Sony Pictures Imageworks president Tim Sarnoff announced the presentation of scholarships to six students currently enrolled at academic institutions affiliated with the Imageworks Professional Academic Excellence (IPAX) program.
Scholarship recipients are Alena Bejenaroli of Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Tony Cabrera of Ringling School of Art & Design, Amy Hitt of De Paul University School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems, Ji Young Kim of Pratt Institute, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour of Stanford and Vidal Perez of the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.
Each scholarship winner is currently enrolled full-time at their IPAX member school and is pursuing the goal of a professional career in animation, visual effects or technology.
Under the leadership of Imageworks' exec director of Training & Artist Development, Sande Scoredos, The IPAX program was created in 2005 to educate faculty and structure curricula at the country's leading academic institutions in an effort to develop future talent who will contribute to the overall growth of the visual effects and animation industry.
"Since establishing the IPAX program, we have found that working with educators to establish specialized curriculum-based programs to train this industry's future artists, designers and engineers has been enormously successful," said Sarnoff. "One year later, it's very gratifying to be able to reward the top students of these programs, our future leaders, with scholarships to continue developing the necessary skills to become the next Ken Ralston or John Dykstra in the world of visual effects, technology and animation."
With academic environments attempting to simulate complex proprietary "pipelines," only to be faced with the dilemma of the tools and techniques constantly evolving to accommodate real-world production requirements, the importance of maintaining an active connection between the education community and a production environment through a program such as IPAX became very clear.
IPAX also offers member schools a yearly review of curricula to ensure that students are exposed to the latest developments in technology and techniques used not only at Imageworks, but also throughout the visual effects and digital animation industries. In addition, Imageworks offers fellowships to IPAX members to provide the opportunity to integrate faculty into the Imageworks production environment, attend guest lectures and training sessions and advise member schools on course content.
IPAX is a professional development program designed to share, extend and expand the Imageworks knowledge base. By providing faculty of IPAX member schools the opportunity to attend in-house training programs and experience a working production environment, instructors can return valuable knowledge and skills to the classroom. In turn, The IPAX Scholarship Program encourages the best of each member school to continue his or her pursuit of a quality education and to enter the visual effects and animation industry.
Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. (www.imageworks.com) is an Academy Award-winning, state-of-the-art visual effects and character animation company dedicated to the art and artistry of digital production and character creation. The company has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars for its work on SPIDER-MAN 2 and the CG-animated short film THE CHUBBCHUBBS!, as well as nominations for SPIDER-MAN, HOLLOW MAN, STUART LITTLE and STARSHIP TROOPERS. Imageworks is a division of Sony Pictures Digital, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Ent.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
