The SEMAPHORE

ACCAD Alumni Newsletter
Autumn 2006
The Ohio State University

THE RETROSPECTIVE

Autumn returned last year rich with projects, new students and innovative research. By mid-winter '06, our attention was harnessed by the Csuri retrospective which seemed to take on a life of its own. Words like "destiny", "kismet" and "it was meant to be" pervaded. We are still in awe that over 95 original works, plasma screen installations and exhibit catalogues made it to Boston in time. So, this newsletter begins with thoughts and images from Beyond Boundaries.

Tribute and Thanks

We extend profound gratitude to Dr. Janice Glowski whose expertise and professionalism made the debut of Beyond Boundaries exceptional. Jan's curatorial oversight elegantly wove historical significance into inspiring presentation.

ACCAD hired Jan in February 2006 to oversee an aggressive agenda. From day one, Jan's leadership and diligence transformed the proverbial "blank slate" of an idea into a stunning 176 page color catalogue; scanned files became large format prints and interactive digital installations added relevant documentary. We are forever grateful she accepted the challenge.

The Beyond Boundaries catalogue was elevated to extraordinary by the inclusion of a DVD, produced and directed by alumnus and staff member Keith Kelley.

This DVD includes early animations from the late 1960s, recent Generative Movement work, voice-over by Professor Csuri and more. The DVD is compelling, aesthetically beautiful and a smart companion to the catalogue. We owe a debt of gratitude to Keith's dedication. Keith also produced several other DVDs for the Beyond Boundaries plasma screen installations.

Beyond Boundaries is scheduled to show at the Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan from June - August 2008 and it looks promising that the show will travel to other international venues. This exhibit offers a unique perspective on the emergence of computer animation and profiles an artist beloved by so many of us. It is immensely gratifying to see Professor Csuri honored in this way.

We would like to thank Bonnie Mitchell, Chair of the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, who originated the "retrospective" idea. Much appreciation also to ACCAD/OSU alumnus, John Finnegan's unwavering support as Chair of SIGGRAPH 2006.

There are many other individuals who cannot adequately be acknowledged here for their contributions. We can only say, "thank you" again for making this happen.

Lastly we would like to name those who financially supported this project: ACM SIGGRAPH, Dr. Gabe and Sandi Campbell, DPI (San Francisco), DreamWorks Animation, SKG, FastFrame (Columbus), Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Katzenberg, Pixar Animation Studios, Daniel Slane, The Ohio State University: Office of Academic Affairs and Office of the President. We are extremely grateful for their support.

If you would like to purchase the exhibit catalogue, Beyond Boundaries: 1963 to present, please contact the Wexner Center for the Arts bookstore: wexarts.org./bks To learn more about the catalogue, click here.

NEW COURSE ~ Video Game Production

Last spring (2006), Peter Gerstmann, alumnus and part-time lecturer for ACCAD created and taught a new course entitled, Video Game Production. There was plenty of "buzz" on campus about the new course, with a Lantern article and mp4 video interview linked to the on-line Ohio State News page. Listen and see Peter's description of the course.

The game arcade in this video was custom built from scratch by Peter and student volunteers. There are controls for 4 simultaneous players. Six games have already been created. The Arcade remains on site for students to continue game testing and development.

"BESSIE" AWARD

New York Performance and Dance Award (Bessie), Choreographer/Creator Category, September 2006, Bebe Miller and Company.

Congratulations to Bebe Miller and Company on their recent "Bessie" award for the production of Landing Place. This is an exceptional honor for Bebe, her company, ACCAD and the OSU Dance Department. Established in 1983, The Bessies acknowledge outstanding creative work by independent artists in the fields of dance and related performance in New York City. The Twenty-Second Annual New York Dance and Performance Award (a.k.a. THE BESSIES) was presented to Miller and team "for seamlessly melding a dynamic score, digital effects, lighting, sets, and powerful choreography done with maximum commitment into an evocative performance affirming the power of community in Landing/Place at Dance Theater Workshop."

Vita Berezina-Blackburn of ACCAD had a prominent role through her innovative contributions to Landing/Place. Vita repurposed motion capture data collected from Company dancers and transformed the data into alluring images projected into the stage performance.

STUDENT ACCOLADES

Matthew Bain ( Design - Digital Animation and Visualization) collaborated with Jason Banks (Theatre) and Matthew McCarren (Theatre) on an ACCAD/Theatre course assignment for Digital and Physical Lighting (spring 2006). The team submitted their project and received an invitation to exhibit "Haiku" in the Prague Quadrennial International Exhibition of Scenography and Theatre Architecture, this June 2007.

Lane Kuhlman, (Design - Digital Animation and Visualization) received a Microsoft Research Female Academic All-Star scholarship from the Microsoft Corporation to attend the "Serious Games Summit", in Washington, D.C., October 30-31.

