My Students' Work
The following are just a few examples of the excellent work my students at STLCC Florissant Valley produce every year. To view the videos full-screen just click on the image to play it and then click the full screen symbol in the lower right-hand corner. Enjoy!
Title IX Awareness PSAs
This multi-semester project required close collaboration with Paul Huddleston and the Radio Production students. The final videos have been used multiple times as part of the larger Title IX Awareness effort.
The Storyboarding and Animatics students worked with the Radio Production students to develop the scripts and concepts. The Production students did the voice acting and sound design while the storyboard artists created all the visuals.
The students presented their video storyboards (animatics) before a panel consisting of members of the FV Title IX Task Force, the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, YWCA and a number of other instructors in both Mass Communications and Graphic Communications. The panel gave feedback and rated the ideas on a number of criteria, narrowing the final selection to the two strongest ideas which would move into final production.
In the following semester my Animation Tech. 2D class worked from the animatics to create the final animation. The class functioned as two mini animation studios for the half the semester they spent creating the final films you see here.
The Storyboarding and Animatics students worked with the Radio Production students to develop the scripts and concepts. The Production students did the voice acting and sound design while the storyboard artists created all the visuals.
The students presented their video storyboards (animatics) before a panel consisting of members of the FV Title IX Task Force, the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, YWCA and a number of other instructors in both Mass Communications and Graphic Communications. The panel gave feedback and rated the ideas on a number of criteria, narrowing the final selection to the two strongest ideas which would move into final production.
In the following semester my Animation Tech. 2D class worked from the animatics to create the final animation. The class functioned as two mini animation studios for the half the semester they spent creating the final films you see here.
Domestic Violence
Sexual Assault
Storyboarding & Animatics
This course is an introduction to pre-production planning for special effects and animation as applied to multimedia, interactive media, video and film. The class will focus on communicating the drama of movement and special effects through effective design and pacing. Course topics include storytelling, storyboarding formats and flowcharts, along with sound track and script interpretation.
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"Toby on the Pursuit"
Writing Prompt: The Pursuit
Artist: Star Huddleston Voice Actor: Anna Donovan Year: Fall 2016 |
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TV Commercial Pitch
Client: Off The Couch Youth Music and Arts Festival
Artists: Josh Tate and Naketia Wilson Year: Fall 2012 Notes: For this project the class was split into teams of two to create a TV commercial concept for their client, the Off The Couch youth music festival. Working from a creative brief supplied by their client they had three weeks to concept and storyboard their idea for a commercial. The challenge was to clearly convey their idea to the client using only drawings. |
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"Bad Luck"
Prompt: "Man Vs. Nature"
Artist: Chelsea O'Bannon Year: Fall 2016 |
Fundamentals of Animation
This course teaches the basic principles of animation and how to apply them to create the convincing illusion of motion. They will explore the concepts of acting, staging, and storytelling through the creation of a number of short animated projects.
