SCAD AnimationFest Brings Industry Giants To Atlanta
The third annual Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) AnimationFest kicks-off Thursday, Sept. 26. The three-day festival will feature discussion panels, screenings, masterclasses, and networking events with industry leaders from animation companies such as Pixar, Dreamworks, and Adult Swim.
SCAD card holders receive complimentary access to the festival, and tickets are available for purchase for $40 for the general public and $25 for high-school and university students. Passes for individual screenings are also available. For families, the most popular event is the Saturday morning cartoons pajama party. All AnimationFest events will be held at the SCADshow theater.
“I’m most excited about the screenings” says Amaya Proctor, a second-year film student at SCAD. “Dreamworks always comes and does a panel and an early screening of an unreleased movie.” This year’s exclusive screening will be the movie “Abominable”, followed by a presentation from Dreamworks FX supervisor Jason Mayer, who is also a SCAD alumnus.
“The great thing about animation is that it is everywhere.” Says Tina O’Hailey, professor of animation. She says that when looking at a screen, the audience expects something to animate.
Panels will focus on the new platforms for animation such as motion graphics, Transmedia Animation, and Cinematic VR, the latter of which O’Hailey is most excited about, “I’m excited to see that grow. Whether it’s for entertainment, games, etc. but also for useful application like in Augmented Reality.” With new development in VR animation, panels by executives from Dreamscape Studios will offer insights into this relatively new technology and the benefits it offers to animators.
A Sept. 27 panel will feature Mike Reiss, writer and producer for “The Simpsons.” Reiss will screen a couple of classic episodes and discuss them. Following the screening, there will be a book-signing for Reiss’s best-seller “Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing,” which exposes the fine points of his time working on “The Simpsons”.
This year’s recipient of the festival’s Achievement Award will be actor and singer Lucas Grabeel. The actor, famous for his work in “High School Musical”, will be a part of a panel discussing his most recent accomplishments as a voice actor.
Students are encouraged to attend the festival, even if they are not Animation majors. For example, Catherine Ramsdell, chair of Liberal Arts at SCAD, exhorts her writing students to go to every festival SCAD has to offer. “In all creative industries, somebody has to do the writing,” she says.
O’Hailey presents this event as a networking opportunity for students. “You never know who knows who, and just shaking a hand and listening to someone’s ideas. It’s those things that help build relationships.”
The Festival is an opportunity for students and faculty alike to showcase their award-winning animated shorts. The last event on Saturday is a preview of the new show from Atlanta-native Adult Swim. The show originally premieres October 7, but the audience at AnimationFest gets a preview of the first four episodes.
