Digital Animation Programs: Three School Profiles
Sheridan College, California Institute of the Arts, The University of Southern California
Everyone knows the digital animator is currently a hot commodity. Here is how these three established schools are meeting the challenge of the new media age. Whether through the acquisition of grants, software and hardware or key faculty appointments, Universities and Art Schools are aggressively preparing students for the ever-changing future.
Sheridan College: School Of Animation And Design
by Robin King
Directors: Robin G. King and Scott Turner
Next year, Sheridan College will celebrate thirty
years of classical and computer animation training and education. Known
internationally for the quality and contribution of its graduates to the
professional field, Sheridan has concentrated on educating animators in
the fundamental skills which ensure high quality film and television productions.
Students
at Sheridan College learning to use Silicon Graphics equipment.
A Long Tradition
The Classical Animation Program was started
at Sheridan in 1967. During the 1970s, the curriculum was developed by
a number of internationally-acclaimed faculty including Bill Mathews, a
Disney animator. He helped to develop the classical style at Sheridan in
the 1970s and has just retired from Disney. Many faculty return from the
"real world" on a regular basis, as do graduates. Their experience
and skill enriches the programs.
In 1980, Robin King started the Computer Animation Program which is a graduate
level, eight month program and the first of its kind in Canada. This program
has pioneered the development of teaching methods for artists, designers
and animators using computer technology for animation and graphics production.
Because of the program's early start and the high quality of the graduates,
many now have senior positions in animation companies around the world.
In addition to reinforcing the critical skills of traditional animation,
students are well grounded in character design, motion and animation dynamics,
and creative concept development.
Sheridan has graduated several students who have either won or been nominated
for Academy Awards. In 1984, classical animation graduate John Minnis made
a graduating film called Charade for which he later won the Academy
Award for Best Animated Short. Another graduate, Steve Williams, who developed
computer animation techniques for Jurassic Park and Terminator
2, was nominated for his work on The Mask in the Special
Effects category in June 1995. Steve's first co-production, Spawn, is
about to be released this month.
Another senior character animation supervisor, James Strauss, was nominated
this year for Dragonheart in which he and eleven other Sheridan
grads breathed magic into the voice of Sean Connery as Draco, the Dragon.
ILM employs over thirty Sheridan graduates who have worked on films such
as Casper, Jumanji, Coo, Contact, Disclosure, Hook, Hunt for Red October,
Forrest Gump, Star Trek (First Contact), Star Wars, Twister and the
recent hit Men in Black. ILM has Sheridan grads among its animation
staff in both film, television commercials and Lucas Interactive divisions.
Many other graduates can be found at other animation companies such as
Disney Feature Animation, Disney Television, Pixar, Warner Bros., Fox,
Pacific Data Images, Dreamworks, Sony Imageworks, Mainframe and other companies
as far afield as Hawaii, Hong Kong and Singapore. This year they have commanded
starting salaries averaging over $75,000 US with the top graduates being
offered six figures!
A New Centre
This spring, The Ontario Government announced a funds-matching grant
of $12 million to Sheridan for a new Centre for Animation, Design and Emerging
Technologies. The College is now in the process of designing and developing
a $24 million centre which will advance animation, design and media technologies
and production. It will have both educational and research and development
capability, and will be equipped for broad band, interactive communications
and production. Private sector support and partnerships will form a significant
support environment for this new venture.
Sheridan offers its three year classical program in two forms, three seven
month "years," or over three summers in its International program.
The Computer program consists of either one eight month period starting
in September or a full-fees International program ($16,000) which starts
in January and runs until August.
Currently, Sheridan has over 2,400 applicants each year for 110 places
in its Classical Animation Program and about 600 applicants for the 30
places in its Computer Animation Program (applicants to the program must
have at least three years post secondary experience to apply, although
no computer experience is required). This year a new major, Technical Direction,
will be offered to exceptionally experienced students within the Computer
Animation Program and will deal with motion analysis, advanced production,
special effects and high-end production techniques.
Robin G. King, Director of the School of Animation and Design has been
designing and developing creative educational programs in the arts and
technology for over 25 years. He has lectured extensively around the world
in aspects of creativity, computer graphics and emerging technologies.
He will also be a Panelist at SIGGRAPH in August discussing the relationship
between education and business.
The California Institute of the Arts
by Michael Scroggins
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
is a four-year, fully accredited institution. The school includes all of
the visual and performing arts within six schools: Art, Critical Studies,
Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater.
A computer generated image by
CalArts' student, Albert Agazarian.
The CalArts Computer Animation Lab was founded
in 1983 by the Dean of the School of Film/Video, the late Ed Emshwiller.
