Free Webinar

Submit your art to the Student and Alumni Art Show

embedding Vimeo videos

You can easily embed your videos and animations which you create and upload to www.vimeo.com

Aladdin's Pawn Shop from Jason Katsoff on Vimeo.

This 6:45 student film was created by a team of 15 students at the Art Institute of California - San Diego over a period of 22 weeks. They combined 3D CGI created in Maya and 2D animation created traditionally and in Flash. They also recorded and edited all audio using our in-house audio recording studio.



The team was led by instructor and industry veteran Eric Van Hamersveld.

Internship Available for FA09!

See Jason Katsoff to apply or for more info

Trion World Network, San Diego location.

At Trion, we're changing everything about the way online games are designed, developed, and delivered by infusing the old, static gaming world with a sense of dynamic, creative collaboration. This applies just as much to the people who make the games as it does to the games we make. We want each person working here to think big, because we give them the chance to do great things. Ambition and individual creativity aren't just encouraged, they're expected.

Already in place is a high-caliber team from the games, media, and Internet industries. We have worked on, developed, and shipped over 100 original titles, including such bestsellers and hit series as Heroes, Might and Magic, EverQuest, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Lineage, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Pogo, and Sims. Utilizing our proprietary core technologies, we're hard at work on our first titles to be released in North America, Europe, and Asia.

The internship is in their Technical Art department. The full job posting is below. Interns are NOT expected to know have all of these skills and traits. I left them in the posting so you know what Trion (and other companies) are looking for.

Technical Artist
Responsibilities
Character rigging and support
Tool creation and script writing
Documentation of art processes
Liaison between the disciplines of animation, art and programming
R&D of tools and processes used in production h3.

Requirements
Character setup and understanding of the technical aspects of animation, with a keen eye for aesthetics and a good instinct for geometry deformation and animation solutions
Tool development and enjoy working with artists, designers and engineers to design, implement, and document tools for game development
Advanced knowledge of 3D development software (Maya, XSI, Max)
Expertise in MEL and the Maya API
Knowledge of platform specific requirements
Awareness of trends in 3d and gaming technology
Ability to work on a schedule
Excellent communication skills

Pluses
Knowledge of Programming languages (C, C++)
BS or equivalent
Passion for games

weekly life drawing workshops on Wednesday nights

$5 for students, $10 alumni, $20 public

This week its going to be a female nude model and we will be starting with quick gesture drawings and then longer poses. times of poses will range from 2min to 20 min. We will be switching male female every week and on the 5th week it will be costumed.

Nickelodeon Internship

Nickelodeon Animation Studios Internship Program

Nickelodeon is a cutting-edge company that encourages its interns to succeed!

Internship Description:
Nickelodeon Animation Studios is currently seeking motivated interns who enjoy working in a fast-paced environment. Nickelodeon Animation Studio offers exciting internships in departments such as College Relations/Recruitment, TV Production, Animation or Live-Action Development, Special Events, The Writing Fellowship, Legal Affairs, Casting, and Post Production! General duties include but are not limited to: administrative tasks, special projects, tape dubbing, script coverage and internet research. This is an excellent opportunity to get hands-on experience in the entertainment industry!

In addition to superb internships, Nickelodeon Animation Studios offers fantastic perks! Interns are encouraged to participate in our business skills workshops and “Executive Lunches”. Some of these workshops and classes include: How to write a resume and cover letter, Portfolio/Reel critique, Post Production, Lunches with The President of Animation and the SVP of our studio plus many more!

Internship Qualifications:
This is a non-paid program. To be eligible students must be enrolled in a credited internship course, and must present proof of that course credit. Students must be 18 years of age or older, in college (freshman or above), and be available to intern 16-30 hours per week. Internships are based in Burbank, California.

To apply, please send a cover letter and resume ASAP via email to:

internships@Nick.com Subject Line: Fall 2009.

Nickelodeon Animation Studio is an Active Equal Opportunity Employer/AAP

Progressive Blog Review

I am posting the information after talking to the 2D Animation class today. To get started building a blog, check out www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. Though many other free sites exist. -Jason

MAA Review of Continuing Students

“Progressive Blog” review

Goals

Build a culture of students regularly posting their work to a blog.