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Project 1: Stop Motion
Animator: Tommy Benoist
Year: Fall 2015 Notes: This project introduced the students to the basics of frame by frame film-making known as stop motion animation. In this process an object is placed in front of the camera, a single picture is taken, then the object is moved ever so slightly and another picture is taken. This process is repeated 24 times for every second you see on screen. The students could use anything from found objects to clay to paper cutouts. Each student shot more than 360 individual pictures to tell their 15 second story. |
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Project 1: Stop Motion
Animator: Amber "Rex" Burkett-Scott
Year: Spring 2015 Notes: The criteria for this project were the same as the previous one. |
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Project 2: Bouncing Ball
Animator: Mike Piwowarczyk
Year: Spring 2012 Notes: This project introduced the students to the technique known as hand-drawn animation. Motion is achieved by making a series of drawings each slightly different from the last. The challenge was to simulate the effects of gravity on a bounding ball by controlling precisely how much one drawing differed from the next. At this time we didn't have much equipment so projects were drawn on paper, filmed with a webcam and sequenced in the computer, hence the low-def video. |
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Project 3: Biped Walk Cycle
Animator: Johnny Schulz
Year: Spring 2018 Notes: A classic animation exercise in which students use the pose-to-pose animation technique to create a repeating walk cycle for a bipedal character. Before beginning this project, I discuss with them some basic principals of character design and how to convey personality through even something as seemingly basic as a character walking. The students then design their characters and use digital animation tools to create the walk. |
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Project 4: Quadruped Run Cycle
Animator: Taylor Gooden
Year: Spring 2015 Notes: The students took their motion studies a step further from two legs to four. Because each animal is different in their musculature and how their joints bend each animal moves very differently. That means there is no template for creating their motion. It was up to each student to research their chosen animal studying its anatomy and footage of the animal in motion in order to effectively replicate its movements. After the rough animation was approved the students used computer drawing tools to clean up and color each frame of animation and add a background resulting in a finished piece for their portfolios. |
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Project 4: Quadruped Run Cycle
Animator: Maria Fette
Year: Spring 2014 Notes: The criteria for this project were the same as the previous one. |
Animation Techniques: Digital 2D
Building upon what the students learned in Fundamentals of Animation, students will further explore techniques for the creation of animated films and videos. This course will introduce students to the use of sound and lip-sync. Students will learn a variety of strategies for creating digital 2D animation including cell, cut-out ("flash" animation), and freehand.
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Reaction Animation
Project: Project 3 - Reactions
Animator: Chelsea O'Bannon Year: Spring 2018 Notes: At the beginning of the semester the students were given the challenge of designing an original character based on randomly selected traits provided by the Fundamentals of Animation class. The students created a full model sheet, turnaround, and expression sheet for their character. The students used this information to help them come up with a short animation in which the character reacts to a text message. They had to determining how their character would react to receiving good news and bad news. The goal was to show as much personality as possible through body language alone. |
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"Death's Day Off"
Project: Ad-Lib Animation
Prompt: "What the Grim Reaper does on his day off." Animator: Megan O'Loughlin Voice Actor: Christina Lohe Year: Spring 2015 Notes: In this collaborative project each animator was partnered with a Radio Production student. The two-person teams chose a prompt then headed into the recording studio where the voice actor improvised lines based on the prompt. The animator then took that audio track and created an animation inspired by the audio. |
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"Play Dead"
Project: Short Film
Animator: Karolyn Zheng Audio Source: 11SecondClub.com Year: Spring 2016 Notes: For their final project each student was given the opportunity to create a short film. They could either work with a voice actor from Radio Production to record an original script or use audio from The 11 Second Club (an ongoing contest for professional animators). |
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"Lorelei's Rainy Day"
Project: Short Film
Animator: Tommy Benoist Voice Actors: "Lorelei" - Breanna Hackmeister "Mother" - Gabby Hegwood "Spider" - Tommy Benoist Year: Spring 2016 Notes: This student truly went above and beyond. Tommy wrote an original script, assembled and directed a full voice cast, and developed a unique visual style for the film. He is continuing to work on this piece on his own time. I very much look forward to seeing helping him enter it into film festivals once complete. |
Motion Media Design
This course provides instruction in the use of still imagery, typography, sound, special effects, video and other digital media to create animated, motion graphic sequences.
