Spring 2008

April 5 - Visiting Artist Workshop - Zack Petroc (Digital Sculptor)
April 4 - Visiting Artist Lecture - Zack Petroc (Digital Sculptor)

Zack Petroc is a sculptor and conceptual artist currently working as a freelance artist for feature film and video games. He's one of the masterminds behind several DVD tutorials on ZBrush and anatomy from the Gnomon Workshop and has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a Bachelor's in sculpture and a dual minor in drawing and digital media. He also studied anatomy at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Florence, Italy. His past work includes 3D modelling for the film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" and its making-of DVD, "Brave New World", and is currently working on a series of sculpted model novels entitled "Attaboy".

The workshop run on April 5th covered a number of topics involving character development.

January 19 - Visiting Artist Workshop - Hunter Grant (Blizzard Enter.)
January 18 - Visiting Artist Lecture - Hunter Grant (Blizzard Enter.)

Hunter Grant graduated from our very own Bowling Green State University. He has worked under several companies in the game industry as animator on titles such as Command & Conquer: Generals and Earthworm Jim IV, and worked as an animator for the feature film "Barnyard". Hunter currently works for Blizzard Entertainment on their Cinematics team as Senior Animator, working on cinematics for esteemed titles such as World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and Starcraft II (trailer).

The workshop run on January 19th focused on lip-syncing 3D characters to a sound clip within Autodesk Maya.


Fall 2007

November 16 & 17 - Zbrush Workshop - Andrew Pavlic (BGSU alumni)

Andrew Pavlic graduated from BGSU as a digital arts major with a focus on 3D animation and modelling. He will be presenting modelling tips using the advanced features of ZBrush.

November 2 - Visiting Lecturer & Workshop - Jessica Maloney

Jessica Maloney is an assistant professor at Ashland University in Ohio. Her workshop will focus on the encaustic process using digital images and wood.

October 5 - Visiting Lecturer - Zack Simpson Booth (engineer, artist)

Zack Booth Simpson creates interactive immersive algorithmic artwork using computers, projectors, and cameras. Drawing from a long history as a game developer and a broad knowledge of science, he creates simulations that draw participants into a world they often find challenging, magical, and thought provoking. The natural sciences, especially psychology, ecology, biology, and physics, influence all of his work. Zack is also a research scientist in molecular biology, his principal interest is studying the cell as a computational device.

September 19-23 - Ottawa Int'l Animation Festival Field Trip

The Ottawa International Animation Festival features some of the best animations from around the world. Students attended workshops, animation screenings and lectures (and pumpkin carving contests, as seen on our website!).

Spring 2007

June 11-July 26 - Lima ArtSpace Gallery Exhibition of Members artworks
May 2 - End of Year Art show and Animation Screening Reception
April 21 - 22 - Visiting Artist Workshop - Andrew Gordon (Pixar)
April 20 - Visiting Artist Lecture - Andrew Gordon (Pixar)

Andrew Gordon, from Pixar will be discussing the animations he worked on over the last 10 years. He will show animation production clips from films such as Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles. His work on the "Speaking Whale" scene in Finding Nemo led to an award for "Outstanding Character Animation" from the Visual Effects Society. Andrew studied animation in Vancouver and currently teaches at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He just wrapped up animation on Pixar's next film, "Ratatouille."


Weekly Sunday workshops open to Chapter members

February 18 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering workshop
February 25 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop
March 4 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop
March 11 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop
March 18 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop
March 25 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop
April 1 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop
April 8 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop
April 15 - Animation Workshop and Lighting & Rendering Workshop


February 14 - Animation screening - Early animations
January 25 - Visiting Artist Lecture - Viktor Koen
January 26 - Visiting Artist Workshop - Viktor Koen

Viktor Koen was born in 1967 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem and an MFA with honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Mr. Koen serves on the faculty of Parsons School of Design and the MFA program of the School of Visual Arts. His images are regularly published in the NYTimes Book Review, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Money and Forbes. His clients include: Atlantic Records, Delta Airlines, IBM, Penguin Putnam, Random House, Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Reader's Digest, New York, Man's Journal, Bloomberg Personal, Fortune, Smart Money, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.


Fall 2006

November 17 - Visiting Artist Workshop - Chad Green (Activision)
November 16 - Visiting Artist Lecture - Chad Green (Activision)

BGSU alum Chad Greene will be here November 16 and 17 to visit classes, present an artist lecture, and give an advanced rendering workshop.

Chad is currently a Senior Technical Director at Activision, heading up teams of artists that produce Xbox 360 games. Previously he did modeling, texturing, and lighting for feature animations, including Shrek, Antz, and The Polar Express. He has also worked at a number of other studios, including EA Games, EA Sports, and more.

Workshop topics included: lighting do's and don't, optimization tips, advanced lighting using Mental Ray (GI, Final Gather, HDRI), advanced Mental Ray shaders (ambient occlusion, SSS, etc.), and the importance of production rendering and using layers/compositing.

October 19 - Visiting Artist Lecture - Mary Flanagan
October 20 - Visiting Artist Workshop - Mary Flanagan

Mary Flanagan About her work Flanagan says," I explore the relationship between computers and everyday life from within a technologically infused culture. Her installation, MEME.GARDEN, is "an internet application that visualizes patterns in prevalent streams of interest among participants in pop culture, and allows users to interact with the data in real time, through time."

In the 1990s, Flanagan garnered over 20 international awards for titles produced for The Discovery Channel, Creative Wonders/ABC, and Knowledge Adventure. She is the creator of The Adventures of Josie True, the first web-based adventure game for girls, and is collaborating on a new project to teach middle school girls computer programming, RAPUNSEL. An internationally exhibited artist whose work has been shown at the Whitney and Guggenheim Museums, SIGGRAPH and Ars Electronica, Flanagan directs the Tiltfactor research laboratory and teaches at Hunter College in Manhattan. MEME.GARDEN won the prestigious Juried International Net Art Competition in 2005.

October 4 - Workshop - Painter Techniques
September 20 - Electronic Theater Viewing
September 6 - Introductory Meeting