Tuesday, March 31, 2015

More info on Nelvana's Visit, and a correction.

Just in from Nelvana is some detailed info on the guests expected this Thursday.  First the correction though - the correct date is April 2, not April 3 as mentioned in my previous posting.  And free pizza will be served at the the 5 pm lecture!

There's still space available for the 2 pm portfolio review, so please email me if you would like some feedback on your work from our Nelvana guests.



Now the details: The title of the 5 pm lecture is:

43 Years of Creative Excellence: How Do YOU Become Part of the Legacy?


The various guests include a range of artists and administrators, most of whom are Sheridan graduates. Here is some detailed info on who to expect:



Helen Lebeau is fully immersed in the kids and family entertainment business in her role as Vice President of Production and Broadcast Operation at Corus Entertainment.  Helen oversees all animation and production operations for Corus’ 24 specialty television networks.

Helen joined Nelvana in 2002 to run its post-production group, focusing on servicing the animation slate and building the digital post facility to leverage creative and technical efficiencies. In 2006 she became Vice President, Broadcast Operations where she was responsible for the overall technical operation of network and production operations at Corus. As part of the Executive Management team in 2007, Helen took on a leadership role supporting the implementation of Corus Quay, the company’s new headquarters in Toronto’s East Bayfront district.  As head of Production Animation Operations, Helen continues to create quality content, leveraging top talent and the overall investment in Corus Quay. Helen is a graduate of the Media Arts Program at Sheridan College and is a Sheridan Alumni Board member.



Aiden Glynn is a 9 year veteran of the animation industry. He graduated 2005 from the final classical animation class taught at Sheridan College and also took the post graduate Computer Animation at Sheridan. After graduation, he got his first job working for Nelvana. He started his career as a junior breaker on Ruby Gloom and quickly got promoted to full time animator. From there he has worked his way up from junior to senior animator while working on  numerous 2D and 3D productions, including: Willa's Wild Life, Handy Many, Sidekick, Scaredy Squirrel and The Day My Butt Went Psycho .

In 2014 Aiden transitioned from animation production to character design/visual development. To date he has worked on several successful development projects and pitches. ​

Aiden can also be found creating his animation inspired street art  "Toon Bombs" on the streets of Toronto. He is also ​active in the online character design community and can often found posting his​ designs to his site Pizza and Pixels. 



Jason Groh has worked in Television Animation for 20 years. 
He is the product of his parents on a careless Saturday night and famed Sheridan College Animation and Applied Arts Program.
His long client list includes Nickelodeon, Nick Jr.,Channel 4, WNET/ PBS, YTV, Fox Television, American Greetings Corp, CBS ,NBC, QUBO, Treehouse ,Warner Brothers and Teletoon, among others.Jason has worked as an Animation Supervisor, Animation Posing Artist, Character Layout Artist, Story Artist, Character Designer, Character Concept artist, Production Designer, Funpack Designer,Assistant Director and Director.
His work also includes Television Development, where the long list would include Development on top secret shows for King of all media Howard Stern, Comedian Jamie Foxx and 70’s Blacksploitation Cult hero SuperFly.
Jason’s silly voice work can be heard in the award winning short films “Skylight” and “Surly Squirrel”,currently playing to laughing audiences on the Festival circuit around the world.
In 2008 Jason was awarded the prestigious Cartoons on the Bay Pulcinella Award for Best Preschool Show.In 2009 he was a Winner of the Alliance of Children's Television Award /Best Animation for a show he Directed, which also garnered him a personal Gemini Nomination for Best Direction in an Animated Series.In 2010 He found 10 dollars on the street riding bicycles with his son.
Famous for at least a one block radius around the office, Jason is currently Directing the Hit Show "Little Charmers" which Broadcasts on Treehouse and Nickelodeon. He is known for his big picture thinking topped with uncanny attention to Hair care Products,his clubbed feet and tiny bladder.
Jason will stop talking about himself in the third person now.​



Judy Leung has been working in animation industry for over twenty five years. She began her Animation career in Hong Kong as an Animator and Producer at an animation commercial company. Judy currently holds the position of Manager of Studio Operations at Nelvana, overseeing and managing staffing, recruiting, carrying out studio policies, guidelines and studio planning for the studio. Judy has been with Nelvana Limited since 1993.


Patrick Kil
 Currently, Patrick is the Supervising Technical Director for the 3D department at Nelvana. He has an extensively broad industry background wearing numerous  hats over many years including  director of animation, art director, cg supervisor lighting director for commercial, film, TV and the gaming industries .  Patrick is a Sheridan 3D Animation graduate who previously studied and worked in Architecture and Environmental Design in his past life. He has two beautiful B&W cats.


Don Gauthier is a graduate of the Sheridan Illustration program. He illustrated and designed Children’s books for 15 years before transitioning into the Animation industry as an art director/background painter. Over the years, Don has worked for studios such as Disney, Nelvana and Toon Box having worked on many productions including Beauty and the Beast; the Enchanted Christmas, Return to Neverland, Sidekick, Grossology, Clone High and Bubble Guppies. He’s  currently developing and art directing new properties for Nelvana studios.


