Scanning Station Etiquette

There are quite a few scanning stations across the SCAD-Atlanta campus but obviously there will be times when the demand for scanning far out weights the supply. This happens most often during midterm and finals. In order to allow everyone their fair time at scanning stations please remember the scanners are communal, respect the needs of your fellow students, and follow the SCAD Scanning Station policy. Please refer to it as needed:

Scanning stations are for making scans only.
Edit your scans on another computer.

This means you are only to make scans at those stations and nothing else. Once those scans are made save the files and move to another station to edit and clean your scans to continue working. Obviously, this also means you are not to play games, watch tv or movies, Facebook, blog, etc. at scanning stations either. Please be courteous to your fellow students and follow this simple policy.

Generate this Fri-Sat

Get ready for Generate this Friday and Saturday! It has grown from the SEQA 24-Hour Comic challenge to encompass multiple departments at SCAD-Atlanta. If you're a current SCAD student or alum come down for the fun. There are big prizes for the best work in each challenge. Here's a tidbit on what to expect this year:

SCAD puts its artistically talented students to the test with Generate, a unique competition that is aptly named because of the amazing projects generated in one very long and exciting day. The 24-hour art and design challenge takes place at SCAD Atlanta, 1600 Peachtree St., Oct. 1-2, 10 a.m. - 10 a.m. Students representing several academic majors and artistic disciplines work together under extreme deadlines alongside their professors and industry professionals from companies such as Publix, in designing next year's Publix Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon poster, and Artifact Design, an award-winning 2D and 3D design studio based in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Now in its fifth year, Generate challenges range from illustration and sequential art to animation and television producing. Projects include creating a 24-page black and white comic book and designing the promotional poster for the 2011 Publix Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon. School of Film and Digital Media students have the opportunity to create 15-second animated interstitials for Artifact Design, while photography students create a series of self-portraits on the hour, every hour. The portraits will be exhibited on the university's photography department blog. Illustration students will create paintings based upon personal interpretations of popular video game characters such as Pac Man and Mario.

Each participating academic major presents different challenges, some of which have been created to match the initiatives and needs of the corporate sponsors. Representatives from these companies will judge the student work based on a brief provided to the students at the beginning of the competition. Students are free to work alone, collaborate with other students or work outside of their major areas of study. Non-participating students and faculty are encouraged to be on hand to observe the event and support the competitors.

"Generate is an amazing learning opportunity for students, cleverly disguised as a really fun and exciting time to experiment and test the limits of their expertise," said Pat Quinn, associate dean for the School of Communication Arts.

For more information, visit the Generate blog.

Comic Book Crucible

We really work our students hard. Consider SEQA-ATL a Comic Book Crucible. It's been an exceptionally successful attitude having helped multiple students earn work from comic book publishers. (Exciting news on that later this summer!) It allows us to help students be the best they can possibly be and hone sharp skills in their craft. It also means they are all in it together and understand what one another is going through during this trial-by-comic making our student community strong. And when the work comes first that means students have earned the time to goof off and joke around. And the work has come first this quarter and shined so very brightly! So while we often celebrate the work, we'd like to celebrate a little goofing off this time. You've earned it!



PS - NOW GET BACK TO WORK! QUARTER ISN'T OVER YET!

We're Baaaaack!

Spring break took all us away from one another but we returned in style (Schweizer wore an neckerchief) this past Friday. We even had alum Alex App, our current Spotlight, show up to hang out with everyone and we surprised him with cake to celebrate his recent graduation! For those of you than came out your involvement is greatly appreciated. You guys really help make our department strong, energized, creative, and friendly!

Shawn Crystal officially introduced the Firebreather Pin-Up Challenge at the meeting. For those students who are not aware of this challenge please click the link for more information. It's an amazing opportunity! Don't miss out!

During the height of the meeting we had sixteen people in attendance working on projects at the same time. Considering we have less than forty students in our department that is a massive number! Below, from left to right: professor Shawn Crystal, Dianna Bedell, Cara McGee, Sean Perkins, Michael Lavelle, Justin Wagner, Chris Schweizer, Areta Harabatch, alum Hunter Clark, Chris Lane, David Bonilla, Dominike Stanton, Tommy Le, and Doug Dabbs.

In attendance but not shown above: alum Alex App, Allen Spetnagel, Jackie Lewis, Olu Ajagbe, and Megs Glasscock. And here's a rare glimpse of professor Nolan Woodard (because normally I'm the one taking the photos and making posts) trying to cut Alex's cake with a wimpy, plastic knife. Mmmm, cake.

If you were unable to join us please come this Friday, in room 398 from noon to 4pm!

Do I Smell?

It's time for another peek into the world of our students and their dedication to one another's personal hygiene.

Paintings and Maquettes and Fun - Oh my!

Another Friday, another Temple meeting! We're always getting together to have fun working in a pseudo-studio environment but this week it went a bit beyond the normal variety of inking and drawing techniques.

This Friday we had Shawn Crystal working with students on paintings for his SEQA310 Painting for Comic Covers class. It involves using a tonal drawing as the under-painting then fixing it and using a subtractive technique with darks on lights to bring out highlights and create shape and volume. While Shawn works on looking fashionable in his apron as he paints Etrigan the Demon, the student covers are being produced with Bruce Timm's Two-Face story "Two of a Kind" in mind.

As Crystal and his students are eating up the painting project, Nolan Woodard and his students work on maquettes for SEQA224 Character Design and Storyboarding for Animation. Some students are making tie-wearing apes, crazy Kinko's employees (don't ask), and a self-portrait while Nolan creates an evil scientist. Cara McGee (below) is making a zombie holding its own arm like a weapon! Once painted, a little gloss coat in the right places will make that stump of an arm really look *dry-heave* fresh.

Oh yeah, and Happy Leap Day, everyone!

Mustache Men

The 2008 Atlanta Art Forum was a massive success! A big thanks goes out to our wonderful guests: Eric Canete, Andrew Robinson, Yuko Shimizu, and James Jean. They really made the event fun and informative. The Illustration Dept has posted their event report here and we'll be following suit coming up this week.

But until then here's a little video of our grad students Allen Spetnagel and Chris Schweizer hard at work having fun with their mouthbrows.

Painting Demo by Olu

Last Friday we met as usual for our sketch jam and challenge but grad student Olu Ajagbe graced us with a quick painting demonstration too. The turn out was fantastic and Olu really showed off his talent!

Here's Olu relaxing after showing the department his painting process.

Shawn Crystal and students look on as the 300 inspired demo comes to life. And keep in mind, no one is required to come! Our students enjoy hanging out and learning from one another on their own time. It's a great department!

And here are the reference photo, pencil sketch, and quick painting Olu used and created during the demo.

Finally, a more refined painting Olu did before the demo so we could all see the technique pushed further when he's not limited by time. Nice work, Olu!