The 4th Year Senior Project Course

The 4th Year Senior Project Course

Greetings to all Sheridan 4th Year BA Animation students!

This is the first posting of the 2019-2020 school year.  Please note this blog address for future reference:

http://sheridan4thyear.blogspot.ca

This is where all announcements relevant to ANIM 40049 are posted, including Lecture guest announcements, workshops, and Milestone deadlines. There is also a listing of Mentor office hours (soon to be updated.)

Blog posts are automatically mailed to the 4thYear Mailing list, so keep an eye on your official Sheridan email for new postings.


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What does this course consist of? 

ANIM 40049 is the course to help you make your Senior Project Film. It's made up of three components:

1) The Lecture Series, which takes place on Wednesdays at 2 PM in J102
2) The Workshop Series - optional, Wednesdays at 4 pm, in Lab A151
3) Mentor Group Meetings - various times through the week, mostly in A360A, B and C

In addition there are several highlights to the semester:

4) SCREENINGS - All film works-in-progress are screened this semester at the Leica Reel screening in Week. This screening is CENTRAL to the production workflow and is therefore required of all students.

5) GUEST CRITIQUE - During Week 7's Mentor Group Meeting, a guest, normally from the animation industry, will be present to view and critique your Leica Reel. This is a valuable opportunity to have an experienced pair of eyes view your film - make the most of it!

6) UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO "Composing For Film" CLASS VISIT  - Each year about 40-50 animation students work with musicians from the U of T Faculty of Music to have music written specially for their films. The first step of this process happens this Fall (normally in Week 10 or 11) when we travel to U of T for a "Meet and Greet" session.

7) VISITS FROM MAJOR STUDIOS
Monday of Week 5 is already slated for a visit from our friends at Disney. Other studio visits through the fall are possible. More details TBA.

The Lecture and Workshop Series; Special Events

You can get a very good idea of what we cover in the Lectures and Workshops by browsing through this listing. Note that most of the Lecture and Workshop bookings are still tentative and are subject to change. This listing also shows Milestone deadlines for the semester. More details will be available at the first lecture:

Fall Lectures,Workshops, and Special Events

The Milestones

Grading for this course is determined by meeting the Milestone requirements as laid out in the 4th Year Handbook (link below - see especially the section titled, "Part 2 - SEMESTER 7 MILESTONES".) You'll get a very good idea of where you're going with your film project over the next few months by browsing through this document. More details at the lecture:

http://sheridan4thyear.blogspot.ca/p/4th-year-student-handbook.html

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What workflow do we use? 

You might enjoy watching the video below. It's a compilation of several films from recent graduating students, shown in four stages of development, from Leica Reel to Final Film. It should give you an idea of the overall workflow we use in the 4th Year Senior Project films. I'll show this video at the lecture and we'll have some time to discuss what it means for you.

(download link: From Leica to Final 2014)
(download link: From Leica to Final 2015)


I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday at 2 PM

Bruno Degazio
4th Year Academic Advisor
Senior Project Course Lead

Senior Project Mentor

Meet Guru Development Executive Rachel Marcus

NB - CANCELLED

This week's lecture, the last in our series on "The Business of Animation," features  Development Executive Rachel Marcus of Guru Studio.

Rachel was formerly a producer at Nickelodeon and her work at Guru includes developing all content for the studio, and sourcing new intellectual properties (IP). Rachel has extensive experience in discovering new talent and developing innovative IP for both television and games.

The lecture begins as usual at 2 PM in J102. You can read more about Rachel here:

https://www.awn.com/news/guru-studio-expands-content-team-rachel-marcus

UPCOMING SCREENINGS & DEADLINES:

FINAL CLASS SCREENING - 

DEADLINE:  Wednesday, April 10, 9 AM - You must use the specially designated folder!

SCREENING: Monday April 15, 2 PM, S235

INDUSTRY DAY : 1-MINUTE VERSION (no teasers or demo reels!)

DEADLINE: Thursday April 18, 9 AM - You must use the specially designated folder!

SCREENING: Thursday April 25



FAMILY DAY SCREENING:

DEADLINE: Tuesday, April 23, 9 AM - You must use the specially designated folder!

