Computer Animation Arts

October, month of new starts, stage-fright and rabbits-in-headlights is over and the Computer Animation Arts' Post With The Most is here once more in celebration of our students' enthusiasm, innovation and creativity. Our year one students have just completed their first undergraduate project. For most, it's been an intense period of adjustment leaving them breathless and giddy.  Learning curves have been steep and bumps in the road have been bumpy, but they've done it - their first submission is done and dusted and the beginning of the beginning is over.   The  Invisible Cities project challenges students to envision the cities described by Italo Calvino in his magic-real book of the same name.  Calvino's cities are enigmatic, fantastical and improbable and thus make for thought-provoking subjects for our year one digital painting and concept art project.  For many of our newbies, this is the first time they've used graphic tablets or push...

This month's Post With The Most reminds me very much of those English class assignments beloved of teachers that pose the question 'What Did You Do During Your Summer Holidays?' .  As far as the Computer Animation Arts community is concerned, the simple answer is 'lots!'. Last month's PWTM showcased a number of students who'd returned to previous project work over the summer to improve it, polish it, or otherwise up the ante.  Soon-to-be Year 3 student, Julien Van Wallendael revisited his Year 2 Le Dormeur du Val project, his low-key, but technically ambitious response to Arthur Rimbaud's elegiac poem about the true cost of human conflict.  Rimbaud's 'sleeper in the valley' is in fact a corpse - peaceful against the grass and below blue skies - and dead.  Originally unhappy with some elements of his original submission, Julien chose to to pick the project back up and see it enhanced. Le Dormeur du Val / Julien Van W...