John Canemaker
November 16, Wexner Center Theatre

ACCAD and the Wexner Center for the Arts co-sponsored a lecture/ presentation by filmmaker, John Canemaker. Mr. Canemaker is one of the leading figures in American animation. An award-winning animator of profoundly original and personal films, he is also the author of numerous works on the medium's history. Canemaker shared his insights on animation history while introducing a selection of his own work including "Bottom's Dream", a meditation on A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his 2006 Oscar-winning short "The Moon and the Son".

ALUMNI UPDATES

Mike Altman (2004) wrote, "Lots of changes: a) New Job: Senior Modeler with Laika Entertainment; b) New Location: Portland, Oregon!; c) 3 credits in the "Ant Bully": Character Modeling, Character Finaling, Additional sets and props; d) New Website: www.mike-altman.com Hope all's well at ACCAD."

Miho Aoki (2000) although the event, "POLARities: Aesthetics/ Experiments/ Observations" was this past September - Miho noted that one of her pieces was included. The exhibit highlighted artists exploring the connection between science and technology and the artists' inspiration and creative processes.

German Bauer (1992).... Recent job change for German: left Adobe Systems, Inc. and joined Google's User Experience Team.

Leslie Bishko (1991) presented, "Laban for Animators" at the Montreal International Games Summit: http://www.montrealgamesummit.com/2006/prog/. Last summer she presented "Visualizing the A Scale: a visual supplement to teaching Choreutics" at the 24th Biennial Conference of the International Council of Kinetography Laban:
http://www.ickl.org/conf05_london/sessions/sessions26.html, to be published in the conference proceedings.

Ian Butterfield (2002) is heading into his 5th year at BlueSky Studios. He was recently promoted to Senior Materials Technical Director. Last year he finished work on Ice Age: the Meltdown where he created materials for the characters: Scrat (the squirrel), Manny (the mammoth),

Ellie (the girl mammoth) and a variety of other characters, props and sets. He also worked on No Time for Nuts a short that will be featured with the "Meltdown" DVD. On the short, he made materials for Scrat, the time machine, and the sword Excalibur. Ian also worked on test projects

of possible feature films for Director Chris Wedge. He is now working on characters for BlueSky's next feature Horton Hears a Who (2008). Ian recently moved to the city of White Plains to enjoy a 7 minute walk/commute to work and said he "still does the same ol' things...video games, drawing, fonts and the game "Go". www.ianbutterfield.com.

Wooksang Chang (2000) had his short film, "ToyArtist: Papa & Baby" selected for the Animation Festival at SIGGRAPH this year in Boston. He is very busy and wishes everyone well.

Tom DeFanti (1973) wrote to say his new "coordinates" are: Research Scientist, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), in LaJolla CA. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, he is director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of Computer Science, and the director of the Software Technologies Research Center. 

Currently, Dr. DeFanti is principal investigator of the NSF International Research Network Connections Program TransLight/StarLight award to UIC that provides a persistent 10 Gigabit networking infrastructure between the USA and Europe, and he is co-principal investigator of the NSF OptIPuter cooperative agreement with UCSD (Larry Smarr being the principal investigator).

Todd Fechter (2002) is living in Dallas, TX and freelancing until the upcoming Spring semester when he will be teaching full time at the University of Texas, Dallas. He plans to pursue a tenure track position beginning Autumn 2007. He and his wife Jaime had their first child, Ella on August 23rd. Todd says, "she is awesome...I love being a dad!"

John Fujii (1989) wrote, "It was good to see Chuck and many alums at the SIGGRAPH 2006 event in Boston this year. I had the honor of being Chuck's last GRA while at ACCAD before his retirement, so it was wonderful to see him honored there." John also received an honor during SIGGRAPH 2006, the Outstanding Service Award: for creativity, dedication, and leadership within the computer graphics community. It is a biennial award of which John is the 7th recipient. His award citation highlights his affiliation with ACCAD/Ohio State and 20 years of volunteer service for SIGGRAPH. John added, "Currently, I'm working on another conference committee, this one slated for Los Angeles, SIGGRAPH 2008, in an operational role. Beyond that, I'm still working as a graphics engineer with Hewlett-Packard in Fort Collins, CO. My specialties reside with Linux-based high-end graphics workstations used in engineering animation, and complex computation. My dedicated support client is DreamWorks Animation. Best regards, ~ Samurai John.

Selim Gencoglu (2004)... is working as a freelance designer in Ankara, Turkey.

Rick Lucas (1986)....will be delivering a paper to the AAANZ Conference (Art Association of Australia and New Zealand) at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 7,8,9. The title is "Twenty-Five years of aesthetic developments in Digital Arts" 2) He recently exhibited (Aug 06) in group exhibition at The Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, NZ; and 3) he will be getting married this summer (our winter) in January. Congratulations Rick.