SCREENING: Sunday April 28 (Student Committee, please confirm start time!)

Copyright Law for Animators; Jam Filled Portfolio Review

Lecture 2-3:45 PM:  

Copyright Law for Animators - Christina Buchli - Buchli Goldstein LLP​ 

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS PRESENTATION: 

Applicable Copyright Provisions for Animators

How to Register Copyright

Clearance Issues in Animation and Examples of Existing Legal Claims

Copyright in gaming (dance moves; example: Fortnite)

Christina is a founding partner at the boutique entertainment law firm Buchli Goldstein LLP. Christina’s practice is focused on the areas of media and entertainment law with an emphasis on film and TV production, financing, licensing, distribution, and intellectual property acquisition and protection….She is on the board of directors of Women in Film and Television - Toronto. Before starting the firm with Hilary Goldstein, Christina … worked in the film and TV industry for 8 years as a production manager and line producer.

Workshop (4th YEAR STUDIO) 4-6 PM:

Jam Filled Entertainment - Portfolio Review in A361 

Bring your portfolio or other artwork to get an idea about what Jam Filled looks for when hiring new talent. On hand will be: 

Jamie Leclaire - Creative Director and Co-Founder

Phil Lafrance - Creative Director and Co-Founder 

Kyle Mac Dougall - President 

Jam Filled is currently working on these animated series:
Production (2D) servicing:

Final Space (ShadowMachine/TBS)
The Loud House (Nickelodeon)
Casa Grande (Nickelodeon)
DC Super Hero Girls (WB)


Production (3D) servicing:
Thomas & Friends (Mattel Creations; Nick Jr)
Rusty Rivets (Spin Master; Nick Jr)
Kody Kapow (Zodiak; NBCUniversal)
Bubble Guppies (Nick Jr)
Kingdom Force (Industrial Brothers)

Week 9 - Life in the "Boutique" Animation Studio; 3D Layout Workshop; Major Milestone due

2 PM Lecture J102:  The Business of the Boutique Animation Studio 

Trent Locke and Marianne Culbert, Portfolio Entertainment

Trent and Marianne will give you an overview of working life in Portfolio Entertainment,  a typical "boutique" Toronto animation studio. Topics include: 

·         How to Maintain a creative culture within the studio.

·         Technology and R&D in a studio environment.

·         What it takes to keep the pipeline full and the studio busy.

Portfolio Entertainment is a leading media company specializing in the production, distribution and animation of content for television and digital content providers worldwide. It has a diverse catalogue of high quality children’s live action, animation, factual and lifestyle content produced in house and acquired from independent producers worldwide, including The Cat In the Hat Knows A Lot About That!, Words Are Weird, and Freaktown.

Trent Locke is Vice-President of Finance and COO of Portfolio Entertainment where he oversees strategy, new business development, finance and day-to-day operations and serves as a member of the Executive Management and Strategy teams. He joined the company in March 2014 with a mandate to help grow and diversify the business. He brings over 15 years of broadcast executive experience to Portfolio. He most recently was Vice-President, Business Operations for TELETOON Canada Inc.

Marianne Culbert is Vice President of Production of Portfolio Entertainment where she oversees the production of all of the company’s animated properties as well as managing Portfolio’s animation studio. Prior to joining Portfolio, Culbert served as the VP of Production at major studios like Arc Productions, Mercury Filmworks and Nelvana.

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4 PM Workshop, 4th Year Studio:  Advanced 3D Layout

Rob Skiena 

You may remember Rob from the 3D Layout workshop he did last fall. This semester Rob is back with advanced techniques for 3D Layout in Maya, and to answer your questions about building and shooting sets in Maya. 

Rob Skiena is an experienced animation industry verteran with over 20 years of credits for animation, layout and previsualiztion.  With stints at large studios like Dreamworks, Sony and Laika, he is currently a Layout and Previs Supervisor at Industrial Brothers.

