keyleedaud (REAL ESTATE)

If you're riding the Toronto subway between Sept. 7 and 17, check out the electronic message boards for the Toronto Urban Film Festival .  Films are screened in the subways, so while waiting for your train, you have the chance to see one or more short films. Three of this year's films are by Sheridan students.  Yeti by Eva Zhou, Amare by Katarina Antonic and Bygone Bounce by Shen Ramu.

Katarina Antonic , a new graduate of Sheridan's animation program, has started a Sheridan animation channel on Vimeo and it already has 58 films on it.  Some are fourth year films, done by individuals, some are group films from third year and some are 24 hour films.   For the past several years, during reading week in the fall and winter semester, students have organized their own 24 film projects.  It was started by Ashltyn Anstee, now at JibJab, and was continued this year by Charlie Richards. While many Sheridan films play festivals or have been uploaded, many more are rarely seen.  I hope that this channel becomes a hub for student work.

On May 8  at 7 p.m. at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Sheridan College's animation program will present a retrospective of student films.  Thirty six of the over 500 films created in the last 5 years have been selected to show the range of work done by Sheridan students.  Information can be found here and tickets can be purchased in advance here .

It's that time of year again. The Sheridan class of 2012 met the industry on April 26. Industry and faculty line up to register Sheridan President Jeff Zabudsky addresses the industry prior to the screening The students set up their areas in the Learning Commons prior to the industry's arrival. After the films are screened, the industry mixes with the students. L to R: Omar Al-Hafidh , Tony Song (way in the background) and Jeremy Bondy .  Omar's film, Out of Bounds , is a cautionary tale of child safety.  Tony's film, Just Remember Me , features a girl trying to download her late father's essence into a robot.  Jeremy's film, Pollen , is a chase with a twist ending. Victor Preto 's film, Theft , uses Flash in a very sophisticated way. Evee Fex-chriszt 's film, The Terrible Bandit , shows off her masterful drawing and animation skills. Garth Laidlaw 's film, Finally , anticipates the zombie apocalypse. Kirsten Whitely animated the opening for her T...

It's almost that time of year again, where the students graduating from Sheridan's animation program screen their films for industry guests. The above is a taste of what's coming.

I'm writing this post for the benefit of Sheridan animation students and grads, but it may prove useful to others. If you are not on salary or working under a contract and somebody asks you to produce some art or animation, here are the things you need to know in writing before you start work. How much will you be paid and what is the payment schedule? Are there royalties or other compensation you are entitled to in the future? What are the specifics of the work you are providing? What format are you delivering the work in? When is the work due? Then there is the question of rights. What exactly are you selling in exchange for the money? Are you selling the work outright? Are you selling the work only for a specific use? Are you selling the work for a limited amount of time? Is the sale for exclusive or non-exclusive rights to use the work? Will the artist get screen credit or be allowed to sign the work? If the client provides this information in a written document, you have the ...

(Updated Below.) The industry awaits the screening April 28 was Sheridan's annual industry day for its two animation programs. It wasn't until it was over that I realized that I took far fewer pictures this year than in years past and I don't know why that is. For photos of past industry days, click here . Each year, the student faces change, but the guests and the events stay pretty much the same. Based on industry attendance this year, it appears that the business is recovering from The Great Recession. There were companies from outside the local area attending, including DreamWorks, Walt Disney Television Animation, Bioware, Pixar, Atomic Cartoons, JibJab and Blue Sky. Nine studios conducted job interviews on campus on April 29. Many of the local studios prefer students to come to their premises for interviews. I didn't see any TV cameras this year, but the Toronto Star covered the event. Above, the students set up their presentations for their post-screening ...

The Sheridan Alumni Association is holding a reception and screening on Wednesday, April 6 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West in Toronto. There is a reception with food and drink starting at 6 p.m, followed by a screening of The Best of the Ottawa International Animation Festival 2010 and Sheridan student films that have won awards from the Toronto International Film Festival. That screening starts at 7 p.m. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the Lightbox or online for $20. You have to RSVP in advance for the reception, and details for that can be found on this page .

Scott Caple is having a show of his work at the Toronto Cartoonist Workshop, 486 College Street, just west of Bathurst, in Toronto. The opening is Friday, Feb. 25 from 7 to 11 p.m. Scott is a 30 year veteran of the business, having done effects work on Raiders of the Lost Ark and layout and design for films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Incredibles . He's worked for Nelvana, Industrial Light and Magic, Don Bluth, Disney and Pixar and has also done designs for videogames and book illustrations. For the last several years, Scott has been teaching layout at Sheridan College, where he also mentors 4th year students in the making of their films. While the art will be up for awhile, it is in the regular classroom space of the workshop. As such, the retrospective doesn't really have regular hours. Scott tells me that he'll try and set up an additional time when the art can be viewed for those who can't make it on Friday.

Kevin Parry has posted the opening title to Sheridan's industry screening last week. Besides Kevin, Andrew Murray , Andrew Wilson , Allison Neil and Adam Pockaj were responsible for the concept and execution of this piece, including the voices. It has a playfulness and a spontaneity that exceeds many of the films produced over the course of the full year and it's a reminder to all of us that if we have fun making a film, the odds are that the audience will have fun watching it. Sheridan College Animation Intro 2010 from kevinbparry on Vimeo .

Another school year gone. Another group of graduates stepping out into the world. Another industry day. What's below just scratches the surface of what went on. Second and Third year student volunteers prepare for the crowds. The graduates of the four year program get set up to meet the industry. Veteran story artists Jim Caswell and Warren Leonhardt . Left to right: Paul Teolis of Nelvana ; Michael Carter , President of CASO (Computer Animation Studios of Ontario) and Jim Caswell. Frank Falcone of Guru Studios . A view of the post-graduate computer animation program workspace. Steve Schnier of Vujade and John Lei of Noodleboy Studios . Kevin Parry with his characters from the stop motion film The Arctic Circle . Carla Veldman with her characters from her stop motion film The Scarf . Allesandro Piedemonte ( A Cut Above ) and King Mugabe ( Red Snow ). Andrew Murray ( Blind Date ) is interviewed by a reporter from CHCH TV.

