Howdy everyone,

I have been asked once again to be on a panel for the NM Film and Media Educational Summit taking place on October 4, 2014, from 9:00am to 5:00pm at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) in Albuquerque, 1701 4th Street.

This year I will be helping to educate those in attendance on the ins and outs of entering student films into festivals and competitions. After working for 9 years as the department chair for animation at the Southwest University of Visual Arts, I have helped enter more student films into these types of events than I can count. Most of which went on to do quite well, either winning or placing in their various categories.

My goal is to help others struggling with the process to understand and streamline the entry requirements and talk about motivating the often fearful or apathetic student. It has been my experience that it is often not only what you know, but also who you know that can land you a job in this industry. What better way to get to know others in the business than by getting out in the real world and hobnobbing with other like minded individuals.

This can be a terrifying prospect for a lot of students, especially those without a lot of life experience or education under their belts. However, I have seen the classic "wallflower," bloom in these environments, as they discover that they really do know what they are doing and they see other's appreciation for their work. A little self confidence can go a long way and more often than not, they are bitten by the festival bug and enter subsequent festivals and competitions. With some solid reinforcement by instructors and professors, these students will have some awesome content for their first resume when they graduate and have to hit the ground running.

This education summit will focus on film and media education at the k-12 levels, but many attendees have been requested to attend from the various post secondary schools in the state to expose the teachers of the lower levels to the possibilities their students have available to them in the future.

Another area that I will speak about is the huge push in this state to make the film and media sector one to rival Hollywood, Vancouver and New York. My personal passion, Emerging Media, is starting to come into its own here in New Mexico and most instructors at the k-12 level often either don't know what this is or about the career opportunities this particular sector of the industry offers. There are a lot of opportunities for graduates who don't want to leave New Mexico to find a job in film, TV, animation and Emerging Media. They might not work for Pixar right off the bat, but there are great paying jobs at the entry level in commercials production, post production, science and medical animations, serious gaming, etc.

As the Chair for Emerging Media on the Governor's Council for Film and Media I want to be able to answer these questions and guide the future of this industry here in New Mexico. As I see it, the possibilities are endless.

NM Game Jam Wrap Up

Today is the final day in the 48 hour game development competition called the NM Game Jam. At least one team has stayed the entire time working hard on their project and the only challenge we've run into so far is the storm that rolled through last night that knocked out the Internet.

I have called our trusty IT guy, but suspect he may be at church, since he hasn't responded yet. The storm created quite the challenge in trying to catch a few winks of sleep due to all the thunder and lightening.

Since the deadline to complete our games is at 5pm, the Internet issues may cause problems with folks meeting their deadlines.

I will be very curious to see the completed games, as several ideas seemed very interesting.

2011 NM Game Jam ABQ

Howdy everyone,

I am sitting in the lower level of the Southwest University of Visual Arts campus surrounded by numerous game developers and game enthusiasts. To help paint a picture for you, the occasion is the NM Game Jam competition and there are several teams currently plugging away at developing the next "big" thing in gaming.

This is a 48 hour competition to develop playable digital or board games and the dedication, artistic applications, problem solving and teamwork that I am witness to is definitely inspiring. There are 5 teams on our campus and three other sites around the state of New Mexico. This is the largest NM Game Jam yet, with roughly 100 people participating.

The average age range of the participants is in the mid twenties. At least 2 teams on the SUVA campus came in already formed while the other 3 teams formed after a vigorous round of a "speed dating," get to know you, introduction.

One of the teams that are currently making progress on their game development endeavors are all friends who are enrolled in the IFDM program at UNM. They have worked together on projects before and are preforming together like a well oiled machine. They are all working on less than 2 hours of sleep and their enthusiasm and camaraderie is infectious.

Several Game Jammers took advantage of the sleeping arrangements set up down the hall in a dark, quiet classroom with sleeping accommodations in the form of blow up floatation devices and inexpensive Walmart pillows.

Money for food and beverages was raised through a Crowdfunding event hosted on Kickstarter. $1500.00 was raised to help with food expenses and t-shirts to be given to the NM Game Jam participants at the end of the Jam. Thanks to one particularly generous donation from a fellow in Australia we were able to met our fundraising goals and NM Game Jam is moving along nicely.

One new addition to this Game Jam is the camera crew from Reelz Channel's show The DigiVangelist. They are following several of the teams around, asking questions and documenting the process of game development. This adds a slightly surreal mood around here, as it feels a lot like being on a reality TV show.