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MILESTONE 4 DUE 

2D -100% Cleaned Animation

3D -  50% Completed Animation

Stop Motion: 90% Completed Animation

COMPLETE ROUGH ANIMATION DEADLINE

This is a big week because it is the deadline for 100% of rough animation to be completed for your film (2D projects).  It is the beginning of nearly a month of detailed work on your animation;

• first, in your mentor group  meeting this week; 
• then with a guest critic in next week's Mentor group meeting; 
• third, by yourselves during reading week; 
• and finally with the whole class in the Week 4 Screening (Monday, March 4, 2 PM, SCAET)

Other animation media have different deadline requirements this week:

3D Projects - KEY POSES & RENDERING TEST 
StopMotion - 20% COMPLETED ANIMATION

(ToonBoom Harmony asset-driven animation should follow the 3D deadline, or consult your mentor.)

Meanwhile the lectures and workshops continue with an overview of the Business of Animation with Mark Mayerson (Wednesday, 2 PM, J102) and a workshop on Cleanup Techniques in Toonboon Harmony with Sarah Wallace (4 PM, A361).

VISIT FROM ANIMATION GRADUATES OF 2009

Tomorrow is a busy day in 4th Year Animation at Sheridan as we have a visit on the tenth anniversary of the BA Graduating class of 2009. Our guests include:

Alysia Ave - Design Artist - Background Painter, Corus Entertainment
Rachel Chalk - Design Supervisor, Corus Entertainment
Chris Darnbrough - Storyboard Artist & 2D Animator/Game Developer
Andrea Fernandez - Art Director, Warner Bros Animation
Naz Ghodrati-Azadi - Director, DreamWorks TV Animation
Andre Guindi - Character Animator, Elliot  Animation/Fresh TV
Ben Hu - Design Sup. (Character & Prop), Corus Entertainment
Kenny Kuang - 3D Asset Supervisor, Guru Studio
Kayla McIlwaine - Principal Animator, Rockstar Games
Yuriy Sivers - Creative Director, Kongregate
Trevor Spencer - Visual Development Artist, DreamWorks TV Animation
Mark Sperber - Story Artist/Head of Story, Sony Pictures Animation
& last but not least, our own:
Jason Teeuwissen - Sheridan College, technologist


Events are scheduled from Wednesday through to Friday, but I want to bring three events in particular to your attention:

1. PANEL DISCUSSION on ART DIRECTION, VISUAL DEVELOPMENT,  DIRECTING & STORY

WEDNESDAY 2-4 PM, J102

2.  PANEL DISCUSSION ON CG ANIMATION,  FREELANCING & 2D ANIMATION 

WEDNESDAY  4-6 PM, A361 (4th Year Studio) 

There will also be an opportunity for one-on-one meetings with our guests during this session.

3. ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS (PORTFOLIO & FILM FEEDBACK) 

THURSDAY 1:30-3:00 PM, A361 (4th Year Studio)

There is a sign-up list for this event available in the 4th Year Studio. All 14 visiting Alumni will be present to meet one-on-one with interested 4th Year students to discuss either your film or a your portfolio.

Spotting Session for 4th Year with U of T Film Composition Class , Sheridan MASSIVE, Humber College Music

Wednesday January 30,  2 pm to 4 pm

Tomorrow is the day for our one-on-one meetings (Spotting Sessions)  between 4th Year animators and the various young composers.

We will first meet as usual at 2 PM in J102 for brief introductions, then move to the 4th Year Studio (A361) for one-on-one meetings
 until 4 pm.

Have your film ready to show in an easily playable form such as a video file. It should have an up-to-date picture, including the workflow shot, and a scratch track. Bring headphones!

If you are not participating in the composer-animator partnerships, please allow others to use the workstations in A361 during this time tomorrow afternoon.

The "Spotting Session" is an important meeting between film-maker and composer where the music for the film is discussed in detail, on a shot-by-shot basis.  Here is a quick summary of the main procedures and purposes of a Spotting Session:

1. View the Film
- Leica-Reel, Pose-Reel, or Rough-cut.
- include your temp music, sound fx, scratch voices
- decide where music is needed, what style, mood, instruments, accents, etc.
- make a sequential list of music cues (M1, M2, M3, etc.) with starting times!

2. Try Out New Musical Ideas
- play recordings with the picture! It's extremely important to hear the music while looking at your pciture.

