Sande Scoredos , the exec director of technical training and artist development for Sony Pictures Imageworks since 1996, died on Saturday, Aug. 14.
Throughout her lifetime, Scoredos combined a brilliant artistic sensibility with a passion for technology, computer graphics and education. Indeed, thousands of artists throughout the world of animation and vfx have benefitted from her training and mentorship.
Under her guidance, the Sony Pictures Imageworks training program offered more than 50 courses, including life drawing, sculpting, acting and special lectures, as well as specialized tasked-oriented classes for every aspect of production, including animation, effects, color and lighting, compositing and various production management methods. Supporting a range of over twenty complex disciplines and pipelines for vfx and animation, the training allows new hires and seasoned professionals the opportunity to experience the newest tools and methods used in real productions. Using the teaching tools and technology and with a staff of production trainers, adjunct faculty and experienced subject matter experts, the training and artist development program offers a combination of hands-on classroom training, production shots, self-paced online tutorials and live webcasts delivered directly to the desktop.
Scoredos structured training and artist development at Imageworks to enable animators and effects artists to perfect the latest commercial and proprietary animation and rendering tools and to explore visual storytelling. Scordeos came to Imageworks in 1996 to set up the training department, having held a similar post at Rhythm &Hues. As Manager of Training for Wavefront Technologies (one of the founders of high-end animation and visualization software), Scoredos designed the worldwide training program and curriculum, instructing professionals in the use of 3D computer graphics and animation for broadcast, engineering, gaming and scientific visualization.
Imageworks academic outreach program, IPAX, was created in 2004, under the leadership of Scoredos, with the intent to educate faculty and help structure curricula at leading academic institutions in an effort to develop future talent who will contribute to the overall growth of the visual effects and animation industry.
She taught computer graphics for production at the studio and university level and as a UCLA graduate, she works with local educational programs program and also teaches a yearly production course at MIT. Scoredos served on various industry and academic advisory boards and was an active ACM SIGGRAPH committee member and chaired the SIGGRAPH 2001 Computer Animation Festival and was the Curator Chair for the SIGGRAPH 2008 Computer Animation Festival.
Scoredos, who was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is survived by her husband, John, her sister Perri MacHugh Silver, who lives in Secretary, Maryland, and her beloved companions, Tatkersertok (Toki) and HR PufandStuf (Puffy).
A memorial service is planned on Saturday, Aug. 21 at 4:00 p.m. at the Conejo Mountain Memorial Park (2052 Howard Road, Camarillo, CA 93012; 805-491-2350). A tribute to Scoredos at Sony Pictures Imageworks will be announced.
The family requests that donations be made in lieu of flowers to The Angeles Clinic Foundation, 2001 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 560W, Santa Monica, CA, 90404.
