Animation
KCAI’s animation major provides students with the quality education, technical expertise and career skills necessary to realize their artistic visions and to succeed upon graduation. Animation students receive intensive instruction in classical, experimental and computer animation. Our approach is based on mentorship, creative exploration and self direction.
The animation curriculum is prioritized into a suite of sequential classes that emphasize the creative process by combining aspects of animation principles, concept modeling, production methods, history, theory and technique into each project. Courses within the major have planned synergies that develop over three years the essential skills necessary for students to identify and solve problems in physical, virtual, cognitive and cultural contexts.
Professional practice seminars are a compulsory part of studio practice, and all three levels (sophomore through senior) benefit from exposure to and interaction with visiting artists and other animation professionals, who present lectures, demonstrations and engage with students in interactive, hands-on critiques and workshops.
Jobs and internships
In addition to an ever-growing list of student film screenings in globally competitive festivals such as the Ottawa International Animation Festival, KCAI Animation majors have worked or interned for the following studios and institutions: Disney, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Hallmark Cards, 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, Threehouse Studio
Check out the animation blog.
Animation Faculty
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Doug Hudson, assistant professor and chair of animation
Hudson has worked as an animator, film composer, director and videographer. His minimalist style ranges from stream of consciousness...
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Hudson has worked as an animator, film composer, director and videographer. His minimalist style ranges from stream of consciousness abstraction to short narratives using hand drawn, digital and stop motion techniques.
At Warner Brothers Online in Glendale, Calif., he animated for the cartoons "Looney Tunes," "Gotham Girls" and "Lobo." At UCLA Extension in Los Angeles and College of the Canyons in Valencia he designed and taught various animation courses. His films "Two" and "Dream Police" have shown throughout the U.S. with the latter receiving a director's citation at the 20th annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival. He designed the original Web site for the Academy Award nominated animated short film "More," directed by Mark Osborne. In addition, his work has been featured on KCET Los Angeles and BBC World Radio.
Currently, Doug is busy raising his daughter, running the animation program and working on a new film about the secret life of crows.
Hudson holds 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.
http://hudsonism.blogspot.com/
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Liz Van Verth, assistant professor
After graduating cum laude from Syracuse University in 1995 with a B.F.A. degree in illustration, Liz Van Verth moved to Brooklyn, NY...
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After graduating cum laude from Syracuse University in 1995 with a B.F.A. degree in illustration, Liz Van Verth moved to Brooklyn, NY. Soon after arriving in the city, she established a position in network news at NBC. After demonstrating excellence in learning and implementing digital technology, Liz progressed from still graphic artist for the Nightly News to 3-D animator for Dateline.
Much of her commercial work encompasses reenactment and medical animation as well as freelance design for clients that include MTV, Manhattan Transfer, Inc., Team V Creative and Writers and Readers Publishers. In 2005 her animation was featured in the Pratt Manhattan Gallery show, "Cut and Construction," demonstrating a complicated dress pattern by Madeline Vionnet.
In May 2007, Van Verth received an M.F.A. degree with distinction and honors in outstanding merit in digital arts from Pratt Institute. Her thesis animation "Par Avion" won best concept at the Pratt Show. It has screened at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, NYC ACM SIGGRAPH METROCAF, San Francisco Women’s Film Festival and Kansas City Filmmaker’s Jubilee.
Today, Van Verth continues to create freelance commercial animation as well as her own personal work in her spare time. In 2009, she participated in Art Sounds at KCAI with musicians from the Pangea Piano Project, Blas Gonzalez and Ya-Ting Liou. She also hopes to help promote and feature animation and technology more prominently in the Kansas City art community. Her main focus, of course, is to teach digital animation and technology to her students and help them pursue the many diverse career opportunities in animation.