This was a comment I contributed to a December, 2008 post called The Final Customer . As graduation time once again approaches, I'm giving it its own entry. Here's some basic advice I'd give to graduates from any year. Network aggressively. If you know people in the business, start talking to them now and keep talking to them. It's good to touch base with people when you're not looking for work, just so they don't think that the only time you get in touch is when you want something. If you're lucky, you'll learn what studios are busy and you can target them. Apply to any animation-related job you can find. Knock on studio doors and if you are lucky enough to talk to people, get their business cards and send them a thank you email. Stay in touch with them once a month. If there are any industry associations, join them. [ I would add that you should join business networking sites like LinkedIn . ] If there any industry events, attend the...

Last week, the 4th year students at Sheridan had a screening of their story reels. I mentor 10 of those students, out of 108 this year. I've been looking at my students' reels as they developed since September, but it's always different seeing work with an audience. It struck me that there are three stages the students have to tackle in order to make a successful film, and various films were already at different stages. The first is clarity. Can an audience understand what's happening on screen? I've asked students to explain something I don't understand about their films and their explanations make sense, but what's in their heads hasn't been communicated on the screen. Things, often important things, get left out. Clarity is pretty easy to achieve once a storyboard or story reel is shown to a few people, as they inevitably ask questions about things they don't understand. Logic is a bit tougher. Getting the events of a film and the character...

I'm posting this for Ken Walker, the technologist of the post-grad CGI program. Here are the details: Hey All, Three years have gone by so fast!!! It is time again to sell off all of our current workstations to make room for the new ones for the next 3 years. We are only selling the workstations not the monitors. We are using the Monitors for next year so we can have Dual monitors to work with for all machines in the lab. Note: These workstations have been very well cared for. They have been cleaned every 6 months. All the dust bunnies blown out. They have been the most reliable equipment we have used to date. Here is the config of the workstations we are selling: IBM model: 6217-pju IBM A-PRO series IntelliStation Nvidia Quadro FX 3450 video card - is open GL and Direct X compatible (works great with Maya and for playing Games) 4 gigbytes RAM 2 - Dual Core AMD Opteron model 280 @ 2.4 Ghz 80 Gbyte SATA Hard Drive - note the mother board is a server mother board and has RAID ...

The Magic Cauldron by Andy Zeng This Tuesday at 7 p.m. (and repeated on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m.), a selection of this year's films by Sheridan animation students will be running at Toronto's Bloor Cinema. The program runs approximately 90 minutes and admission is only $5. You can see a trailer for the program here and a list of the films here . Below is a map of the Bloor Cinema's location. View Larger Map

For those of you in Toronto, here's a list of the Sheridan student films that will be screened at the Bloor on June 9 at 7 p.m. and again on June 10 at 9:30 p.m. It's open to the public and admission is $5. You can see a trailer I cut together here . The one line descriptions are mine, not the film makers. Higher Education – A mean teacher faces the Last Judgment. A film by Hernando Bahamon, Zélie Bérubé, Christian Camaroschi, Sheng-han Chang, Mélanie Daigle, Amber Holowaychuk, Angela Kim, Alex Kung, Henry Lidstone, Michelle Moger. Smores – A day in the life of a chocolate man in a graham cracker world. A film by Inigo Ahedo. El Cacto – When a desert town runs out of water, who ya gonna call? A film by Garrett Hanna. Hopetown – Hope springs eternal for a stuffed bunny. A film by Will Postma. Lobster Boy – The story of an underwater outcast. A film by Tracy Qiu. Homework Hydra – So much homework, but so many distractions. A film by Ben Hu. Monkey and the Moon – B...

Here's a trailer I put together for the Student Animation Showcase, featuring the work of Sheridan College students. It's June 9 at 7 p.m. and again on June 10 at 9:30 at the Bloor Cinema, located at Bloor and Bathurst in Toronto. Admission is $5. (If you're a Sheridan student, all the films in the trailer are in the screening, but there are additional films that are not in the trailer for various reasons. I'll be emailing everybody the list of films to be screened in the next few days.)

An article from the National Post . The student on the right is Tapan Gandhi.

Courtesy of student Frank Macchia , who uploaded it, here's a TV news report from CHCH in Hamilton on Sheridan's industry day. Laura Friesen and Frank are featured as students. Other people visible include instructors Scott Caple and Jim Caswell (1:11-1:15), instructor Tony Tarantini, and student Brent Dienst (1:34).

Once again, it's industry day. The work of graduating students is screened for people who are looking for talent. Below is a collection of photos from today. Robin King, founder of Sheridan's cgi program and currently a consultant. Students and guests inside the cgi lab. Frank Macchia (left) and Mark Sperber prepare to receive the industry. Left to right: Animator Stephen Barnes, John Mariella of CORE and independent producer Doug Masters. Sheridan alumnus Marceline Gagnon-tanguay, currently at Blue Sky. Two aerial views of the learning commons, where the students met the industry. Three excellent animators I've had the pleasure of teaching. From left to right: Jason Teeuwisson, Brock Gallagher and Kelly Turnbull. Naz Ghodrati-azadi's film is called Gobbled . She'll be moving to Los Angeles this summer, so west coast studios should keep an eye out for this talented animator. Tapan Gandhi's film is called The Ballad of Amelia von Earl . Tracy Qiu's film...