Award of Excellence from the L.A. Movie Awards

'Lumin' was just recognized by the L.A. Movie Awards with an Award of Excellence.  Though it didn't make it into the screening due to the large amount of entries, we're excited that the film was still honored.  Still good news.  Congrats again to everyone/ all the students involved in the film! 

You can watch the film in its entirety here.

Animation Career Review Interview

I recently talked with Bonnie Boglioli from the Animation Career Review website about our animation program at CCAD.  As is usually the case when articles get published, things are paraphrased and edited.  I talked a lot more about our faculty at CCAD (including Charlotte Belland, Tracy Robbins, Andy Friz, Patrick Kenney and Mark Fitzpatrick) You can read the entire article here.  

Almost March 2013!!!

Wow.  Time is flying by.  I stepped in as the acting chair of the Animation Department at CCAD this spring and it is a busy time right now at school.  However, its also an exciting time to be here at CCAD.  Enjoying the semester so far.  We have a LOT of talented seniors this year.  Its been a pleasure to work with them over the past few years.  We will miss them as they graduate this May.  I know that many of them will be working in the industry soon after graduation.  

We're ESPECIALLY excited about some films that the students have collectively been working on this year at CCAD.  The first is called 'Lumin', which we are currently releasing to film festivals.  This is a nearly five minute traditionally animated film about a boy who is chased by monsters that are trying to steal... his light.  The film was completed in the space of one semester and employed the talents of about 18 artists/ students.  We're also excited about a second student film that is being produced this semester entitled 'Aria'.  This film, also primarily a 2D production, is story about a mystical harp that holds the power to alter the natural order of nature and the consequences that come along to the man that controls this power.  Both of these films were produced within the Advanced Time Based Projects class.  We're looking forward to continuing this practice over the coming years and producing higher and higher quality films with each attempt.  The students who worked on these films this year have set the bar pretty high!  Congrats to everyone who participated in the production of both of these films and we look forward to seeing them do well on the festival circuits! 

'Lumin'

Library Book Sales

I always stop by the local Worthington libraries to see what books they have for sale. I will sometimes buy four illustrated kids books for a dollar (good reference material) and will always grab a film and tv book if its there for a dollar. Today, I found 'The Men Who Would Be King', a story about the birth of Dreamworks.   Looking forward to going through this one.

Ebook Blues

I'm working on getting an Ebook version of Captain Cheeseball available through the Kindle and it's not an easy process it seems. Tried to upload my PDF file; however, even though they SAY you can upload a PDF, they say there are usually problems and that seems to be the case. Looks like I will have to create a new version of the book through Word. Not a huge deal but will probably take a couple days. If it works, it's worth the effort. Will be nice to reach a larger audience. Just opened Captain Cheeseball up to overseas purchase which is cool. Will be fun to see my first international sale. Not sure how to market for that.

Interview with Animation Insider.com

An interview that I did with the website Animation Insider.com just came out today. Click on the image below to check it out!  If you are a student studying animation and haven't seen the website, it is a really nice resource.   Enjoy!

Storyoarding Time Lapse Movie

This was a time lapse of me working on the revised board for my animated film project in one of the classrooms at CCAD.  I had been working digitally on this new board and realized that I needed to go back to paper for the initial pass.  So, planning on spending spring break working through a series of passes on my board in this fashion.  Really enjoyed it and looking forward to it!