The Lab began with a single Cubicomp system but soon grew to include an
SGI IRIS 3130 with Wavefront Technologies software. Today the department
is comprised of a full suite of tools including 15 SGI Indigo2 IMPACT workstations
running Softimage/3D Extreme, Pixar Renderman, and Alias/Wavefront Power
Animator and Composer.
A Mixing of Schools
The Lab is a major resource for educating students from throughout
CalArts in the art of computer graphic animation. It functions as both
a teaching and production facility. The majority of students working in
the Lab come from the School of Film/Video's Experimental Animation and
Character Animation Programs and the curriculum reflects the specific needs
of those disciplines; yet it is general enough to serve students working
within the wide range of theory and practice found in other CalArts programs.
The primary mission of the lab is not simply technical training, but the
application of that training to art making. Students are expected to initiate,
develop, and produce independent projects as a major aspect of their education.
A separate Computer Animation Program has not been established at CalArts
since students are able to apply the extensive knowledge gained in their
core programs to the particular concepts, tools, and techniques learned
through the Computer Animation Lab curriculum.
Faculty and Alumni
Faculty teaching advanced courses in the Lab are drawn from working
professionals and include artists such as Kevin Geiger, John Goodman, and
Greg Griffith.
Kevin Geiger received his BFA degree in Painting and Sculpture from the
Cleveland Institute of Art in 1989 and pursued graduate studies in Computer
Graphics and Animation at the Ohio State University's Advanced Computing
Center for the Arts and Design. His work in electronic media has appeared
in the following settings: The VIPER `94 International Film and Video Festival,
the MuestraI International de Video de Cadiz, Prix ars Electronica `94
& `95, Videonale, and SIGGRAPH `94 & `95. Kevin worked as a CGI
Technical Director for Boss Film Studios where he created computer-generated
creature effects for the movie Species. He is currently employed
as a CGI Animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation where he is working
on Dino.
John Goodman received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
and has been working in the field of computer animation and design for
over seven years. He is currently working at Rhythm & Hues Studios
where his projects have included commercial work for Samsung Intl., Nippon
Telephone/Telegraph, and Fox Entertainment, as well as game development
for the Sony/Playstation.
Greg Griffith received a BFA from CalArts in 1990 and has been a member
of the Computer Generated Imagery group at Walt Disney Feature Animation
for over six years. He has contributed to such Disney moments as the ballroom
sequence in Beauty and the Beast and the wildebeest stampede in
The Lion King. In addition, his credits include The Rescuers
Down Under, Aladdin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
There are more successful CalArts animation program graduates working in
a broad range of filmmaking than could ever be listed here. Among the well
known Character Animation Program alumni are John Lasseter and Pete Docter,
who collaborated in the making of Toy Story, and Tim Burton, director
of Mars Attacks, Batman, and Batman Returns, all of
which incorporated computer animation. The well known Experimental Animation
Program alumni are: Henry Selick, who most recently directed James And
The Giant Peach, which utilized computer graphic imagery, Larry Cuba,
who made the classic abstract computer animated film Calculated Movements;
and Christine Panushka, who recently directed the creation of the internationally
acclaimed website, Absolut Panushka, which provides a broad overview
of experimental animation.
The CalArts Computer Animation Lab has been supported by generous donations
from SGI, Softimage, Pixar, Rhythm & Hues, RFX, ILM, The Ahmanson Foundation,
The Roy Disney Family Foundation, The Norton Family Foundation, The Jones
Foundation, and Twentieth Century Fox.
Michael Scroggins has been a CalArts faculty member since 1978 and Director
of the Computer Animation Labs since 1995. His animation works have been
widely exhibited internationally including screenings at the Centre George
Pompidou (Paris), Union of Filmmakers (Moscow), Seibu Ginza (Tokyo), and
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles).
The University of Southern California
by Dr. Richard Weinberg
The USC School of Cinema-Television has created a new division to educate graduate students and conduct research in the expanding and broadly defined fields of animation and digital arts. The Division of Animation and Digital Arts is at the cutting edge of animation and new media, exploring what is still to be imagined and producing work that expands the frontiers of the art of animation.
The computer lab at USC.
The Division of Animation and Digital Arts offers
an undergraduate Minor as well as a Master of Fine Arts Degree (MFA) in
Film, Video, and Computer Animation. The MFA program explores the history
and theory of the artform while emphasizing hands-on production of original
creative work using traditional and contemporary media. While embracing
traditional forms, the program strongly encourages innovation and experimentation
and emphasizes imagination, creativity, and critical thinking.
The recently revised curriculum offers a wide range of courses taught by
internationally acclaimed artists. During the first two years of the program,
courses include film, video and computer animation history, theory and
production techniques, experimental, character and computer animation,
critical studies, life drawing and creative writing. The MFA degree program
culminates in the third year with Directed Research and a Thesis project,
wherein the student demonstrates mastery of the art of animation through
the creation of an ambitious, original project.