Ben Hu graduated from Sheridan’s Bachelor of Arts Animation program in 2009. Since then he has worked as a Character Designer, Layout and Location Designer, Storyboard Artist, Animator, and Posing Artist on a variety of shows such as Sidekick, Scaredy Squirrel, The Day My Butt Went Psycho, Wayside, Mysticons and other projects in development.


Michael Lahay is a 19 year veteran of feature and television animation production starting his career as a posing artist on Little Bear and The Never Ending Story. Michael then moved on to Fox Feature Animation where he was able to work his way towards being a traditional 2D animator on classic films such as Anastasia, Bartock the Magnificent and Titan A.E. Upon returning to Canada, Michael became a designer and animator for Nelvana's first 2D digital series QUADS as well as animation director for Max & Ruby.

In 2003, Michael left production to work exclusively with Toon Boom to design and implement Toon Boom Harmony. He is currently a Senior Technical Producer for Nelvana Studio over seeing 2D production as well as a few 3D series. During his career Michael has played a leading role in the production of many series such as Rescue Heroes, 6TEEN, Grossology, My Friend Rabbit, Sidekick, Guess with Jess, Bubble Guppies, Mike the Knight, Lucky Duck and other new projects. 

Michael is currently fully invested in developing pipelines for the next generation of 2D productions.


Portfolio Review with Nelvana this Thursday

Artists from Nelvana will be at the College on Thursday April 2 to offer advice on student portfolios in preparation for Industry Day. They are especially interested in reviewing ToonBoom animation and design work.

The Nelvana reps will be in the 4th Year Studio from 2 pm to 3:30. If you would like to get some feedback on your work, email me (bruno.degazio@sheridancollege.ca) as soon as possible, as the number of spaces is limited.

The portfolio reviews will be followed by a lecture in J102 at 5 pm.







Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Are You an Artist, or are you the 'Smartist'?

Career self-management for artists. That's what Ben McEvoy's "The Smartist" is about.  It's not something that most of us think about much. But Ben has thought about it a lot and has put together this inspirational lecture and workshop to help you think about it a little more.

Ben McEvoy is a modern Renaissance man. He is among other things a business entrepreneur and  animation producer; a graduate of Sheridan's Classical animation program; an educator; and co-founder of the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAFFI) and The Smartist.  Here he is speaking about himself:

You can find me at the intersection of creativity, technology and commerce, where I facilitate opportunity for creators, entrepreneurs and brands in film, television and digital. It is here that I have successfully produced and provided creative strategy on projects for clients in film, television, education, finance, consumer brands and startups, managing a range of projects throughout Canada and internationally in India, Singapore and China.

Be sure to attend this inspirational lecture and workshop, tomorrow at 11 am and 2 pm.

For more info:  https://about.me/BenMcEvoy


Monday, March 23, 2015

Animator Randolph Lizarda to Tour 4th Year Studio Today

Animator Randolph Lizarda will be on hand in the 4th Year Studio today (Monday March 23) after 4 pm, to speak about his experience as an animator since he graduated from the Sheridan BAA in 2010.

Randolph started his post-Sheridan life with a stint at Pixar, then moved to Vancouver and has had extensive experience with using Maya and other software for pre-visualzation.  Randolph's senior project film, Lucian, has been shown extensively and has been a staple of Sheridan's "best-of"  reels for years. You can take a look at it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y41c79tbg8ufn9q/Lucian.mp4?dl=0




Friday, March 20, 2015

PRIORITIES

Well, it's that time of year again and the time-crunch  will be hitting you all hard very soon.  So with that in mind, Prof. Nancy Beiman has prepared this handy summary of some "best practices" for handling serious deadlines:


PRIORITIES (pdf)


Although it's predominantly humorous in tone, the presentation has a lot of serious and important ideas to help you through the next weeks.  Enjoy.


A Boy and His Kite: Here's What The Unreal Engine Is Capable Of Rendering In Real Time

Amazing demonstration of the real-time rendering power of game engine software, Unreal Engine 4. It's actually a rather good short film as well.

I'd be interested to know if the video title is literally true, i.e. was this entire film rendered in real time? Or was each shot separately rendered and then the complete film assembled in a video editor? I suspect the latter but I'm open to hearing from anyone who knows the software or the background to this video.

▶ A Boy and His Kite: An Animated Short - YouTube

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Multicultural Art Exhibition :The Carousel of Nations in Oakville

This item about an art exhibition in Oakville  came to me yesterday from a graduate of the BAA program. It's too late for the reception , which took place yesterday, but the exhibition itself might be of interest to you: 

-----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Supporters and art enthusiasts,

We are pleased to invite you to the 1st Carousel of Nations Art Exhibition, The Light of Diversity. The showcase will be held inside the Main Gallery of Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre, from March 13th until April 13th, 2015.

