Meeting & Agendas

A quorum being present, Department Chair Priscilla Wicker called the meeting to order at 6:30pm.

All faculty and members introduced themselves and were welcomed. Priscilla Wicker explained the role of the advisory committee and explained the requirements of electing a Chair and Co-Chair of the committee. She then asked for nominations.

Motion: Leah Bowers nominated Sandee Valle for the Chair position. Billy Kidwell seconded the motion. Geno Garza nominated Kirk Cameron as Co-Chair. Steve Lewis seconded the motion. Both motions passed by acclamation.

Sandee Valle gave a brief synopsis of the department’s history and explained the need to review the current and proposed 2D Animation degrees and discuss the industry need to expand and adopt an additional Motion Graphics specialization.

Priscilla Wicker asked members for feedback on repeated tasks in their job duties with regard to 2D Animation and Motion Graphics industries; tasks that the department needed to teach the students to be successful in an entry-level position in the industry. She also asked for feedback on future industry trends. Megan Kluck - 2D Animator – Suggested we teach symbol animation for Flash. Foundation figure drawing is another skill students need. Bounce, walk, natural weight, and timing. She feels, however, the courses we are offering are great for students and are teaching them the foundations of traditional animation. The company where she works is doing a lot of web games and in doing so, creating a lot of avatars. Steve Lewis – Does HUD/UI design. He feels it is important that students learn how to work with a team. Naming conventions and organizational skills need to be enforced. Learning how to play off your strengths to focus on one skill like animating OR modeling. It is important for students to network. Geno Garza – Senior Designer at KVUE uses combinations of After Effects and 3D Programs. They use Cinema 4D and ultimately, After Effects. Need great art skills and drive to work in fast paced environment. They are creating graphic assets and handing them off to the editors for compositing. Create fly-in logos, render movies with alpha channels and giving them to editor to place over the video. They are using Final Cut Pro systems for editing. Students need to know TV aspect ratio, pixels, etc. but most work is done now in 1920 x 1080 HD. Have to know how to import photoshop layers as comps. Jimmy Tovar – Freelancer Animator - Indicated that he likes the 2D Animation curriculum and suggested if possible to have students learn more life drawing skills. Jimmy asked if there were any acting assignments? Steven Mullins suggested that Jimmy or someone from the industry come in to show a demonstration on acting out the movements to produce animated frames. Jimmy stressed that the importance of learning acting was so students wouldn’t rely on stock acting footage. Software suggestions – Toon Boom software. He suggested that students learn to be versatile in their skills: storyboard, sound, editing, and animatics, but have great foundation skills. Mike asked if a student’s portfolios should reflect versatility in skills or specialized skills. Jimmy stated that he would prefer to see strong foundation skills using pencil tests. Leah Bowers – Game Designer building content in Unreal Editor – For Motion Graphics Leah believes students should know the relationship between the programs like After Effects, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, etc. Understanding timing in animations is important. Understanding Type. Compression tools. Plug ins and how to make your own. Both Mac and PC proficiency is important. Need to know how to compress on both systems. Mike Stevens asked if students should be proficient in symbols as well as traditional methods? Members answered it would be good for students to know both. Learn traditional early on and then move on to symbols and Flash in advanced classes. Kirk Cameron – Produces movie credits - Suggested that instead of Mathematics students should take Physics I to learn the principles of Physics and apply knowledge to visual effects. Sandee Valle – Explained that she is a voice over producer and voice is very important to animation. Voice for animation brings the characters to life and so the voice over actors must have acting ability to bring out the character properly in voice over techniques. Mike Stevens explained the voice over skills the students learned in classes and how they are applied to the projects. Billy Kidwell – 3D Artist (but initially started out in motion graphics). He suggested that the students know what the output is going to be prior to the build. One asset might be used in different formats and therefore the focus of the asset may vary dependent on the output. Students need to explain how they did something or why. Mike Stevens asked the members which software was the industry standard used for digital painting, Painter or Photoshop. After a brief discussion it was agreed that Photoshop should be used to teach the students digital painting skills.

2D Animation AAS and Certificate – Mike Stevens explained that the 2D Animation degree plan has worked well over the years, but there are minor changes he is proposing and briefly explained each change to the curriculum taught in each course. He also explained that the curriculum is now moving toward using Toon Boom software as well as Flash. Members agreed that both software packages are used in the industry. Motion: Steve Lewis made the motion to adopt the proposed degree changes and Geno Garza seconded. The motion passed by acclamation. Motion Graphics AAS and Certificate – Steven Mullins informed the members that the proposed Motion Graphics degree sent to the advisory members prior to the meeting was new and requested feedback on the proposed curriculum track. Members asked specific questions of learning outcomes and software packages to be used throughout the track. After discussions were completed members agreed to adopt the proposed degree track and review it again once year after the degree has been implemented. Motion: Kirk Cameron made the motion to adopt the degree as proposed and Sandee Valle seconded the motion. The motion passed by acclamation.

Sandee Valle asked if there were any questions from the members. The question was raised about the date for the next meeting and the department chair decided that the next meeting would be set at a later date. Being no other questions, she adjourned the meeting at 8:55pm.