3. Wait for the new Score
 - discuss delivery dates, file formats & other tech

PARTNERSHIPS
This is also the last chance to sort out any partnership issues. To help with this, the current list of partnerships is as follows:

University of Toronto Film Class 2018-19
Proposed Sheridan College Animation Collaborators
(List ordered by order of response - top of the list = first response)

NAMES in BOLD are composers, followed by list of animation students they are planning to work with. 


Michael Nunes
(Adam Hyatt, Kenny Ko, and Joyce Liu)

Xuan He
(Ada Lu -
Hannah Chung -
Echo Quan -
Kaslin Li -
Wendi Ren -
Diane Song - Zheng -
Michelle Guan

Paul Kawabe
(Turcin Soylu and Esther Cheung)

Ben Yeo
TBA

Erez Sussman
Wenny Lin, Karen Lee, Jaida Salmon

Samantha Sek
Jill Gwan

Colin McMahon
Ron Osypiuk
Vanessa Fardoe
Laura Hall
Tara Bulizuik
Gunesh Brisebois
Madalen Tojicic
Andrew Komer

Kevin Gallagher
Renee Liang and Julia Taylor

Carter Brodkorb
TBA

Sami Anguaya
confirmed working with: Clara Cheung, and Zach Gray
Potentially working with:  Turcin Soylu, Rebecca Simpson, and or Andrew Komer

Sergei Kofman
Danielle Ferri
Esther Cheung

Benjamin Gabbay
Rebecca Simpson (rsimpson.school@gmail.com)
Elliot Maxted (maxted@sheridancollege.ca

Arthur Li
Esther Cheung
Karen Lee - already signed up with a different composer
Christina de Luc
Anna

Ben Zhang
Wendi
Kenny
YiWei Zhou

Aryo Nazaradeh
Gunesh Brisebois
Patrick Gall
Alexis Varvagiannis

Ricardo Ferro
Liam Mann
Tara Bulizuik
Jamie Tann
Laura Hall
Eudora Shum
Hojung An
Alex Varvagiannis

Max Filazek
Danielle (?)
Tara Bulizuik
Turcin:
Anna:
Julia:
Laura Hall

Tommy Lee
Anna Ryzhkova

Jahred Warkentin
Echo Quan
Kenny Ko and
Tara Bulizuik

Alex Fridman
Kenny Ko, Tara (i think), and Christina Natalie (not confirmed yet)

Keshav Sharma-Jaitly
Jaida Salmon
Zora Wang.


OTHERS (not U of T)
Madeline Currie (Humber College)
Aimee Ryckman
Mac Redden
Jincheng Liu
Esther Cheung

Andrew Menino ( sound effects.)
Esther Cheung
Yutong Zhang
Abroo Khan


SHERIDAN MASSIVE
Jason Stamatyades 
Danielle Bittner

Ravish Kamath
Olivia Amoah

THIS WEEK'S LECTURE & WORKSHOP - The Creative Development Process for Animated TV, and Advanced Toonboom Harmony

We have a couple of terrific events for you at this week's lecture and workshop. First is the next instalment in our lecture series on The Business of Animation with a visit from development executive Brandon Lane of Corus Kids Entertainment, explaining for us the  process of taking an idea from original concept to a weekly on-air animated TV series (a process that he's been through many times, as you can see from his bio, below.)  J102, 2-4 PM

Following Brandon's talk, Sheridan's own Sarah Wallace will give an interactive workshop on Advanced Techniques in Toonboom Harmony.  Bring your projects and questions about Harmony to Sarah for analysis and discussion.  A361, 4-6 PM

LECTURE: 2-4 PM J102

The Creative Development Process for Animated TV Series - Brandon Lane,  Corus Entertainment

3-time Canadian Comedy Award nominee Brandon Lane is an award-winning director, showrunner, screenwriter and currently Production Executive for Canadian Kids TV networks YTV, TELETOON and Treehouse. Over the past decade, Brandon has overseen the production of over 360 hours of content airing in Canada and over 190 countries worldwide, collaborating with partners like Disney, Netflix, HBO, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop and Sony Pictures Animation. He currently showruns and directs the Youth Media Alliance Award of Excellence-nominated preschool series ‘Miss Persona’, airing on Treehouse. He is also showrunner, director and co-creator of Space Dragon & Kim, a web series for Shaftesbury’s Sorta TV YouTube channel and co-showrunner on ‘D.N. Ace’ for Nelvana.