The aim of this exhibition is to educate, share and appreciate unique perspectives on the multicultural values in Ontario. It will be a great opportunity to discover and directly communicate with our talented artists. This exhibition will be acting as an instrument to draw attention to the Halton region and beyond. 

Media from Oakville.com, Beaver Oakville are cordially invited to attend.

The reception will be starting at 7pm on Monday March 17, 2015. Light refreshments will be served.

We look forward to seeing you at the art show.

Sincerely,

Veronica Tyrrel
President, The Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton
http://ccah.ca/Default.asp?id=1&l=1
The Carousel of Nations

Sayaka Yamanouchi
Assistant Secretary,
The Carousel of Nations
http://carouselofnations.ca/

Business Practices in Animation

The observant among you might have noticed that the official title of this course is "Senior Project Film and Business Practices."  So far this year we've addressed the business part of the title only with  James Caswell's introductory talk on small business issues and Chris Walsh's survey of the Festival scene.

But over the next few weeks were going to remedy that with a series of talks focusing specifically on the business side of animation, including managing your career (The Smartist with Ben McEvoy of TAAFI) and the process of developing a creative asset into an ongoing series (Guru's James' Nadler)  and first up, for tomorrow's lecture and workshop, our own Peter Bilicki, who will talk to us about "Managing Creativity" - the challenges of organizing and executing a creative project in a small production studio.

As usual, the lecture begins at 11 am in S235; the workshop follows at 2 pm in A151.


LECTURE (11 am) : Managing Creativity - Peter Bilicki
WORKSHOP (2 pm) : Peter Bilicki



Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Rough Animation Reel Screening Tomorrow at 10 AM!

This is a reminder that our class screening of the Senior Project Film rough animation reels will take place tomorrow, Wednesday March 10,  at 10 am in SCAET Theatre, S235.  Note that this is one hour earlier than our usual lecture time . The screening will last approximately 2 1/2 hours. There will be no workshop tomorrow.

This screening is an important opportunity to see your film the way that the Industry Day attendees will see it at the end of April - screen size, brightness and colour accuracy are all important image factors which are difficult to judge on a computer monitor.

With the soundtrack, tonal balance and overall loudness are notoriously hard to judge using headphones or cheap computer speakers. The sound system in S235 will give you a true impression of the state of your soundtrack, and will let you hear it the way it will sound on Industry Day.

The third reason to be at this screening is perhaps the most important -  to see your film through the eyes of a large audience. It's amazing how small issues that you have overlooked for months will sometimes jump out immediately when you view your film with an audience. And conversely, you may discover that things you thought were big problems are actually working just fine.

So make sure to take advantage of this screening - it's our last one before the "Final' screening in Week 13. So see you tomorrow!

Bruno









Monday, March 9, 2015



Monday, March 9, 2015

There has been a change of plans for the visit from Ubisoft Animation Director Kristjan Zadziuk. His talk will take place TODAY at 5 pm in J102, not Tuesday at 6:30 pm as stated in the previous post. 


Tuesday March 10 - Visit from Animation Director of Ubisoft

Max Piesner, co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Game Design program, has arranged a visit from the Animation Director of Ubisoft Toronto.  Max has generously invited 4th Year BA Animation students  to the lecture.  Here is the text of Max's email: 

Kristjan Zadziuk, Animation Director at Ubisoft Toronto, will be speaking at Sheridan on Tuesday March 10th in Room S235 at 6:30pm.  All 3D Animation students and senior BA Animation students are welcome to attend. 

Cheers,
Max Piesner
PrograCoordinator: BA Game Design
Professor: Game Writing and Narrative Design

Friday, March 6, 2015

100% ROUGH ANIMATION - SCREENING DEADLINE

This is a reminder that our class screening of the Senior Project Film will take place next week.  The deadline for handing in the screening copy is Monday March 9 at 9 am.

Note that there is a Hand In Folder specifically for the screening. Do not assume that because you handed in a file for the Milestone that it will automatically be used for the screening.

The screening itself will take place in S235 at 10 am on Wednesday March 11.  Note that this is one hour earlier than our usual starting time for the Lecture. There will be no workshop that day.

There is a grade penalty of 50% of the Milestone Grade for not screening your film. Since the Milestone is worth 15% of your final grade, the penalty is actually worth nearly a whole letter grade. In other words, not screening your film can cause your final grade for the course to drop from an A to B, or from B to C, or from... well, you get the idea.  If you don't like the idea of a penalty, think of it as a substantial bonus simply for screening your film.

Here's a quick summary of what should be the state of your film for this screening:

PICTURE: 
2D projects:  Rough Animation 100% completed and composited against layouts or bg paintings.

3D projects: Playblast output with all character poses, sets & props. One test shot fully lit and rendered.

StopMo projects: Finished shots for 20% of running time;  edited into your existing Animatic reel. 


SOUND (all projects): 
All sound elements (Dialogue, Music, Sound Effects) should be represented, either as final materials (dialogue, most sound effects) or demo/temp versions (music.)  All elements should be combined in acceptable balance at the standard playback level of -12 db as shown on the output level meters in Adobe Audition or Premiere.