Students from four continents gathered Jan. 13 at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center to partake in online animation school Animation Mentor's first-ever graduation ceremony. Many flew for more than a day to meet their fellow graduates and mentors, all of whom are working studio animators, in the physical world for the first time.
"Sustainable Packaging" will become a major theme taught in Graphic Design classes at The Art Institute of California -- Los Angeles during the Winter Quarter 2007 starting Jan. 8, 2007, in Santa Monica, California.
Instructor Suzannah Mathur, who has a master's degree in Sustainable Product Design, will teach a class specifically on sustainable packaging to help make designers more knowledgeable about the choices they have. Mathur explains, "Packaging accounts for most of waste. [The content of a package] will break before its package does."
TD-Academy, an online school for technical directors, has launched its registration site. Students can pre-register now at www.td-academy.com/ and save 10% on tuition costs. Actual classes will start in the first quarter of 2007.
UCLA Extension is offering two new courses in animation. "Make It, Move It" is for designers and artists who want to make their art move. UCLA Extension is also offering a new online course that deconstructs 3D opening title sequences, on screens and graphic sequences.
Starting by storyboarding their animation, "Make It, Move It" students design and create a character, animal or object using mixed media and collage.
Vicon's Academy Award-winning motion-capture systems technology is being leveraged for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) studies, an important developing arena in the field of aeronautical engineering.
Animation Mentor, the online character animation school, has brought aboard management and production vet Lori Arnold as director of career services. Arnold will tap her solid experience supervising artists and working on 20 feature films to oversee the school's job placement program and enhance its already strong ties with the studios.
This new master course presented by UCLA Extension, Advanced Digital Painting, is for students who want to expand their digital painting and drawing capabilities.
Using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Corel Painter and working with instructors Chana Messer, Andrew Behla and Scot Drake, students improve their ability to use trace, lasso, pen and gradient mesh tools, custom brushes, layer masks, layer effects, adjustment layers, interface and palettes, brushes and movers.
Registration for the Gnomon School Winter Term 2007 (Jan. 8 through March 18) has begun. You can register online at www.gnomonschool.com, in person, via mail or by fax. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. If you would like to have a tour or get some advice on which courses to take, call 323-466-6663 to make an appointment with Michael "Santi" Santiago.
On Dec. 6, 2006, Professor Dr. Rasha al-Sabah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, performed the official inauguration ceremony of the SAE Institute Kuwait with a formal ribbon cutting ritual at the Institute in Shuwaikh.
The Gnomon Workshop offers four exceptional talents to its library of educational DVDs. Wendy Froud, an acclaimed artist who has worked on such films as LABYRINTH and THE DARK CRYSTAL, shares her techniques for sculpting a faery doll. David Krentz, a multitalented creature designer, discusses dinosaur anatomy and sketching. J.P. Targete, an award-winning book cover illustrator, demonstrates his entire process of developing a digital painting. Stephen Platt, a comicbook artist and concept designer, explains the art of comicbook penciling.
Spencer Nilsen is the new president/creative director for Expression College for Digital Arts, an accredited college that prepares students for careers in entertainment production and technology. Nilsen has been part of the Expression family since the school was founded in 1999 and has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of music, games, film, television and education.
The first 12 graduates of the University of Central Florida's new graduate videogame development program received their master's degrees during a ceremony Dec. 11, 2006, at the UCF Arena.
The Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy graduates enrolled in summer 2005, when UCF first offered the program. They spent 16 months preparing to become producers, artists and programmers in the videogame industry.
FIEA's current fall enrollment is 63, including 17 students who are scheduled to graduate in the spring.
Digital-Tutors announced the availability of INTRODUCTION TO REALFLOW4 -- a comprehensive guide to the creating realistic fluid and dynamic simulations with RealFlow4. Containing nearly four hours of project-based training, INTRODUCTION TO REALFLOW4 includes a trial version of RealFlow4. In addition, Next Limit is providing all INTRODUCTION TO REALFLOW4 customers with a promotional offer to save 15% on an educational license of RealFlow4.