Increase the use of internet-based critique

Students build portfolios continually prior to Portfolio Zero class

Process

• SU09 will be a test rollout. Student participation will be voluntary
• Harry offered to create Camtasia tutorials on how to create and post to a blog
• Occurs during the 5^th quarter & 9^th quarter
• Target classes: 2D Animation (MA2203) and 2D Animation Studio (MA3313)
• Each student in that class gets reviewed by at least 2 faculty members.
• Students have until week 8 to post their work to a blog. Faculty members will post comments to the blog or email the student directly by EOQ
• Instructors will submit evaluation rubric (to be created) to AD by EOQ
• 5^th quarter portfolio should contain samples of the seven classes determined to be “portfolio”
• classes as opposed to “skills” classes
• 9^th quarter portfolio should contain samples of the eleven classes determined to be “portfolio”
• classes as opposed to “skills” classes
• MA3321 Portfolio Fundamentals new prereq will be “AD Approval”. Students need to pass their
• 9^th quarter review in order to be enrolled in MA3321

Predicted Outcomes

More critiques, more improvement of work through revisions

Students continually grow a portfolio as they complete projects beginning with their first quarter

Better quality of portfolios

Less production work in Portfolio Zero and Portfolio 1 class

An Evening with Pixar: The Making of UP

Date: Thursday August 13th, 2009
Location: Hollywood
Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Contact: Heather Hughes heather@gnomonschool.com 323-466-6663

Gnomon School of Visual Effects and the VES bring you a fun-filled night with a behind-the scenes look into the creation of this summers box office hit, Up.Special guest Gary Bruins (Effects Supervisor) will share his experience of working on the film and what it took to make this special, animated feature. This event will not be filmed for non-disclosure reasons.

Gary Bruins
Technical Director

Gary Bruins joined Pixar Animation Studios in 2001 to work in modeling, shading and lighting on the Academy Award winning Finding Nemo and has since worked on a number of Pixar's award-winning feature films including "The Incredibles", "Cars" and "Ratatouille".

Event Details
When: Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Meet & Greet: 6:00 pm 7:00 pm
Presentation: 7:00 pm 9:00 pm
Place: Gnomon School of Visual Effects Stage
151015 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90038

This event is FREE of charge! Please visit the Gnomon Store extended hours during special events. RSVP at the Gnomon School website.www.gnomonschool.com

Gnomon School of Visual Effects specializes in training for careers in high-end computer graphics for the entertainment industries.

workshops for students

Please attend any/all of these workshops you think would be helpful. I recommend all of them!
-Jason

WEEK 4
INDESIGN WORKSHOP
Instructor: Lindy Bostrom
Sat., Aug. 8h, 12:00-4:00pm
N. Bldg. MAC LAB 166
Open to All Students

WEEK 6
DIGITAL LANDSCAPE PAINTING
Instructor: Dzu Nguyen
Sat., Aug. 22nd, 12:00-4:00pm
N. Bldg. PC LAB 165
Open to All Students

HOW TO MAKE GAMES WITH FLASH/ACTIONSCRIPT
Instructor: Dr. Wei Xu
Sat., Aug. 22nd, 1:00-5:00pm
N. Bldg. PC LAB 159
Open to All Intermediate Students


WEEK 8
SKETCHUP FOR MAA MAJORS, PART 1
Instructor: Fox Sutton
Wed., Sept. 2nd, 12:10-12:50pm
N. Bldg. PC LAB 165
Open to all MAA Students

WEEK 9
SKETCHUP FOR MAA MAJORS, PART 2
Instructor: Fox Sutton
Wed., Sept. 9th, 12:10-12:50pm
N. Bldg. PC LAB 165
Open to all MAA Students

new Tutoring Process

(click to enlarge)

If you need a tutor in any topic take a look at the attached schedule of tutoring. Locate the days/times when someone with that area of expertise will be in the learning lab. No appointment is necessary, just visit the learning lab. If you have questions about or problems with this new process come see me.

-Jason