Animation
The award-winning animation program at KCAI provides a unique learning environment for students to successfully explore their creativity and to produce animation within personal and professional contexts.
Experienced faculty provide well-rounded instruction in classical, experimental and computer animation. However, one approach, idea or piece of technology is never prioritized over another. Instead, our method is to encourage students to think and act for themselves while exploring fresh new approaches and solutions.
Senior-level majors are offered a year of structured studio time devoted to producing a significant personal work. The goal of the senior graduation animation project is for the students to complete productions that exemplify their mastery of the medium to date. This approach fully prepares students to enter the field with a strong portfolio and a well-rounded sense of artistic and technical confidence.
Professional practice is a compulsory component of all three years, and every animation major benefits directly from interaction with world-renowned visiting artists, scholars and professionals. These generous mentors present their work and engage the students in one-on-one critiques and group workshops.
Upon graduation, students are fully prepared for entry-level work within the animation industry or to seek and create opportunities on their own as freelance independent artists.
Professional opportunities may include: animation studios, feature film and television production, independent short-form film festivals, museum exhibition, teaching and corporate media. Many of our graduates have gone on to further their studies at top graduate schools, such as Cal Arts.
Current software applications being taught include:
Photoshop, After Effects, Premier Pro, Maya, Cinema 4D and Dragonframe.
Jobs and internships
In addition to an ever-growing list of screenings in national and international film festivals, such as the Ottawa International Animation Festival, three of our graduates won a silver Student Academy Award in 2010 for their film, "Dried Up." Visit our YouTube channel to see the film.
KCAI Animation majors have worked or interned for the following studios and institutions: Disney, DreamWorks, Digital Domain, Nickelodeon, Hallmark, Shadow Machine Films, Bill Plympton Studio, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Bazillion Pictures, T2, MK12, Intake Studios, Encyclopedia Pictura, Dream Studio, Fuzzy Duck Design, Titmouse Inc., Panda Panther, Grasshorse and Threehouse Studio.
Animation Faculty
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Doug Hudson, associate professor and chair of animation/digital media
Douglas Hudson is an independent animation director and educator. Hudson is associate professor and chair of animation/digital media at KCAI. He established the college's Student Academy Award-winning animation department in 2004.
His minimalist approach to animation ranges from stream of consciousness abstraction to short narratives using hand drawn, digital and stop motion techniques. He also produces and composes all the sound and music for his films.
At Warner Brothers in Glendale, Calif., he animated for the online Flash-based cartoons Gotham Girls and Lobo and was a member of the first team of animators to produce original Looney Tunes shorts for the Internet in 2000-2001.
Hudson earned a B.F.A. degree in animation from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and an M.F.A. degree in experimental animation from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia under the mentorship of Jules Engel.
Douglas Hudson on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/doughudson
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John Baker, special instructor
John Baker joined KCAI in 2010 and teaches courses in digital media and animation. Previously he was an animator with MK12, a Kansas...
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John Baker joined KCAI in 2010 and teaches courses in digital media and animation. Previously he was an animator with MK12, a Kansas City-based motion graphics firm, where he was responsible for generating concepts for clients from storyboards to final animation and worked as editor and data manager on national and international film and video production. At MK12 he was responsible for shooting footage, including client work and internal short films, and he handled filming and processing green-screen footage, rotoscope work and various visual effects. Before that he was an animator with Video Post Productions in Kansas City, where he worked in 2-D and 3-D animation for national and international clients. He has worked on projects for the Salvation Army, Oregon Lottery, Microsoft, BBDO, Harmonix, Swiss Air International, Fox Television, Mastercard, Universal Pictures and Budweiser, to name just a few.
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Christoph Steger, assistant professor
Christoph Steger is an animation director whose films explore the grey areas between traditional animation and observational...
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Christoph Steger is an animation director whose films explore the grey areas between traditional animation and observational documentary. His animated films are subtle studies of characters, places and events.
Steger believes that animation can access aspects of reality that lie beneath the surface of what is visible. By using animation, he highlights the subjective nature of all kinds of documentary work.
His work has been screened on television in the United Kingdom and Europe and was shown at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and numerous other international film festivals.
In 2007, the Arts Council England and Channel Four funded scheme Animate! commissioned his film "Jeffery and the Dinosaurs," a mixed media documentary that explores the work and struggles of outsider science fiction artist Jeffery Marzi.
As part of the London animation community, Christoph has worked on a wide range of commercial and cultural projects for BBC, Channel Four, Amnesty International and other British and European clients.
Christoph holds a B.A. degree in visual communication from the Hochschule RheinMain in Wiesbaden, Germany. In 2004, he received a scholarship for postgraduate studies in art and design from the German Academic Exchange Service and went on to earn an M.A. degree in animation from the Royal College of Art in London.
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Melinda Robino, special instructor
Melinda Robino began her career as graphic designer and typesetter. In 1987, she was selected to beta-test a little-known computer...
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Melinda Robino began her career as graphic designer and typesetter. In 1987, she was selected to beta-test a little-known computer called Apple (at the DuPont Company). From there Robino moved on to establish one of the first desktop publishing companies in the state of Delaware.
Since then Robino has taught high school and college level multimedia programs in Maryland and 3D animation at Olathe Northwest High School in Kansas. During her 8 years of teaching, Robino continued her own training and has become certified in multiple software programs while nurturing her love of the fine art. From 3D training at Stanford University to pouring bronze at SCAD in Atlanta, along with many freelance projects in between, Robino has honed her teaching skills to include a blend of art history, drawing, storytelling and animation.
Robino has a B.S. degree in Human Resource Management from Wilmington College in Ohio, an M.S. degree in Curriculum Development and Instruction from Emporia University in Kansas and graphic design certification from the University of Delaware in Newark.
