2487 Melnitz
This is the main arena for production for most students in the program. In addition to twelve animation desks (donated by Disney), and tables for painting cels, the Workshop is equipped with an Acme paper-puncher, two pencil test machines, and other animation equipment. There are a limited number of portable light tables, available for check out by a lottery system.
The Animation Workshop utilizes two different cranes for animation production as requisite in the Animation courses. You must schedule camera time with Doug Ward, and the course T.A. to go over exposure sheets and artwork.
1. Acme (1421 Melnitz)
Manually controlled 16mm, follow focus, under-lit, very fast camera, shoots 4 to 12 field artwork.
2. Mauer (2487 Melnitz) Manually controlled digital Canon still camera, using Dragon software running on a Mac Mini, shoots 4 to 12 field artwork.
in addition: Field Cameras (2585A Melnitz) One Bolex 16mm camera with lighting kit for shooting stop-motion films.
DV camera available for stop-motion, archival, and reference footage.
digital audio recorders (2)
lighting kits (2)
tri-pods (2)
Walter Lantz Digital Animation Studio a.k.a. “Thesis Lab”
2479 Melnitz
This state-of-the-art facility is designed for thesis students to do research and production and is comprised of “all-in-one” workstations, containing computers, peripherals and animation desks, a digital pencil test unit and a digital editing station. They are all networked and online. Thesis students are assigned a workstation once they have advanced to candidacy and begun an approved thesis. Based on supported software (those that we have licensed), a workstation can be set up as per the individual, with the necessary tools (3D; 2D; compositing; non-linear editing; paint; etc) needed for thesis production.
Animation Pre-Production a.k.a “Pencil Test area”
This room is used to digitize storyboard art into the computer for the creation of animatics (story reels). It is equipped with video down shooter, and Animation Toolworks video lunch box, digital pencil testing unit for paper animation.
These rooms contain Apple Macpro computers and digital feed scanners to support our first-year students who are completing their traditionally animated films. The workstations have Digital Flipbook, Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut, which allows them to do Ink and Paint, camera moves, compositing and final editing.
Animation Editing Facilities
Sound Editing – 2478 Melnitz
Equipment includes two Macintosh-based digital editing systems. There are microphones available from Doug Ward. Hours of availability are flexible, sign-up sheets (our-hour time blocks) posted and administrated by the course instructor or the T.A.
Film Editing – 2487 Melnitz
Available as needed – nearly all work is output digitally
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The Animation Workshop has an excellent collection of books, magazines, journals, digital media, tapes, and films for teaching, research and entertainment. The range of content covers everything from traditional animation, to experimental filmmaking, to computer/digital film production. Included in the collection are: student works/films; current and historical professional work/films; books, magazines and periodicals covering every sub-genre of animation production; a video history collection of interviews, discussions and lectures conducted at the Workshop or by students of the Workshop. (This is a long running Workshop asset – it represents a one-of-a-kind audio/visual record featuring Animation greats). See the Office Assistant, a staff member, the course instructor, or the T.A. for access to these materials. There is a limit to the number of items that may be checked out at one time, and some materials have restricted access..
Computer Animation Laboratory (Mac Lab)
The Workshop supports a computer lab utilizing Mac-based software/hardware for creating 2-D and 3-D animation, multi-media animation, web sites, and other interactive applications. Featuring a variety of software packages, it is a state-of-the-art low end production facility. Students must purchase external storage for their data as lab disk space is limited. Current equipment includes power Mac Pro computers with Cintiq monitors, scanners for digitizing work, and printers.
2487B Melnitz
The Maya lab includes six workstations, and a 4 system render farm running Maya software for 3D animation.
