Dear SVA Computer Art majors, I have no interest in camouflaging the challenges you will face as professional artists in this, the most challenging and potentially rewarding of all the careers in the visual arts. But, I am not pessimistic about the industry nor the profession that you desire to join. Our mission, our task is to clearly and constructively set the standards you will need to compete and succeed. Simply and positively. Each year we take great pride in providing you with the faculty to challenge you and the tools that will enable you to complete great projects. Welcome to the 2014/2015 academic year at SVA Computer Art! John McIntosh, Chair .... New this year: Network Re-cable and Upgrade (see Matthew McKenna for more information) This summer the entire network was re-cabled with Cat6a Ethernet cables. This should increase the reliability of network file transfers and Internet access. In December, network hardware will be added to support 10GbE , which will essentially increase network transfer speeds by 10x in production labs. The 10GbE network should be up and running just in time to handle our render crunch period. Green Screen Cyclorama (see Joseph Mulvanerty for more information) We have installed a permanent ProCyc green screen cyclorama in our green screen studio. The cyclorama adds a level of professionalism to the studio and should allow for flexibility in shooting footage from multiple angles. Digital Video Cameras, Lenses, and Support (see Brian Frey for more information) We have increased our inventory of Blackmagic Production Cameras to 3. This camera has a super 35 size sensor and shoots 4K CinemaDNG RAW and 1080p Apple ProRes HQ with 12 stops of dynamic range. We have augmented our stable of high-quality lenses for our camera systems. This year we have added Canon Cinema Prime Lenses (85mm, 50mm, 24mm, 14mm), Canon 24mm Tilt-Shift Lens, Canon 70-300 Zoom Lens, and a Zeiss 15mm Distagon Lens . We will be introducing a Varizoom Solo Jib and Dolly for use with pan/tilt/tracking/boom shots as well as a MOVI M5 , which is a gyroscopic camera stabilization system for use in acquiring smooth handheld footage. Color Grading Suite (see Brian Frey for more information) In addition to our continued use of Assimilate Scratch , we are adding the capabilities for color grading using DaVinci Resolve . Color grading hardware has also been upgraded. This includes a 25 Sony OLED Monitor for color grading, a 60 Samsung Plasma client monitor, a Blackmagic Ultrascope and a Blackmagic UltraStudio 4K capture and playback device. Sound Recording Room (see Brian Frey for more information) The Sound Recording Room has been upgraded to Avid C|24 Control Surface and an Avid HD I/O audio interface. These upgrades will ensure full compatibility with Pro Tools 11 . Motion Capture (see Richard Hagen for more information) With the addition of 4 new cameras, our Optitrack Flex 13 system now has the capability to capture 2 individuals at a time. We have also added the use of Faceshift software for markerless facial capture. Rendering (see Richard Hagen for more information) We have upgraded 9 computers in our core render farm. While we did not add any more nodes, the new dedicated render computers should increase the speed of our core render farm by at least 20%. Computer Systems (see Matthew McKenna for more information) 309 has been upgraded with new 3.0 Ghz 8-core Mac Pros . These Mac Pros have also been installed in the Green Screen Studio and the Color Grading Suite. All of our PC labs have been standardized on the HP Z820 computers with Quadro K4000 cards. 206, 208, and 311 have been outfitted with color-critical NEC Monitors . New Software Updates (see Matthew McKenna for more information) Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 Master Collection is being deployed in each classroom and lab. We look forward to using Shotgun, the project and asset management tool, in a much more integrated manner this year. By the start of classes, each junior and senior (as well as production and thesis faculty) will have accounts created automatically. As use of Shotgun grows in this program, we envision it as the production pipeline hub for all thesis projects. We continue to support Arnold , Vray , and Mental Ray renderers within Maya and we will continue to use both Qube! and Deadline as render management tools. Please keep in mind that the render farm is not just for 3D and that VFX software such as Nuke can be rendered on the farm. As always, follow our best practices or ask Richard Hagen for guidance on using the render farm. Software updates include Autodesk 2015 software (Maya, Mudbox and Motion Builder), the Foundry Production Collective (Nuke, Modo, Mari, and Hiero), 3D Coat , Unity ,Unreal Engine , UVLayout , Quixel Suite , and PTGui. We have also increased our licenses to GenArts Sapphire Plugins from 2 to 30. In our Mac and PC labs, we have made the operating system jump to Mac OS 10.9 and Windows 8.1, respectively. New Faculty: Michelle Czajkowski, SVA Computer Art alumna, is the creator and artist of the very successful online comic Avas Demon. Previous to this, she was a Character TD at Dreamworks Animation and a concept artist at Nathan Love, and a PUP intern at Pixar. Her film projects include Home and Me and My Shadow. You can follow her ever evolving comic at avasdemon. She will joining us for Thesis Research this fall. Mitch Deoudes is a Director, VFX Artist and on-set Superviosr. He has worked for many companies including Industrial Light & Magic, MPC, Framestore, Psyop, The Mill, Method Studios and many more. His credits include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Immortals, Clash of the Titans, Fantastic Four, The Hulk, X-Men, Godzilla, Spawn, Star