Student Life & Early Work

With Mike & Sully as a Student Volunteer at SIGGRAPH 2013: 40th Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.

What was it like being an Animation student? It was ... INTENSE!

The condensed Animation, Art and Design program covered subjects from Art History, Colour Theory, Life Drawing, Acting, Photoshop, and, Traditional Animation before we even headed into Computer Graphics software.

Once we headed into CG land, there was a mastery of the software (you learn to Save often really fast!) and learning the details and semantics of file naming and organization. The variety of projects assigned range from the Objective, what you have to accomplish, to the Subjective - what you want to accomplish. The latter of which could cause all nighters as an artist with line mileage to consider - you get out what you put in.

One of the great things of being a student was soaking in the festivals and volunteering at events when possible. Siggraph and Spark festivals were two of my faves to attend/volunteer - I was exposed to inspiring content, resources, and many talented artists and technical artists in the field.

Looking back at my student projects makes me want to revisit certain choices however, knowing how much I learned from them, how much fun they were, who I got to make them with and, what it took to get to that point makes me a little nostalgic at past Andrea. Click on the images below to access their video links.

"Life's a Beach" CG Animation short about a newly hatched turtle finding their way in their world.

"The Arrival" an animated Art Installation inspired by Shaun Tan's novel.

Building the framework with help from friends for "The Arrival" an animated Art Installation inspired by Shaun Tan.