pixar/Disney)

"It's Showtime!"