Katie Lynch (2005) is in Los Angeles working for Naked Sky Entertainment. She adds, "I was doing 3D art (models, textures, etc.) and have moved on to particle effects and working on the web site. We have a game, Roboblitz, coming out this fall (it was delayed)."

Michael Miller (former staff member) wrote, "Illinois is treating us well. NCSA has moved to a new building and my group was very busy setting up 7 AccessGrid nodes. The technology has come a long way in ease of use, now we just need someone to release an open source MPEG4 codec and things might take off."

Torsten Möller (1999)...."I am on a sabbatical. I will be in Vienna (Technical University) until the end of October. From November through August 2007 I will be at the EPFL in Lausanne. Any Accadians in these areas are welcome to stop by! ;)"

Beth Novak (2003) wrote..... "I just started my fourth year on the tenure track at Ohio University in Athens. I enjoy teaching immensely, but that has been eclipsed by the recent birth of our first child, Jaxon Brody Novak! Hope all is well at OSU!" Congratulations to Beth and family!

Moon Seun (1994) was recently interviewed for an article on independent animation in issue #82 of 3D World Magazine. 3D World: Why did you make the decision to leave DreamWorks to work full time on "Henry's Garden" Moon: Working at the major studios was very challenging and invigorating at first, but after 5 years in the industry I felt my personal creativity deteriorating rapidly. I really wanted.. (cont)

Clarke Stallworth (2001) wrote, "I made it through the dreaded first year of law school and last I checked my sanity is still intact :) I'm back in law classes now and am simultaneously teaching several Maya lighting classes at SCAD Atlanta. Busy. My best to all the ACCADians."

Brock Stearn (2003) is at Rhythm and Hues and most recently worked as the show Lighting Lead on Superman Returns and again on Happy Feet.

Samantha Steele (2003) recently accepted a position as Designer with Limitedbrands in Columbus. She is working with the "Store Design and Construction" division. Samantha also recently gave birth to daughter "Maddy". Congratulations to Samantha and family.

Todd Swepston (2005) is currently working as a free lance CG artist...and more specifically...."I currently am working on several projects with Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus as a 3D modeler and animator for simulators (a.k.a., serious videogames)." His web site: www.robotoadweb.com.

Traci Temple (2005) received her PhD from the OSU Art Education Department in 2005. Traci writes, "I'm living in Holly Springs, North Carolina with my husband Marc. I am the Assistant Director for Instructional Development at North Carolina State University. I work with faculty and graduate students who want to develop teaching strategies when using technology for their courses, and I have an adjunct faculty  position in the College of Design teaching Web design and traditional drawing courses. I'm also finding some free time to draw and paint, and I'm loving it!"

Katie Whitlock (2004) recently moved to sunny California to be Assistant Professor of Theatre Design at Chico State. She is teaching courses related to criticism, history, sound design and media explorations.

Jeff Wolverton (1994) wrote, "I'm back at Sony Imageworks working on Spider-Man 3 after Narnia and a stint at Stan Winston Pictures working on Fantastic Four (keeping with the comic book flicks). I also worked a bit on the upcoming Ghost Rider. More info is on my website: www.JeffWolverton.com"

Nanette Wylde (1995) is doing well in Northern California. She is tenured Associate Professor at California State University, Chico where she developed and heads the Art Department's Electronic Arts Program. She continues to make and exhibit -- socially reflective, language-based works. Her home is in the Bay area where she happily cohabits with two dogs, two cats and one artist/educator/husband. Recent projects include: Meaning Maker: www.meaningmaker.org AND Jargon Reducer: www.jargonreducer.net.

RECENT GRADUATES

Shana Burns , MFA, Design, Spring 2006.

Thesis: "Creating an Educational Tool Utilizing Design Intensities for the Set Design Process of 3D Computer Animation". Shana is currently looking for a full time position.

Yootai Kim, PhD, Computer Science and Engineering, Spring 2006.

Thesis: "Control of Physics-Based Fluid Animation Using a Velocity-Matching Method". Yootai is working in the User Interface Lab, Digital Media R&D Center in Samsung Electronics near Seoul, South Korea. His job is to design and develop user interface for digital consumer appliances like interactive digital TV, MP3 players or Personal Media Players.

Yootai added, "My paper 'Path-based Control of Smoke Simulations' was published in Eurographics/ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Computer Animation, 2006.... Sincere greetings to everyone!"

Arun Somasundaram, PhD, Computer Science and Engineering, Spring 2006.

Thesis: "A Facial Animation Model for Expressive Audio-Visual Speech".
Arun is working for Disney Animation in Los Angeles, CA.

ACCAD is a teaching and research center in computer visualization
and digital animation at The Ohio State University