Extensive Facilities
The facilities of the Division are extensive, with approximately 1
computer per student. Hardware includes Silicon Graphics O2s, Macintosh,
Sun and Intel workstations, a Solitaire Cine II film recorder, and video
and film editing systems. Software includes Alias/Wavefront, Softimage,
Pixibox and many other packages. The School recently became the first university
in the world to host a Quantel Domino workstation for 35mm film digital
compositing and special effects. These facilities, when combined with the
School's extensive departments of film, television and sound production
provide an extremely broad range of capabilities for professional quality
artistic exploration.
The School of Cinema-Television, located in downtown Los Angeles, is in
close proximity to many of the leading studios and the major art museums
of Southern California. This provides students with a wide range of opportunities
for exposure to the industry and contemporary fine arts, including internships
and employment.
The Faculty
Full-time faculty of the USC Division of Animation and Digital Arts
include:
Mar Elepano - Basic Motion Picture Techniques for Animators, Animation
Production II, Directed Studies
Mar Elepano has been teaching at the USC School of Cinema/Television in
the MFA in Animation Program since 1993. He also serves as the administrative
assistant and production supervisor for the program. He has been involved
with Visual Communications, Inc., a Los Angeles based Asian-American community
media arts group, since 1986 doing media workshops. From 1988-94, he was
an artist-in residence at different Los Angeles high schools creating media
pieces with young people. He also did similar workshops at the California
Institution for Men in Chino from 1992-94. His film, Winter, has
been exhibited at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival.
Christine Panushka - Introduction to Film, Video, and Computer Animation,
History of Animation, Expanded Animation, and Animation Production III
Christine Panushka is a filmmaker/animator whose awards include Grand Prize,
Aspen FilmFest 1986 for Night-time Fears and Fantasies: A Bed-time Tale
for a Young Girl and a Golden GateAward (Best of Category, Non-narrative)
at the San Francisco International Film Festival 1985 for The Sum of
Them. Her works have been screened internationally at such festivals
as Hiroshima `85; First Japanese International Film Festival; International
Animated Film Festival, Stuttgart, Germany; Lucca 16, Milan; and Toronto
`84, Canadian International Animation Festival. An accomplished printmaker
and visual artist, she brings to her teaching and her art an innovative
point of view cited by critics as "completely original and capable
of affecting both cerebral and sensual complexities" and placing her
"in the front rank of contemporary animation." Currently, Panushka
is working as a freelance animator as well as producing three of her own
films. She received her MFA from CalArts.
Vibeke Sorensen - Animation Department Seminar, Contemporary Topics in
Animation, Directed Studies, Master Class, Master's Thesis
Vibeke Sorensen is Professor and Chair of the Division of Animation and
Digital Arts. She is widely known as an innovative artist working with
video, film, computer graphics and animation systems. Her work has received
many honors and has been shown internationally on television, in galleries,
museums, and live performance. In 1989, she received a National Science
Foundation grant with Dr. Lynn Teneyck, SDSC/UCSD computational biologist,
for research in Interactive Stereoscopic Animation. They created an interactive
video animation system, and Sorensen produced MAYA, a stereoscopic
computer-animated work that has been exhibited internationally. Panini
Stickers, a recent, neo-Dadaist work made in collaboration with Professors
Ed Harkins and Phil Larson of UCSD's Dept. of Music, combines live action
and computer backgrounds. It was exhibited at the ACM/SIGGRAPH '95 Electronic
Theatre, on Television Espanola (Madrid), in the Kwenju Biennale in Seoul,
S. Korea, and ISEA96 in Rotterdam, Holland. She is currently a Sr. Fellow
at the San Diego Supercomputer Center as well as a Zumberge Fellow at USC.
Her current research in new technologies in the arts is supported by the
Annenberg Center at USC and the Intel Corporation.
Richard Weinberg, Ph.D. - Founder and Director, USC Computer Animation
Laboratory, Directed Research, Directed Studies
Richard Weinberg founded the USC Computer Animation Laboratory in 1985,
and is a Research Associate Professor in the School of Cinema-Television.
His career has included working for Control Data, NASA, Lockheed, Cray
Research and co-chairing SIGGRAPH '84 prior to joining the faculty at USC.
His interests include scientific visualization, animation systems and Japan.
He has published in varied disciplines such as neurosurgery visualization,
graphics hardware design, space shuttle simulation and content production.
Dr. Weinberg is involved extensively with corporate relations and technology
acquisition at USC.
Contact Information: Division of Animation and Digital Arts School of Cinema-Television
University of Southern California University Park, Los Angeles 90089-2211
(213) 740-3985 http://felix.usc.edu/index.html
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