Ringling College senior thesis film ‘Jinxy Jenkins and Lucky Lou’ by Michelle Kwon and Michael Bidinger named Best Computer Animated Short in the 42nd Annual SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival.
Ringling College of Art and Design student senior thesis film Jinxy Jenkins and Lucky Lou has won the award for Best Computer Animated Short in the SIGGRAPH 2015 42nd Annual Computer Animation Festival.
“The SIGGRAPH 2015 Computer Animation Festival is pleased to announce this year's winner for the Best Computer Animated Short award is Jinxy Jenkins and Lucky Lou, created by Michael Bidinger and Michelle Kwon of Ringling College of Art and Design,” said SIGGRAPH 2015 Computer Animation Festival co-chairs Mikki Rose and Joe Takai. “Out of almost 500 submissions in 2015, this work stood out for its artistry, heartwarming story, and obvious attention to detail in execution. Our jury absolutely loved this piece, as do we!”
Winning animators Michelle Kwon and Michael Bidinger created Jinxy Jenkins and Lucky Lou as their senior thesis project at Ringling College. Michelle and Michael expressed their gratification at receiving this award, saying, “Thank you, this is an incredible honor -- we never expected to receive such recognition. We are glad our film was enjoyed!”
Currently, Michelle Kwon is working in Visual Development as a 3D Generalist at JibJab and Michael Bidinger is a Fix/Crowds Animator at Pixar Animation Studios.
“The Ringling College Department of Computer Animation is very proud and excited to have Jinxy Jenkins and Lucky Lou chosen as Best Computer Animated Short for SIGGRAPH 2015,” said Jim McCampbell, Department Head, Computer Animation at Ringling College of Art & Design. “It is incredibly satisfying for us to see our students become such accomplished artists and animators, and to receive the level of recognition that this honor represents. Their talent, dedication, and hard work combined with our unique curriculum and faculty can certainly produce some amazing results.”
Held during SIGGRAPH 2015, August 9-13 in Los Angeles, CA, the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival is the leading annual festival for the world's most innovative, accomplished, and amazing digital film and video creators. An internationally recognized jury receives hundreds of submissions and presents the best work of the year. The Computer Animation Festival is recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival. Since 1999, several works originally presented in the Computer Animation Festival have been nominated for or have received a Best Animated Short Academy Award.
Ringling College of Art and Design will be exhibiting at SIGRAPH 2015 at booth #907 and will be holding a Ringling College alumni event on Aug. 11th with time and location to be announced. “We look forward to meeting both old friends and new at SIGGRAPH this year. This film, along with many other great examples of our student work, will be on display at our booth,” concluded McCampbell.
Source: Ringling College of Art and Design
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
