CNTV Bolsters Animation Program With Studio Upgrade and Professorial Appointment
Photo by Irene Fertik
The animation studio was inaugurated and Panushka welcomed at a reception and open house Nov. 5, which featured tours of the studio's cutting-edge graphics facilities. The studio, with 28 well-equipped work spaces, occupies the top floor of the Marcia Lucas Post Production Building in the Cinema-TV complex.
Panushka comes to USC from CalArts, where she was associate director of experimental animation; she also served as associate dean of the film and video school for two terms.
She is better known to millions of Internet users, however, for her work as curator and namesake of the award-winning Absolut Panushka on-line animation festival. The site (at http://www.absolutvodka.com) presents 23 10-second shorts by leaders in experimental animation from 12 nations and one of Panushka's own works.
Since its debut on the Web in January 1996, Absolut Panushka has received more than 5 million "hits" and has racked up awards including "Best Animation Produced for the Internet" at the World Animation Celebration. It was a finalist for the 1997 Cool Site of the Year "Cool Design Award," voted on by Web users, and has been shown at 10 film and animation festivals.
Panushka's 1984 film, The Sum of Them, won the Golden Gate Award for the best non-narrative film at the San Francisco International Film Festival; her 1986 short, Nighttime Fears and Fantasies; a Bedtime Tale for a Young Girl, won the Grand Prize at the Aspen Film Festival.
The remodeled animation studio will help students fully develop their potential, said Vibeke Sorensen, director of the school's division of animation and digital arts.
"The field is expanding so rapidly that what was once considered futuristic is now a springboard to new developments. As a result, there is a pressing need for versatile artists with both creative drive and a wide range of technical skills," Sorensen said.
"Because our students are so advanced, they are hired right after graduation by companies such as Digital Domain, Disney Studios, Fox, DreamWorks/SKG, Microsoft, Pacific Data Images, Pixar, Sony and Warner Bros. And with Christine Panushka now teaching here, we will continue to be at the forefront of this exciting movement."
The animation and digital arts division provides intensive experience in everything from hand-drawn character animation and interactive computer graphics to experimental technologies such as virtual reality and the World Wide Web.
An array of industry sponsors - including Alias/Wavefront, DreamWorks/SKG, Hanna-Barbera, Fujitsu, Intel Corp., Mircrosoft/Softimage, Philips BTS, Pixas, Quantel, Silicon Graphics Inc., Sun Microsystems, Warner Bros. and XAOS Tools - have contributed state-of-the-art equipment for teaching, research and student use.
The partnership with entertainment industry companies was vital in opening the remodeled studio, said cinema-television dean Elizabeth M. Daley.
"The industry sponsors contribute not only the latest technologies, but the kind of inspiration and professional insight that set this school apart from the rest," Daley said. "The animation program started off with a unique perspective guided by our industry partners and continues that tradition, graduating some of the most adventurous and highly skilled artists in the field. The new studio is an invaluable asset in their education."
USC's master of fine arts program in film, video and computer animation was originally created in 1985 under the guidance of graphics professor Gene Coe and computer scientist Richard Weinberg, director of USC's computer animation laboratory.
Sorensen, the founding director of the CalArts Computer Animation Laboratory, joined the division in 1994 after serving as a visiting associate (artist in residence) at Caltech and visiting professor at Princeton. She became director of the division of animation and digital arts the following year, revising the curriculum and expanding the facilities.
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