Taxonomy term

Animation is young.  How young?  Well, before Film was possible or even thought of, Peter Roget presented a paper called “The Persistence of Vision” that explained to the British Royal Society that a succession of images could induce the illusion of movement and life.  That was in 1824- less than 200 years ago.  One year later, to test his theory, the Thaumatrope optical toy is used to demonstrate and confirm Roget’s idea.

Rochester Institute of Technology has been producing top animation talent for over thirty years with numerous award-winning alumni to show for it. The school’s BFA and MFA in Animation are housed in the School of Film & Animation and accordingly offer an enviable list of diverse courses that explore the craft of both live action and animation film making. To learn more about the exciting work that RIT students and faculty are doing, we caught up with Assistant Professor and veteran stop motion animator Tom Gasek who is currently in New York for the program’s Big Apple Animation, one of many compelling reasons for serious students to look at RIT.  (This phone interview has been edited for clarity).

As part of our Interview Series we have tried to capture advice from successful animation entrepreneurs that have carved-out a place for themselves in the industry, so it's a good thing we ran into Nathan Dillow. Nathan Dillow is the Creative Director for his collaborative animation house Fuzz Animation, and a fairly ingenious entrepreneur.

It isn’t every university that offers state-of-the-art, industry leading tools and a motion capture studio for its animation undergraduates. Nor is it customary to find a program that culminates in a high quality short film made entirely for and by students. Training students in the art of animation, the University of Colorado Denver’s Digital Animation Center pushes the bounds of what is offered and expected of its students. Home to an elite group of undergraduates and a veteran ensemble of faculty, the rigorous BFA curriculum prepares graduates for the wide possibilities that await them.