CS STUDENTS HELP CAPTURE 2 STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS

Two decorated short films produced by the BYU Center for Animation, co-sponsored by three colleges, including the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, picked up even more honors when the 2009 Student Academy Award winners were announced on May 18th.

Kites and Pajama Gladiator each received an award in the animation category from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The films, produced entirely by BYU students, took two of the three animation awards offered by the Academy, with the third going to Sebastian’s Voodoo from the University of California-Los Angeles.

Students from the Department of Computer Science played a significant role in the creation of both films, said Parris Egbert, the department chair.

“The main roles the computer science students play is in providing the technical expertise that is required by these films,” he said. “The art students do great art work, the animation students do a great job of creating the models, shading them, and animating them, and the computer science students fill the role of adding the programming pieces. For example, in Pajama Gladiator, computer science students created the crowds in the fight scenes. In Kites, Computer Science students created the clouds.”

The top-quality work produced by BYU’s Center for Animation has garnered significant attention from many Hollywood animation studios, including Pixar and DreamWorks. A number of students have already gone on to work for the big studios after graduation.

Egbert said BYU computer science grads are filling a healthy portion of those industry positions.

“The animation studios are looking for technical people that also have artistic ability,” he said. “Thus, the [computer science] students that participate in the animations are in extremely high demand. Having that combination of skills is rare, and the students that meet those criteria are being highly recruited.”

Indeed, industry leaders Pixar Animation Studios were so impressed with the students’ work that they entered into an official mentoring partnership with the BYU Center for Animation in 2008.

However, despite all the interest coming from the film industry, Egbert said computer science students are obtaining job placement in a number of different animation fields.

“The students are landing jobs at all of the major studios, including Pixar, DreamWorks, [Industrial Lights and Magic], and Sony, as well as game companies such as Avalanche, EA Sports, and Microsoft Games,” he said. “It is the combination of computer programming and art/animation that makes [the students] so valuable. Having the programming background, and then working on one of the animations, gives them experience that few other schools provide.”

The Center for Animation and its projects have been highly successful, despite the lab’s relatively short existence.
“Since the program [began in 2001], we have produced nine animations. All nine of them have won Student Emmy awards, and four of them have won Student Academy Awards,” Egbert said.

All of the awards and recognition have brought a great amount of attention to BYU – a fact that Egbert believes ultimately benefits the students.

“All of the animation studios have taken notice of the program. They visit us regularly and are impressed with the success we have had,” he said. “While the students are expected to put in a lot of work on the animations, it pays off handsomely for them with the job offers they are receiving.”

The BYU Center for Animation is a joint venture by the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, the College of Fine Arts and Communications, and the Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. The students are currently nearing completion on the lab’s next film, Xing (pronounced “Crossing”), slated to premiere in 2009.

--by Steve Pierce, College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

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