Vol. 38, No. 18

2-4-2005
By: Susan Wittstock

Dream Works

classes offer insights into creative process

Visitors to the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Theater are used to sitting back for a couple hours and letting films flicker before their eyes. In that short time, they can absorb and enjoy the final product of a creative work that was typically a multi-year project for hundreds of individuals.

For two hours every Tuesday and Thursday morning this quarter, 75 students sitting in the Film/Video Theater are getting an unusual glimpse into the creative process behind such films as Antz, Shrek and Shark Tale. Nearly every week, a new DreamWorks staffer takes the stage, explaining and answering questions about his or her role in creating computer animated films that can take a team of 400 people four years to produce.

Ohio State is offering two courses this quarter that encourage students to interact with DreamWorks experts. The university’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design is sponsoring both the lecture class, which is intended for undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines, and a hands-on master class, for 15 graduate students affiliated with ACCAD who have experience with computer animation.

ACCAD is a multidisciplinary research center that offers courses and project opportunities in computer graphics and visualization for graduate students and faculty, primarily in design, art, dance, theatre, architecture and computer science. Graduates enter a wide variety of creative and technical fields, but one of the center’s specialties is preparing students for careers in digital animation.

“We’ve had a lengthy relationship with DreamWorks because we have students employed there and because they recruit here,” said Maria Palazzi, director of ACCAD. “Last year, we were invited by DreamWorks, along with six other schools, to come out to California to see what we would like to do to build a stronger relationship.”

Marilyn Friedman, head of outreach and special projects for DreamWorks Animation SKG, said the company decided it was time to make an organized outreach effort, and opted to start with universities with proven track records. “These are the seven we have had good success hiring from and these schools educate in areas we need staff in,” she said. “We’re hoping to add seven more schools to the group next year.”

ACCAD was a natural choice for the initial partnership. “Ohio State has a comprehensive program because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program,” Friedman said. “Our environment is a very organic one — people are artistic or technical or a combination of both — and ACCAD brings all of that together.”

Palazzi conceived of a visiting professor program for the new partnership, and she and Friedman developed that idea into a quarter-long master class that creates a production environment for the students. “We decided there are six departments we will concentrate on and based on those departments, we selected people who had presented or taught before and who could take time away from production,” Friedman said.

Students in the master class, which is taught by Palazzi, were given a character designed by DreamWorks, and are developing that design each week as experts in modeling, surfacing, rigging, animation, special effects and lighting/rendering visit campus.

The lecture class, taught by Katie Whitlock, lecturer of theatre, was structured to follow the same timeline as the master class, taking advantage of the time DreamWorks staff were spending on campus. “It’s a really great way to give a large group of students exposure to the production pipeline followed at DreamWorks, not to mention exposure to the work ACCAD does here at Ohio State,” Palazzi said.

At a Jan. 20 lecture, given by Jeff Hayes, a modeling supervisor for DreamWorks, students seemed to be enjoying themselves. Hayes, in blue jeans and button down shirt, explained a typical day in his life at the studio, and gave students first-hand insight into the technical, creative and communication skills necessary to build cartoon characters like Shrek and Princess Fiona. When it came time to ask questions, hands throughout the auditorium flew up.

“It’s fun because this is a medium they grew up with. It is their culture,” Palazzi said. “It’s great to see the people who create it.”

Seeing might lead to doing, if the classes are as successful as ACCAD and DreamWorks hope.

“I think there are students here who will get recruited because of this, but it is definitely a long-term process,” Palazzi said. Friedman agrees. “We feel good about this and it is altruistic because it helps us put a more human feel to a very highly visible company,” she said. “But, ultimately, we need to show we can acquire really great talent from this.”

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