The School of Visual Arts in New York City is offering a peek at some of its outstanding in-progress thesis projects from the school’s various animation-driven departments.
Check out the following amazing thesis projects at School of Visual Arts!
SVA’s innovative and practical graduate, undergraduate, and continuing education programs teach both traditional craft and the latest technology skills necessary for students to meet the needs of the industry. Check out the work below to learn more about these amazing projects from the following departments:
BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects
Master the creative, technical, and narrative skills necessary to meet the growing needs for 3D computer animation and visual effects.
Kayleen Acosta, Gabriel Aguirre, and Josette Ortega teamed up to create a short film inspired by Dominican culture, Diablo Cojuelo. The short follows the daring Yadira, who loves to play her tambora drum and spread the joy of music. On her journey, she discovers the temple of Diablo Cojuelo, a fearsome devil of Domincan folklore. Through a shared love of music, Yadira discovers that Diablo Cojuelo is not fearsome, but misunderstood.
On working as a team, Josette says, “This project is bigger than the individual. In the beginning we all had different ideas, but in the end, we had to decide on one idea and support it. We all had to learn to work together as a team. Teamwork is the key to building trust, learning, and expressing your creativity.” This year’s senior class also had to face an unprecedented challenge to finish their thesis projects while adapting to the changes caused by the Coronavirus global pandemic. Gabriel adds, “After this year it's safe to say, be ready for anything. Luckily SVA's Computer Art department has a great community of people that makes a thesis manageable.”
Follow their progress on Instagram.
BFA Animation
Learn traditional and digital 2D techniques in this drawing intensive BFA program with an emphasis on storytelling.
Sucker Suckers by Mike Tona is a film culminating his work as a pixel artist and his experience growing as an animator. It is a spiritual successor to his sophomore year film, which was also a pixel art Western. The film follows two grown men stealing candy from babies - will karma be on their side?
Mike has been making pixel art for a lot longer than he has been drawing seriously, and that passion started with creating game art.
In Mike’s own words, “Pixel art as a medium has a much lower skill floor because of how it’s developed, which is a lot more like sculpting and painting than drawing necessarily. A lot of the time when I see things like video game homages online and on television, it doesn't exactly do the medium the proper justice, which is why I've been trying to learn ways to marry traditional animation and pixel art in a functional way. It's definitely a very different learning experience if you're used to doing everything traditionally for most of your education; things like having to manually anti-alias your work if necessary make you think about digital art in a completely different way once you start doing it effectively.”
MFA Computer Arts
A nationally ranked graduate program emphasizing creative experimentation and a multidisciplinary approach to making art with computers and emerging technologies.
In describing her film, My Pet Cat, Depression, Sara Zarul Azham notes, “My short portrays the life of a person with depression; this depression is manifested in the form of a cat. It explores the challenges of battling an internal war and to remind us that no one has to struggle alone.” The filmmaker experiments with blending digital 2D character animation with 3D elements. “Conceptually, I was looking for new ways to tell stories on heavy and complex topics. I want the story to feel like a warm blanket on a cold day; a light at the end of the tunnel, knowing you’re never alone.” When she’s not working hard on her thesis, Sara enjoys long walks, video games and maintaining her social media. You can follow her on Instagram.
