COMPUTER DREAMS · SENIOR THESIS · 1997
My senior thesis in college. Very primative by today's standards and what students are capable of. However, it was an extremely fun experience for me back then. Since my college didn't have an animation curriculum, I used Ringling as an example to model after. I didn't even know Ringling existed until the spring before my senior year, but I was inspired by what they had their students do, and tried my best to create something along those lines.

Toy Story was also a big inspiration for me. The film came out during my junior year and of course it was exactly what I wanted to do, cg animation. The Art of Toy Story became my "text book" for my thesis. While I can't say the animation I created was anything special, I did try to make a complete production. Since most of my study was geared to design, I wanted to have movie style posters and "behind the scenes" type of print work to go along with the video. Not just because I thought it was cool, but also to help the faculty understand what I was doing and the process by which I got there. It was a very traditional fine arts faculty and the computer was almost seen as an evil tool by some. We were required to create a display in the Snite Museum of Art on campus. A screen with a video alone wouldn't quite cut it.

In the top image to the left you can see a mockup up of the display I created with my professor, Paul Down. It was simple, but it got the job done and I was pleased with how it looked in the museum. Back then we didn't have flat panel tvs, so the screen is actually very deep, which was the main problem, how do we not make it look obnoxious? Originally, I was going to just cover the tv with one panel and have the posters on the wall, but it was so deep and didn't look nice. I ended up creating a staggered look to hide it better. I remember building that thing over spring break and having just enough nails, paint, and boards to finish the job. I really think someone was looking out for me.

This project was a huge learning experience for me. I really had never animated characters before and had no clue what IK(inverse kinematics) was. My computer hopper was actually done with FK, a very painful process. I also wrote and story boarded a much more ambitious story. Even though it isn't that long, it was more then I could actually accomplish in two semesters. The final ended up being the first two scenes, but it worked. Someday, I actually want to go back and redo everything, knowing what I know now, and actually fnish the entire short film. At the rate I'm going on my current film, not sure that will ever happen. However, I am extremely thankful for having the opportunity to do this thesis project in the first place.