Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/511209
www.postmagazine.com 32 POST MAY 2015 Dylan McDermott on Sugar, a live-action and animated coming-of-age Web series based on an idea by the actor. "Students will be involved every step of the way: script development and writing, casting, shooting, post production," says Bellantoni. Game design students are working with American Zoetrope to develop a trailer for a new game, which will feature character development and environments. Film majors are involved on a Matt Dillon project, cine- matography students are shooting a Web series about legal issues for producers, and a motion design student created the new 3D logo design and animation for MLB's Balti- more Orioles. To further enhance the real-world empha- sis of Ringling's studies, this fall the school will launch The Collaboratory Commitment to "guarantee every student the opportunity for a client-based work experience before they graduate," says Bellantoni. The school has also announced a public-pri- vate initiative to build a 30,000 square-foot soundstage and commercial post production complex in the Newtown neighborhood of Sarasota. "We've cleared the land and expect a late 2016 or early 2017 opening," Bellantoni reports. The complex will feature an approxi- mately 25,000 square-foot soundstage plus (Top) Actor Dylan McDermott with graphic design student Alexa Schara. (Above) Ringling students shooting a summer film project. Cogswell Polytechnical College: Project X Cogswell Polytechnical College, designed as a "fiercely collabo- rative, living laboratory," is locat- ed in the heart of the legendary Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale, CA, where it is a WASC accredited, four-year institution of higher education with a specialized curriculum that fuses digital arts, audio technology, game design, engineering and entrepreneurship. The school's "Project X" is one of a number of project-based learning classes it offers, a cross-disciplinary course where students collaborate over multiple semesters to create an animated short film. The course is taught by industry-experienced faculty, including Timothy Heath (director) and Dave Perry (animation director), with instruction supple- mented by an array of adjunct faculty. The course is designed to give students the experience of working in a real-world studio environment and requires all work to be conducted in the project studio. Not only are the students exposed to every aspect of a production pipeline for an animated film, but they also learn the importance of working together as a team in a professional manner. Project X kicks off with an initial story idea, properly scoped for the class size and duration. From there, the students break into smaller teams tackling story development, art concept and design, and technical research and development. The current short film, Trouble Brewing, stars a protective nanny goat, her ram- bunctious kid, and a mysterious troll. For this film, the students research fur and muscle systems for the charac- ters and rely on V-Ray as a rendering solution. Concept designers dive into the look development of the film, producing character and environment designs. Animators collect reference and study quadruped motion, while the story team focuses on story structure and ultimately produce the storyboards for the film. As production heads into full-swing, students focus their efforts on individual disciplines while communicating with one another to ensure efficiency across departments. The modeling and surfacing team sculpt and texture the characters and environments using industry standard software such as Maya, zBrush, Mari, and Photoshop. Technical directors and animators work primarily in Maya. Cus- tom scripts and tools are developed for caching large files and cloth simulations. In Trouble Brewing, the students tackle complicated visual effects such as a flowing river, physically accurate destruction, dust and debris. These effects are created in Houdini and often times passed back to Maya for lighting and ren- dering with V-Ray. The students in the lighting department are also responsible for compositing their shots in Nuke. Original music and sound design for Proj- ect X films are created by the students enrolled in the Digital Audio Technology program at Cogswell. Project X emulates a studio environment, teaching the technical skills and artistic subtleties of creating a short film. Students are able to focus on a core discipline of their choice, as they work hand-in-hand with other integral parts of production. Departmental teams participate in project scheduling and are headed by a student team and advised by a faculty member. Communication, time management, and personal accountability are skills that are developed as a result of participating in Project X. The project also presents an array of challenges that require the students to push their learning and solve complex problems. These skills are incredibly important to graduates entering into the creative and collaborative animation industry, and enable them to hit the ground running when entering their first job. — BY TIMOTHY HEATH, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DIGITAL ART & ANIMATION CONTINUED ON PG 45 C M Y CM MY CY CMY K