Vol. 38, No. 18

7-20-2005
By: Susan Wittstock

Future image makers: ACCAD offers summer camp for teen girls

Outside, the sun is blinding and the heat is stifling. Inside, the air is cool and the lights are low. Computer monitors, arranged in three rows, provide a soft glow that reflects on the faces of 18 girls. Some of the teens sit alone, heads angled in concentration, observing the results on screen as their fingers fidget on their keyboards. Others have arranged themselves in groups of two and three, examining a single monitor as they talk in hushed tones.

It’s summer vacation, but rather than take a break from sitting in a classroom, these young women have enthusiastically volunteered to come to Ohio State and spend June 20-July 1 with mentors from the Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design. The passion that drives them? Learning how to do computer-generated animation.

Dominique Cummings, 14, is attempting to animate a crowd in a stadium where a frog with a microphone is introducing a music act. The image isn’t flashing the way it’s supposed to, and ACCAD Director Maria Palazzi spends a few minutes with her trying out different methods to solve the problem. It’s hard to fix, but Dominique doesn’t seem to mind. “It’s fun,” she said. “I really love animation and have always been inspired to be an animator.”

It’s a passion Palazzi understands. As an undergraduate at Ohio State, she was studying graphic design when she attended a presentation by Chuck Csuri, widely known as the father of computer art. “I saw his talk and it was like magic to me,” she said. She quickly realized she’d stumbled onto her life’s calling.
Now she’s helping other women get an even earlier introduction to the science and art of digital animation. For four years, Palazzi has organized and led the two-week summer workshop that gives girls hands-on experience with the technology. This year, 57 central Ohio girls in grades seven through nine applied for the 18 spots.

This summer, Palazzi enlisted the help of six paid women mentors, five of whom are undergraduate or graduate students at Ohio State taking course work at ACCAD. The sixth is a former participant in the workshop who is now pursuing a computer graphics degree at DePaul University. Each mentor is assigned three young charges with whom she works for the entire workshop, helping to acquaint them with the state-of-the-art software they use.

As a professor, Palazzi has noticed a decline in the numbers of women enrolling in computer animation classes. Originally viewed as an artistic subject that pulled in female art and design students, the field has come to be more closely associated with computer games and cinema special effects, areas that tend to have more appeal for males.

“For me, I loved what I did, and I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t appealing to other women,” Palazzi said.

The summer workshops are helping a new generation discover what Palazzi already knows: technology can be fun.

The seminar isn’t just about sitting at computers. The participants did research for the first few days, which culminated in a field trip to Big Darby Creek. There they spent at least part of the day in the creek, hunting for crayfish and collecting water samples. A naturalist talked to them about the wildlife that lives in and near the creek and about the environmental and political issues related to nearby housing developments.

“From that, they created storyboards that are the blueprints for their animations,” Palazzi said. Each of the six groups was assigned a topic, such as ecosystems or species, which they used to develop a computer-animated short.

Giving the students a specific topic to learn about that they then must communicate to others using animation is an important part of the experience. “I want to get the message across that making images that move can be thoughtful and useful,” Palazzi said.

On the last day of the workshop, the girls were able to show off their new skills to their parents and each other. “All your girls could be future image makers in this world,” Palazzi told the packed room.

Each group presented their finished piece, and each girl had the chance to take the microphone and explain her role in creating it. The mood was festive, with each animated short — projected onto a large screen at the front of the room — greeted by applause.

On screen, glaciers retreated, replaced by dirt and trees. Arrows zipped through woods. Fish in scuba gear explored land. People washed cars. Three fish sang the pop song “Survivor” while shimmying in unison. Crayfish traveled on a leaf on the water’s surface. People cut down trees with chainsaws and new trees were planted as replacements.

Afterwards, Dominique and her mother, Bev Cummings, joined the other participants and their parents for cookies and punch. “It was really great for her to be with people who share the same interests,” Bev Cummings said. “She was just so excited every day.”

More information about this year’s Digital Animation summer program at ACCAD can be found at http://accad.osu.edu/womenandtech/2005/.

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