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"The Story"
Project: Kinetic Typography
Animator: Alyssa Ewing Audio: "The Story" by Jimmy Needham Year: Spring 2018 Notes: This project teaches the basics of creating motion graphics in Adobe After Effects. Students select an audio clip that inspires them and, using only type and simple graphics, create an original video. Special attention must be paid to typographic choices and graphic design principles. |
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"Paper Tiger"
Project: Kinetic Typography
Animator: James Ortwerth Audio: "Paper Tiger" by Beck Year: Spring 2014 Notes: This project teaches the basics of creating motion graphics in Adobe After Effects. Students select an audio clip that inspires them and, using only type and simple graphics, create an original video. Special attention must be paid to typographic choices and graphic design principles. |
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Personal Logo Animation
Project: 3D Logo
Animator: Kayla Lawrence Year: Spring 2018 Notes: This project introduced students to modeling and animation in Maxon Cinema 4D. They designed a logo for their personal brand, then created and animated it in Cinema 4D. After primary animation was completed, they imported their logo into Adobe After Effects to add finishing touches and sound. The students also learned how to use Adobe Premiere to optimize their animation for online use. |
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Personal Logo Animation
Project: 3D Logo
Animator: Alyssa Ewing Year: Spring 2018 Notes: The criteria for this project were the same as the previous example. |
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Cambodia Logo
Project: Logo Animation
Animator: Jamie Lawrence Year: Spring 2016 Notes: In this project students took a logo previously created in Graphic Design II and used After Effects and Cinema 4D to animate it. Animated graphics like this are becoming more and more popular for branding and promotional use online making this a valuable component in a Graphic Designer's portfolio. |
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ReWalk Logo
Project: Logo Animation
Animator: Wally Seton Year: Spring 2016 Notes: The criteria for this project were the same as the previous one. |
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"College Survival"
Project: TRiO Commercial
Animator: Joey Medlock Narration & Sound Design: Paul Huddleston Year: Spring 2017 Notes: For this year's commercial project our client was TRIO Student Services. They asked us to create a series of commercials which could be utilized on their website to promote awareness of the services TRIO can provide. After the initial meeting with the program Coordinators of TRIO, my students learned how to write two-column scripts for commercials. Each student picked a particular service of to focus on and began creating the script and storyboard for their commercial. Based on the storyboards, they designed all the assets to be animated using Adobe Illustrator. They then partnered with Mass Communications students who provided the voice-over and sound design for their pieces. Finally, my students used Adobe After Effects to produce the final animation. |
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"Scholarships"
Project: TRIO Commercial
Animator: Deric Liddell Narration: Cierria Simmons Sound Design: Anna Donovan Year: Spring 2017 Notes: The criteria for this project were the same as the previous example. |
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Learning Tree Commercial
Project: Commercial
Animator: Craig Harris Narration & Sound Design: Robert Mense Year: Spring 2015 Notes: The past few years have seen a rapid growth in online advertising, and Motion Graphic commercials are a very popular choice for this new market. In this project students learn how to create this type of commercial. They begin by researching an existing product or service, creating storyboards and script for their commercial. They take their script to KCFV where they work with a Radio Production student to design the audio for their commercial. Finally, using Adobe Illustrator the animator creates graphic assets which they then import into Adobe After Effects for final animation. |
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"STLCC: So Much More" Commercial
Project: Commercial
Animator: Wally Seton Narration & Sound Design: Anna Donovan Year: Spring 2016 Notes: For this year's Commercial project we used STLCC's new So Much More website as inspiration, making a commercial designed to highlight the benefits of different majors at STLCC Florissant Valley. The process and parameters for the commercial were the same as previous years. |
Digital Illustration
This course is an exploration of the methods and theories of creating illustrations using the computer as the medium. A special emphasis will be placed on creative processes and using computer graphic software to produce illustrations.
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"Mech"
Project: Speed Painting
Artist: Sierra North Year: Summer 2013 Notes: The goal in this project was to produce a quick study of a geometric object using a WACOM Tablet and Adobe Photoshop. |
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"Poison Study"
Project: Cover Illustration
Artist: Erin Knadler Year: Summer 2013 Notes: For their final project students were tasked with creating an illustrated book cover. They picked an actual book which they felt had an unimpressive cover and worked to improve it through the creation of an original illustration. |
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Graphic Arts Association -
The following are the first 15 pages of the anthology comic "Galactic Axolotls" produced by members of our college club. During this two-year project, each student created a character complete with bio and model sheets. They shared the characters with each other and each person wrote and illustrated a story about the characters. This unique collaborative project will be professionally printed using money the students have raised by doing commissioned art at various events in the St. Louis Metro area.
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