Description text goes hereThis has become commonplace in every classroom (particularly throughout the Pandemic). However, it’s something I implemented very early in my teaching career, where student volunteers set up a tripod and video camera to record my class sessions. Having access to my archived content allowed students to follow along in class without worrying about missing necessary steps or procedures because they could always refer back to the recordings afterwards.

Description text goes hereThe ability for students to access information quickly is paramount in this program. Before social media existed (or Slate), and there weren't a lot of online resources for communication and discussion; so I developed my own. I had set up a mini, flash-based website that had helpful tips, interactive hotkey information, and other useful Maya tips. I later implemented a dedicated wiki/forum-based website for posting coarse material, notes, useful links, but more importantly, it gave students a space to ask questions outside of the classroom in an open discussion format. The Computer Animation Program moved to more modern solutions the make these types of communication more accessible (Slate, Slack, Shotgun, and now Teams).

When I was at the Dingle International Animation Festival in 2018, I had a chat with a professor at Gobelins.  She had talked about their renowned animation program, but what caught my attention was the animation review tool they used called Syncsketch. It is a web-based tool, developed by ex-Pixar technicians specifically for the animation industry. It gives teams the ability to do draw-overs and annotations in real-time. I tested it out on a small scale through a personal account with the Digital Creature class in 2019. When the pandemic broke out and we had to set up remotely Shotgun (our previous collaborative tool) proved to be sluggish and not up to the task. Luckily I was able to have Syncsketch implemented across all three programs.

I tend to go overboard when it comes to helping students outside of the classroom. One thing I have found particularly useful is creating tailor-made movies that answer specific questions that might not have a searchable answer online. This could be any topic or concept that comes up that poses a challenge to students on a yearly basis. This growing library of information has saved me a lot of time when similar questions arise, I can simply share the link to an easily accessible answer.

Another thing I find that contributes to a unique course is to offer new experiences each year. All of the examples I use for demonstrations are freshly designed and developed for each school year. Not recycling the same content year after year allows me to research, experiment with new tools and approaches, stay current, and most importantly, give the students a bespoke experience.

Joe Alter developed this hair plug-in at ILM. I introduced it to familiarize students with the grooming process. It also gave students options for adding complexity to their scenes, like grass (or any other object that could be instanced along the hair strands). Unfortunately, Shave couldn’t keep up with the Maya releases, and we had to abandon it almost ten years ago. We still haven’t found a hair option that is as student-friendly as this product.

Before Mudbox, everything was modelled by pushing and pulling points on NURBS or Polygon geometry. This software (and Zbrush) changed the game by allowing artists to sculpt their models in 3D space, but not just basic forms and details into the millions of polygons. Once the models were completed, you could also use them for texture. We decided to go with Mudbox over Zbrush because it supported our Alumni, Tibor Madjar, who had been on the development team at Weta. Also, I didn’t feel Zbrush was ready for use in the classroom at that particular moment. text goes here

When I went to the New Orleans SIGGRAPH in 2009, Chaos Group presented how its render engine would be integrated into Maya. It was quite a departure from the traditional renderers of the time, like Maya’s Software Renderer or Mental Ray. It was the first physically based render I was aware of at the time that calculated global illumination (light bounces). I was away on parental leave in 2010 but began adapting Vray in 2011. I always like getting daring students who aren't afraid to try something new to volunteer to test novel software. Mitch Counsell, now a Tactics Supervisor at Disney, was one of the first students to use it, rendering his final film “Symbiosis.”

Even though we had initially supported our Alumni with an earlier move to Mudbox, Zbrush had made some significant advances. By 2012, Zbrush 4r5 had been released with some impressive retopology tools. I had been experimenting with the workflow to create some early proof of concept models for the not-yet-developed Digital Creature Program. Eventually, I began giving workshops on Zbrush to the second-year Digital Character students, and by 2019, I officially incorporated it into the Computer Animation curriculum. Now, with our new 10-month CA program, Zbrush will be the main focus of the 2nd term.

I had talked with industry friends years earlier. They mentioned a move to Redshift for production at Guru Studios because it was much faster than a traditional render. Redshift utilizes the GPU, like a videogame engine, and can render multiple times faster than a conventional render. Because our student renders took longer and longer each year (sometimes as long as an hour per frame), I suggested this would be an excellent opportunity to test it out. Redshift was used on two student projects in 2017; we haven't looked back.

Adobe recently purchased this software not so long ago, and it’s one of the most student-friendly ways of texturing characters, props, and environments. It’s also heavily used in the industry, which is a bonus. This has increased the quality of student work across the board.

Traditionally, when texturing, every object received its material, with several textures applied to it, giving it a specific look and feel. WETA developed a unique workflow that utilizes UV tiles to allow multiple objects of various materiality to share one material. This approach eliminates tedious, time-consuming shader setup and frees up the student’s time to work on other aspects of production.

I introduced Midjourney as a tool to springboard the ideation process by generating initial concepts for various projects. The introduction of artificial intelligence is a remarkable new direction shift in the industry. It will be interesting to see how this is adapted. It’s following a predictable pattern, where traditional arts are resistant to (almost aggressively so) its proliferation. Other advances also saw similar anti-movements: photography, film, 3D animation, digital arts, motion capture, photogrammetry, VR, AR, etc.