Gnomon Online, the Internet-based division of Gnomon School of Visual Effects, has opened registration for its online courses.
Individuals interested in taking online courses focused on the development of the skills needed to do digital effects, animation and game development may register online at www.gnomononline.com.
Classes will be begin Monday, Jan. 8, 2007. Information and courses can be found on the site. Registration and payment will be done online.
The Gnomon Workshop has released the RIGID BODY DYNAMICS training DVD by Houdini veteran Craig Zerouni. Houdini is an effects powerhouse tool used by leading visual effects studios to achieve realistic physics-based animation. This training DVD is a comprehensive overview of the tools and techniques available in Houdini for producing interactive simulations.
Aaron Erkenswick, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science program, has given back to his alma mater by creating an advanced campus map using Flash animation. Erkenswick finished the project with three other students and was supervised by geography professor Mark Harrower.
"Every other school map that I've seen, aside from maybe one, is a PDF or a very primitive interactive map," says Erkenswick, originally from Evanston, Illinois. "Our map goes beyond even Google Maps."
Gnomon School of Visual Effects has launched an online division for expert training anytime, anywhere. Beginning in January 2007, courses focused on the development of the skills needed to do digital effects, animation and game development taught by industry professionals will now be available to anyone in the world with high-speed Internet access. Registration begins Dec. 4. Classes will be available Jan. 8, 2007. Information and courses can be found at http://www.gnomononline.com. Registration and payment will be done online.
VisualMedics, founded by the Italian born medical illustrator Lara Laghetto, has become an international network of medical drawing freelancers that turns medical content into interaction and e-learning environments for specialized and lay audiences.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation is now accepting applications for the 3rd Annual Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship, it was announced by Terri Clark, Television Academy Foundation Exec Director. Two $10,000 scholarships, underwritten by Ernst & Young Llp., are awarded each year.
Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons is presenting a new campaign to get out the vote with an animated short, reports KansasCity.com. Educational company BrainPOP produced the film, which runs down the basics of voting and urges kids to encourage their parents to vote in the mid-term elections. Russell even makes an appearance in at a familys house with a robot named Moby to remind them of all the taxes they pay in April. The five-minute cartoon is being shown in schools across the U.S. For more information, visit www.brainpop.com.
Polhemus, the industry leader of 6 Degree-of-Freedom (6DOF) motion tracking, digitizing, eye-tracking and handheld 3D scanners, has provided its most recent release in tracking technology to Carnegie Mellon Universitys Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) for use in its Building Virtual Worlds (BVW) class this semester at the Pittsburgh campus.
The Gnomon Workshop welcomes Chris Stoski and Darin Hilton to its training library with the release of four DVDs on digital matte painting. Used to create backgrounds, sets, extensions or environments that are too costly to build physically or digitally, matte painting is a cornerstone of the visual effects industry. With the transition from hand painted mattes on glass to the digital age using software, such as Photoshop, Maya and Max, the range of techniques available to matte painters has broadened dramatically.
Digital-Tutors, an Autodesk Authorized Publisher, announced the availability of MENTAL RAY IN MAYA: RENDERING WORKFLOW, an interactive guide to learning the fundamentals of mental ray and the newest release in a growing library of interactive training for emerging digital artists. MENTAL RAY IN MAYA: RENDERING WORKFLOW provides more than three hours of project-driven training for learning rendering techniques and workflow developed to maximize the artist's time and creativity.
With the addition of a bachelors degree at the recently endowed John C. Hench division of Animation & Digital Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, undergraduates can now take advantage of an international and multicultural program that focuses on animation in all its forms.
The Gnomon Workshop welcomes back art director Ryan Church with the release of his new DVD INTRO TO COREL PAINTER. This title will help artists new to digital painting, who are interested in learning Church's workflow and techniques for the creation of amazing concept art for the film and game industries. Assuming no previous experience with the software, this DVD explains the Painter interface, palettes and tools.