What I love the most about this particular event is the fact that you don't have to have any previous experience in Game Development to do well with here. In every Game Jam so far, there have been first time participants who have never done any kind of game development before. Inevitably they are introduced to a team and end up learning valuable information and making new friends, while learning new skills and techniques.

I enjoy seeing their faces light up at the end of a Game Jam wen they have to get up in front of the other teams to share the game they created with everyone. They go from thinking working on a team with their lack of knowledge will be impossible to realizing that anything is possible if they apply themselves and put forth the effort.

Here's to a great NM Game Jam and to many more to come!

The Sands of Time Workshop

Okay, I admit, it’s been a while. To say it has been a busy past few weeks here in the Land of Enchantment would be an understatement. I have been planning, coordinating and juggling several different projects and I am starting to see some positive outcomes from all the hard work put in.

On Saturday, April 26th, from 9am to 1pm, I helped to co-host a workshop for the Sands of Time production. The first of several we will be doing to fulfill the stipulations of the New Visions Award we have received. This workshop focused on a “soup to nuts” approach of animating a short series for purposes of pitching to a network.

Brad Stoddard, the director, Aaron Barreras, the Art Director, Catherine Fridey, the Screen Writer, Ty Beh, Assistant Director/Producer, Paul Ziomek, Character Design and Storyboards, Tim Nenninger and Jamie Haqqani, Voice Over talent and three of the interns, Kevin Baker, Ryan Salway and Michael Wieclaw were all in attendance to deliver short lectures on what their role is on this production.

Brad delivered a beautiful PowerPoint presentation that walked the students through the job of a director on an animated production. He used a lot of examples of the artwork created and answered questions about wrangling all the talent on this production.

Brad and Ty also photographed and filmed the workshop for documentation of the process to send to the NM film office. There were about 24 high school students present and several parents and instructors were also in attendance.

All of the participants took great strides in keeping their sections short, sweet and to the point. No one spoke for more than 20 minutes at a stretch and we had frequent speaker changes to keep the energy and momentum fast paced and engaging for an audience whose attention span is often challenged in a lecture type environment.

Tim and Jamie, the two men who did several of the voices on The Sands of Time production spoke about doing voice overs for animation, several of the students wanted to know how to get into this particular part of the industry. Tim and Jamie spoke from a film and Tv actors point of view and suggested that students get some acting lessons or try out for casting calls for experience. We pointed them to the NM film website for casting calls and classes.

We also suggested that they practice doing dramatic readings with various voice interpretations in front of a mirror or camera. They could select a simple storybook and do all the characters in the story. It would be good practice and they could critique themselves.

Aaron Barreras spoke for the longest period of time about what the job of an art director is and he used lots of artwork and examples from the production to illustrate his points. He also worked out a demonstration with Michael Wieclaw on how the motion capture process works and how it will be used on this production.

Paul Ziomek did a wonderful presentation on the similarity of comic book art and storyboarding. He offered fun examples and explained why you would do some things in one that wouldn’t work in the other.

We ended the workshop with Paul Ziomek leading the students in a storyboarding exercise that was well received. The student offered suggestions for how to set up scenes and how to advance the plot. Everyone, it seemed, had an idea and eagerly participated.

After the workshop and during the two breaks for snacks and restroom visits, the teens present would swarm the members of the production to ask pointed, one on one questions. I heard from several of them that they were having fun and learning a lot. They also seemed to appreciate the format.

From personal experience teaching teen summer camp at the Art Center for the past several years, I can say that this group was very engaged and energetic. When asked for their opinions and suggestions they were very forth coming with their answers.

I was pleased to hear that among the teens there was as solid mix of style preferences ranging from 2D and 3D to stop mo and puppet animation. One gentleman said his favorite animations were done by the famous and historically significant female animator, Lotte Reiniger. You gotta love a guy who loves the classics!

About half the students who started the workshop said they were interested in animation and the other half said it just sounded like a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. By the end of the workshop I believe everyone in attendance was interested in animation.

AniMotion NM - Alex Lindsay 03/10/09

Tuesday, March 10th, AniMotion NM was proud to host an evening with Alex Lindsey of Pixel Corps. Alex did a fabulously in depth presentation on Green Screen techniques, tips and tricks to an audience of roughly 70 animators, VFX and Motion Graphics artists.

The evening was a combination of lighthearted banter mixed with tech talk and explanations on how to achieve a quality key. The audience was an interesting mix of film, TV, and gaming folks, but everyone seemed to take something away from Alex’s presentation.