Trek VIII: First Contact, Twister, Casper and many more. Mitch will teaching the always important Python Scripting class for our Sophomores this year. Harry Dorrington is a Director and Creative Director at Nice Shoes. He has previously worked for Gravity, RhinoFX, RG/A, Lambie Nairn and BBC Television. His recent clients include Hasbro, Vanguard, Titleist, Frontline, Ford, K-Mart, Sears and more. He has won Clios, an Emmy nomination, and awards and honors from D & AD, Leaf, Mobius, BDA, and Promax. After many years of acting as a Thesis Jury member and guest lecturer, Harry is taking on the role of Thesis instructor. Ben Fox is a 3D Generalist and FX Technical Director who has worked at Framestore since 2009. While his primary role is R&D and execution of VFX assets such as cloth, liquid, fluid and rigid body elements, his work also includes character and creature animation, lighting and rigging. In addition, he has also developed multiple pipeline tools, including cache release and simulation management. He is currently developing FX and environment assets for a project using Unreal Engine 4. His credits and clients include Salt, Smurfs, GEICO Gecko, Snickers Sharks and Qualcomm Snapdragon. Ben will be teaching the Juniors in Animation III this fall. Diego Garzon is an Effects TD at Blue Sky Studios. Before joining Blue Sky he worked at Blizzard, AnimalLogic, The Orphanage and Pixar. His credits include Epic, Fantastic Four, Rio 2, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Diablo III, Legend of the Guardians, Wall-E, Happy Feet and more. Diego was published in both Siggraph 2013 and Siggraph 2104 for his effects work on Epic and Rio 2, and he’s been nominated for an Annie award for his effects animation. Diego will be teaching our Seniors in Production Skills. Jordan Harvey, SVA Computer Art alumnus, is a 3D Generalist at Psyop. Hes previously worked at Stardust Studios and MeadWestvaco. His clients/credits include British Gas, IBM, Fanta, Lowes, and he was the lead animator and level designer for Psyops first mobile game: Nightmare: Malaria. Jordan will be joining us this year as a Thesis instructor. Luke DiTomasso, SVA Computer Art alumnus, is a Visual Effects Supervisor, and Chief Operating Officer at The Molecule. His credits include The Butler, A Winter’s Tale, A Walk Among the Tombstones, What Maisie Knew, Nurse Jackie, The Americans, Orange is the New Black, Royal Pains, and much more. Luke joined us mid-semester in the Spring, and returns this year as a Thesis instructor. Tim Doolen, SVA Computer Art alumnus, is the Art Director of Muse Games. Tim has been with Muse Games since graduating from our department in 2009. His work on Guns of Icarus and Guns of Icarus Online have made him one of the earliest users of Unity in NYC. Beyond art direction, Tim also acts as artist, 3d Generalist, project lead and scheduler. He will be teaching our Video Game Design elective this year. Arielle Krantzow is the Training and Outreach manager of Wix, as well as a freelance Designer and Design Consultant. Her recent projects include The Klee: branding, logo and website design; Little Lavender: division branding and marketing; Meyer Uranovsky Art: website Design. Arielle joined us recently to teach WIX workshops for Continuing Education, and will teach her first Undergraduate Website Design course for us this Fall. Kristin Labriola is a Development Producer at Hornet Inc. Previous to this she worked in many various production roles at Blue Sky Studios where her credits include Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaur, Rio, and Epic. Kristin works with many directors at Hornet to develop and produce work for clients including Nespresso, Rice Krispies, Kellog’s, Honda, John Lewis, and more. Kristin is currently working on a short film with fellow Computer Art instructor Rachel Tiep-Daniels. Kristin will be teaching our seniors in the Business of Being an Artist class. Emily Miethner is the founder and CEO of FindSpark, the largest meetup for interns and new grads in the country, which is dedicated to helping creatives with career success. Emily has produced over 100 events for more than 9,000 attendees, and was recently mentioned in the New York Times as a top career resource for young professionals. She is also the Founder and CEO of MCG Social which works with clients on Social media strategy and management. Her clients include Zynga, Elizabeth Arden, Viacom, Warby Parker, NBCUniversal, Time Inc., and more. Emily will be teaching our seniors in the Business of Being an Artist class. Yunsik Noh has worked as a compositor and VFX Coordinator for 9 years. He currently works at Brainstorm Digital where his credits include The Wolf of Wall Street, Annie, The Immigrant and more. Previously he worked on the PBS series NOVA scienceNOW series for seasons 1-5 in which he was nominated for an Emmy. Yun will be working with our juniors in VFX and Compositing III and IV. Vadim Turchin is a VFX and CG Supervisor and Animation Director. He has worked at many studios including Humble, Curious Pictures, Brand New School, Stardust and Psyop. His projects and clients include Mercedes, ESPN, Toyota, Nike, Cadbury, PBS, Disney, Showtime, A Most Violent Year, Perfect Strangers, and Vicky Christina Barcelona. Vadim will be joining us as a Thesis instructor this year. And finally, we also welcome new staff member Joseph Mulvanerty. Joseph is our new Cross-Platforms System Administrator, and he comes to us with years of experience, most recently at Mechanism Digital. It is my pleasure to welcome you back to another great year at SVA Computer Art! John Mc
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 20:43:58 +0000
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