Prior to working for Corus, he developed, creative produced and wrote for YTV’s ‘Numb Chucks’, as well as co-created and creative produced YTV’s ‘Cache Craze’. He has also written for Amazon & TVO’s Emmy-nominated ‘Dino Dana’ and CBC Kids’ ‘What’s Your News?’.  He currently oversees production for Corus Kids on 'Hotel Transylvania', ‘Esme & Roy’, ‘Cupcake & Dino: General Services’ (which New York Times named one of the best new shows of 2018) and many other kids’ series. Brandon recently wrote and directed an award-winning musical film called ‘Princess Sparkly Butt & The Hot Dog Kid’, adapted from an award-winning play he also wrote and directed. Brandon also teaches at Centennial College’s Children’s Media post-grad program (of which he is an alumni).

WORKSHOP: 4-6 PM A361

Toon Boom Advanced Techniques -  Sarah Wallace, Sheridan College

This Week's Lecture & Workshop

THE LECTURE - Wednesday 2 PM, J102 

The Lifestyle of the Freelance Animator 

and 

Distribution and Exhibition for Short Animated Films

Guest Speakers, James Caswell and Chris Walsh, Sheridan College

The Lecture is the first in our Business of Animation topic, with James Caswell and Chris Walsh offering complementary perspectives on life in animation.

Jim will present The Lifestyle of the Freelance Animator,  covering questions endemic to young people starting out in the animation business such as, "How much should I charge?" , "How do I manage my taxes?"  and also touching on issues of intellectual property.

Chris gives an alternative viewpoint, Get your films out into the world,  which opens up the discussion to issues of artistry vs. industry and ways to distribute your creative work.

THE WORKSHOP - Wednesday 4 PM, 4th Year Studio 

Workflow: Making Your Software Work Together

The workshop will be led by David Huyn,  Technical Director at Nelvana.

David brings a wealth of technical experience in Toonboom Harmony, Maya and other production software. If you're hitting a dead-end on a software problem, come to this workshop to pick David's brain for a possible solution. This workshop is especially valuable with the coming deadline for Milestone 2- Scene Workflow Test, and the requirement for Maya and Toonboom projects to be fully rigged and ready for animation.

David says:   "I've been in the industry for almost 9 years.  I started working for a small company working on a mobile app for about a year before starting at Nelvana as a general Technical Director (TD).  I've also taught at Max The Mutt for a few years as the final forth year instructor for 3D animation in Maya.  

My role at Nelvana was always changing because being a generalist meant I was flexible and I filled roles such as a modelling, rigging, minor animation, compositing, FX R&D and team lead, front end pipeline tool development.  These roles covered both 3D Maya productions as well as 2D Harmony productions where I've been the supervising TD.  

With the experiences I've come to have within the studio, I've also been requested to serve as a recruiter at school's industry nights. "

Wednesday Lecture & Workshop - January 9, 2018

YOUNG COMPOSERS FROM SHERIDAN AND HUMBER COLLEGE

We start off the new semester with a busy Lecture on Wednesday ( 2 PM, J102). It begins with a visit from the young composers of Sheridan's MASSIVE (Music Applied to Stage, Screen and Interactive Visual Environments) program, joining forces with the Humber College Jazz program.  They want to provide original music for you films, so they will spend a little time introducing themselves and their musical background.

ADVANCED COLOUR DESIGN FOR 4th YEAR FILMS - MIKE HITCHCOX 

This week's lecture and workshop also feature our own Michael Hitchcox on the topic of Advanced Colour Design. Mike's portion of the lecture begins at 2:45;  the workshop follows in A361 (the 4th Year Studio)  at 4 pm. Mike requests that you send him some background artwork for his lecture demonstration. You can reach him at michael.hitchcox@sheridancollege.ca