I was pleased to learn that there were quite a few attendees who had driven down from Santa Fe for the event. In addition, Sony Imageworks had a fairly good-sized contingent in attendance. It was nice seeing their familiar faces in the crowd.

As always, Elaine and Becky from the Adobe User Groups, Zocoloco and motion09 brought great Adobe swag and names were drawn out of all the tickets people brought to get into the event.

Art Center students, Jake Mirabal, Nikki Sandoval, Jon Kamps and Tey Guzman showed up early to help set up the event and Jake helped to wrangle the winners of the raffle in choosing their prizes.

The next AniMotion NM event is Tuesday, March 17th where Elaine and Becky are planning a movie night to get together as a group to watch the movie The Watchmen.


I am hoping that the large numbers that came to the March 10th event will come to future events and help to grow the animation, motion graphic and VFX community here in New Mexico. We have over 100 members currently in AniMotion NM and more are always welcomed.

The Michael McCormick Gallery Exhibit

The Art Center Design College is proud to announce a retrospective exhibition of work by artist and puppeteer Michael McCormick featuring sculpture, painting, and installations as well as masks, puppets, and other performance objects. Credited for creating memorable props, puppets, and models for films including The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Return of the Jedi, and White Sands, McCormick explores the theme of Gravity: Decay and Resistance in this comprehensive show of personal and commercial projects.

In addition to film work, the native New Mexican recently spent six years in Ireland, performing puppet shows at the National Wax Museum of Dublin and lecturing on his specialty, Punch and Judy, at the International Puppet Association at Trinity College in Dublin. Before returning to Albuquerque he taught for one year in the Creative Media Center at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

In The Art Center show, McCormick will reconstruct part of his actual studio space, assembled from objects that have influenced and inspired him over the years. Imagery will be drawn from his childhood in Los Alamos and early work with Native American populations as well as international travels as a performer.

Michael will be giving an Artist Talk in the Gallery on March 11th at 7pm, which is open to everyone and is free of charge. In addition, Michael will also be offering several acting and puppetry workshops TBA.

I am pleased to have had a hand in bringing Michael McCormick and the Art Center together for this event, as I had the pleasure of meeting Michael a few months ago at a Town Hall meeting in Santa Fe. We have been fast friends ever since. His slightly dark and macabre take on the world fits in nicely with my own dark side that doesn’t see the light of day very much.

If you haven’t had a chance to meet Michael or see any of his fine art pieces, you really should make a point of making it to the Art Center’s William Platz Gallery to get a glimpse into the mind of this native New Mexican’s twisted and fascinating world.

“¡Fuera, Perro!”

Jess Evans, 2008 Art Center Design College Animation graduate, has just put the finishing touches on the animated music video for the children’s song,“¡Fuera, Perro!” (Out, Dog!) is a lively song with a meringue rhythm, about a dog that gets in the house and causes trouble in various rooms, before finally being shooed out by a young brother and sister and their grandpa. To view the video go to... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAbJ6Vi4yB0

The lyrics shift back and forth between English and Spanish, just as many conversations do in our hybrid New Mexico culture. Take the chorus, for example:

¡Fuera, Perro! de la casa
Or I’m gonna show you who’s the boss-a
Me enojo and I shout, “Get your furry cola out!”
¡Fuera, Perro! de la casa

Jess was awarded this freelance animation job in late September of 2008 and worked closely with the song’s composer and singer, Mister Felipe, to get the music video done under very time constraints. Jess was the only animator on this production and had to create time saving techniques in order to meet the deadline for the corresponding release of the accompanying music CD, Cruzando el Border.

Cruzando el Border is a children’s music CD available online through Mister Felipe’s website, http://misterfelipe.com/. Kids love the catchy melodies, Latin rhythms, and lyrics that playfully mix Spanish and English, and they end up learning Spanish words easily. It's fun for parents too, featuring a range of Latin styles, creative arrangements, and great musicianship.

Mister Felipe is Philip Handmaker, a Spanish and Music teacher with a background in linguistics and a passion for music. Living in Taos, a town in northern New Mexico, he hears lots of delightful Spanglish around and decided to write songs that combine Spanish and English. It was only natural that these songs take on Latin styles ranging from reggaeton to ranchera, mambo to meringue. Felipe had a blast layering the percussion instruments and adding contributions by talented local musicians, including his dog.