Three Top-Line Animators Join Visionfest 2007
VisionFest 2007- a juried computer animation contest and professional evaluation opportunity for high school and college students - has announced three additions to its roster of industry professionals participating in the event.
Conrad Montgomery of Walt Disney Television Animation, Rich McKain of Blue Sky Studios, and Dave Dorman, an independent artist, will join keynote speaker Rick O'Connor of Industrial Light and Magic-Lucasfilms, at VisionFest 2007, August 16-18, at the Indiana University School of Informatics on the campus of IUPUI. All speaker sessions will be in room IT 152 in the Informatics and Communication Technology Complex, and are free and open to the public.
Montgomery, the recruitment coordinator for Walt Disney Television Animation, will present "Walt Disney Television Animation 101", Friday, August 17, 9:00 PM. His professional work includes Disney's Kim Possible, Emperor's New School, American Dragon and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Montgomery is responsible for training artistic talent, and serves as a liaison to the Disney Channel as well as the division's video shorts program - more popularly known as Shorty McShorts' Shorts.
A Los Angeles native, Montgomery freelanced as an associate segment producer for Good Morning America until graduation from California State University Northridge with a degree in Cinema and Television Arts. He now focuses on discovering artistic and creative talent for Disney's animated television unit.
Rich McKain of Blue Sky Studios is a return speaker to VisionFest. His last feature animation project was Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, and is currently working on Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who. He will speak on "Interactive Media", Saturday, August 18, 2:00 PM.
McKain previously was senior animator in the CG department of the Oddworld Inhabitants studio. Oddworld Inhabitants' award-winning animation included Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee.
McKain became interested in animation in high school while taking a rudimentary class in computer graphics and animation. Largely self-taught, he has completed several drawing classes at the Alberta College of Art and Design and the University of Utah.
Dave Dorman is an Eisner award-winning illustrator, working as a professional artist since 1979. He is best known for his photo-realistic renderings of action and fantasy subjects. He will speak on "Sequential Art" Friday, August 17, 4:00 PM.
A Michigan native, Dorman is also largely self-taught, having also completed several painting classes at Joe Kubert School of Comic Art. Dorman has done artwork for comic, book, and game publishers, including The Batman for DC Comics and the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series for Dark Horse Comics. Additionally, he has done a wide range of book and magazine covers, including the Aliens, Lone Wolf, and Surfing Samurai Robots paperback series, and many other single book covers. Aliens: Tribes, an award-winning, illustrated novel featuring 24 of his paintings, is available in hardcover and paperback, as a limited edition series of Star Wars lithographs.
His current projects include the Young Jedi Knights and Han Solo series of paperbacks, and toy design for the Aliens 4: Resurrection movie.
Rick O'Connor was announced recently as VisionFest 2007's keynote speaker. He recently completed work on The Spiderwick Chronicles, due for release next year. Most recently he was lead animator on Transformers. O'Connor's keynote address is Thursday, August 16, 7:30 PM.
O'Connor is a graduate of Sheridan College, Canada, where he studied traditional (hand-drawn) animation for three years. After graduation, he worked as a clean-up artist and character designer, and was subsequently hired by Industrial Light and Magic to work on Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace. O'Connor has since played an important animation role in some of Hollywood's most successful films including Jurassic Park III, The Hulk, Van Helsing, War of the Worlds, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Transformers.
The IU Informatics New Media Program developed VisionFest exclusively for students interested in computer animation. Submissions of digital art are received from around the world, each of which receives a written critique from a panel of animation experts who serve as judges.
Several undergraduate and graduate students in IU's New Media Program have received top awards for their animated entries in categories including 2D Animation, 3D Animation, Sequential Art and Integrated Media. Winners in each category will receive a cash award and other prizes.
This year's corporate sponsors for VisionFest 2007 are Mediasauce, Bright House Networks, and Peachpit Press.
The Indiana University School of Informatics offers a unique, interdisciplinary curriculum that focuses on developing specialized skills and knowledge of information technology with particular application to a specific field of study or practice.
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