Heat Spell!

Heat Spell, directed by DePaul Animation's Jo Dery and produced by Simple Machine Studio, will debut on November 19 at 6pm in the CDM Theater, 14 East Jackson. Join us for the celebration!

Animation Capstone Voice Actor Session

Students from the Animation Capstone worked with some amazing voice actors to provide voices for their films. Some incredible voices were coming out of that booth, and these characters really came to life!


Iain Collins at the mixing board.


Actor Tom Taylorson in the booth.


Megan Hanson gives direction to her actor.

Self-portrait Films

Here are some great examples of self-portrait films made in my Production I class this winter, from Michelle Verceles and Taylor Harrington.

Experimental Animation: Boot Rotation

Here's a collaborative project from ANI356/456 Experimental Animation: Everyone sat in a circle around a boot and drew several sketches of it. Then we animated the drawings to show the boot rotating. We were discussing the threshold for seeing continuous motion, especially with very different graphic styles, from one frame to the next.

Two-Week Projects - Fall 2012

The Animation Production II class had the assignment to make an entire short piece in two weeks. We started by pulling scenarios from a hat, and hit the ground running. A few pieces are below, and you can see more pieces on our class Vimeo page.

Strike by Jonathan Karavas:
A Thief in the Night by Ben Conrad:
Mine-Eee-Ay-Tour by Marc Walls:

And the winner is...

Last week's Senior Capstone screening was a big success, with friends and family cheering on the accomplished filmmakers in a full CDM theater. The faculty wanted to recognize the outstanding capstone projects so we handed out a number of awards, as well as polled the audience about their favorite film. Here are the results and a few pics of the proud filmmakers! 


Faculty Award: Doublington's Disorder by Michael Tran


Below: Michael with his award, a half-lumberjack/half-werewolf stuffed doll! 





Audience Choice: (tie) Doublington's Disorder by Michael Tran and Gravity! Gravity! Gravity! Oh, and Entropy! by Molly McCandless


Audience Choice, 2nd place: The Golfer and the Goose by Andrez Aguayo and David Johnson


The "Up All Night" award (recognizing the most hours spent on a film): Gravity! Gravity! Gravity! Oh, and Entropy! by Molly McCandless


Below: Molly with her prize, a token for a free cup of coffee! 




The "Most Punk" award (recognizing the most raw animation): The Hour of the Wolf by Frank Shuford 


Below: Frank with his award, a yo-yo! 




The "Future Blockbuster" award (recognizing great production values): The Golfer and the Goose by Andrez Aguayo and David Johnson


"Best film from and Engaged Couple" (recognizing exemplary team-work): The Axius Trials by Alex Keller and AJ Klingelhoffer

"Best Poop Joke in a Film" (recognizing great character design!): Hometree Nursing by Alex Dejak & Alex Bull

Below: Alex and Alex and their trophy, a giant pencil! 

The "Wiggly Belly" award (recognizing great exaggerated animation): A Miniature Matter by Sarah Feldman

The "Cute Overload" award (recognizing  a too-cute film!): Teddy by Margaret Orr

The "Miniature Epic" award (recognizing the shortest saga): Shattered World by Trevor Kettelkamp 

Below: Trevor with his award, a light-up bouncy ball! 

Dystopia Project by Cara Jones

This Spring in Storyboarding and Narrative Development, the students were asked to set their final projects in either a dystopic or utopic society. Below is Cara Jones' vision of a treetop civilization trying to survive -- against a flood of zombies!


This is a fitting project to share today, as we all learned of the death of famed science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury. More on Bradbury's contributions to the field of animation here, in this Cartoon Brew post.

Fatal Vittles

The Animation program is proud to announce the completion of Assistant Professor Devin Bell's Fatal Vittles, which was produced with the help of a student crew as a Project Bluelight. 

Below are some stills from the film, which premiered to an audience of faculty, staff, students, family, and friends just last week at the CDM Theater on Jackson Street! 

Congratulations Devin! We are all very proud of you and your students! Bravo! 

Be sure to look for Fatal Vittles at a film festival near you! 

Style Frames

In Storyboarding and Narrative Development, students were asked to take a panel from a completed project and depict it in the final style of their film. Next, the students were asked to visit the Art Institute and create the same panel in the style of an artist in the museum's collection. Below are two great examples from Maria Morales and Johnhenry Clark.

Above: Maria's style. Below: An homage to Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas.

Above: Johnhenry's style. Below: An homage to Cubist painter, Pablo Picasso.

Animation I is off to a roaring start!

Animation I is off to a roaring start this quarter! I am so pleased with the group of talented and motivated students I have this Winter.

Our first assignment was to create a morph animation. Below is Lucas Goins' incredible depiction of a human tail bone turning into a bird. Luke was inspired by the etymology of "tail bone" -- which you can read more about here. Check out Luke's Namesake below.

Working in Flash, students were then asked to animate an evolving cycle -- a loop which repeats, and with each repetition a new element is added to the animation. There was one catch -- each animation had to include a BEAR. Below is Colin Farrell's epic rendering of one bear's journey on his hog. Feel the roar!

Animation Mechanics - Fall 2011

This is a compilation of student work from a 10-week Animation Mechanics class in our graduate Animation program. Students in this course study and practice the foundations of animation from the core texts "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams and "Timing for Animation" by Harold Whitaker and John Halas. Students also study all 16 disks of Richard Williams' Animation Masterclass. In the class we give special emphasis to the importance of timing, spacing, and weight. It's old school!

The Gift

As a final project in the Animation Graduate Seminar, everyone was asked to pick one thing that resonated with them from the material covered and make an animation based on it. I was extremely pleased to see such a great variety of influences and approaches, so I will be posting several projects throughout the month of December. Enjoy!

Lisa

1. Christal Charlery's "The Gift" (This is all your fault, Devin.)

Animation I: Final Projects

Animation I students finished up the quarter by producing a final project of their choosing, developing the work from storyboard through sound design. Below is a slimy sampling of the great projects produced by students!

First, let me introduce you to "Simba the Snail" -- created by Brian Almalvez.

And what follows is "A Strange Encounter" with the work of Aaron Hunt.

A Strange Encounter from Aaron Hunt on Vimeo.

It was a real treat for me to work with such great students during my first term as a faculty member in the DePaul animation program.

Our new MFA program

The deadline for our new MFA in Animation program is February 1, 2012. Everyone is very excited about this new offering, and to share the news we created a promotional poster that will be mailed to schools nation-wide in the coming weeks. Spread the word!

Winter 2012 Animation Electives

In addition to the normal required courses, we're offering a number of interesting electives next quarter (click on the course name for more info):

• Anime History
• Advanced Motion Graphics - NEW
• Advanced 3D Character Animation
• Graphic Narrative (comics)
• Environment Modeling (for games)
• Advanced 3D Compositing
• Acting for Animators
• 3D Texturing and Lighting
• 3D Topics: Organic Modeling with Zbrush
• Topics: Advanced Hand-Drawn Animation

You can find the details on these and other ANI courses here.

Animation I: Evolving Cycle Projects

Last week in Animation I, we dove into Flash with a fun "evolving cycle" project. In this assignment, students had to make a short 3-5 second animation that repeats. With each repetition, they were to add a new animated element until they completed 5 full cycles.

Diana Moya-James created "Out at Sea," which you can watch below:

David Shastry took a non-narrative approach, instead drawing inspiration from Rudolf Arnheim's writings about symmetry and color.