Animated By Sharvonique

My alma mater, The Art Institute of Washington, is hosting Gigacon 2012. Gigacon is a multimedia convention based in the Washington, DC area.

Gigacon was originally conceived as an animation forum on the campus of The Art Institute of Washington. It is now an educational, multimedia event that is open to the public. Attendees can learn tricks of the trade from industry professionals, participate in panels and demonstrations, and purchase art in the Artists Alley. This is Gigacon’s third year.

Event Details:
January 14-15, 2012
The Art Institute of Washington
1820 North Fort Myer Drive, Arlington, VA 22209 [map]
Rosslyn Metro Station (Orange or Blue lines)

Register for Gigacon 2012. Registration is $10 online and at the door.  Admission is FREE for AiW students and alumni - please DO NOT register online!

Schedule:
Jan 14th
10am Panel discussion with all the guests
11am Panel discussion with all the guests
12pm Lunch
1pm Portfolio reviews and Demonstrations
2pm Portfolio reviews and Demonstrations
3pm One on one with the invited guests

Jan 15th
10am Portfolio reviews and Demonstrations
11am Portfolio reviews and Demonstrations
12pm Lunch
1pm One on one with the invited guests
2pm One on one with the invited guests
3pm Alumni panel discussion

About Gigacon:
Gigacon brings the pros to you. Whether you’re a student or aspiring artist (or both), here’s your chance to broaden your understanding and skills. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how industry professionals have carved out their careers. Check out our Artists Alley for work for sale. And there are contests, portfolio reviews and much more!

For more information on Gigacon, check out: http://www.giga-con.com and visit our Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gigacon-Convention/205718919446532.

It’s Christmas Eve and 2011 is drawing to an end. One of the best ways to celebrate this magical time of year is to curl up in front of the TV and watch a Christmas special. Here are my favorites.

A Christmas Story
I never get tired of watching A Christmas Story. I refuse to buy a copy of it because watching it on television during the holiday season is part of the tradition. This movie really captures the nostalgia of being a kid during Christmas.

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Ah, Dr. Seuss and Chuck Jones. An unbeatable combination that makes How the Grinch Stole Christmas! a holiday classic. Everything about this animation makes my heart grow three sizes too big. It also has one of the most descriptive Christmas songs ever.

A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Peanuts gang explore the true meaning of Christmas, which is represented through the now iconic image of a scraggly Christmas tree decorated with a single ornament. But one of the things I like most about A Charlie Brown Christmas is the dancing! The kid in the orange shirt has some serious dance moves.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Poor Rudolph. His glowing red nose makes him a misfit. He’s ridiculed by all the other reindeer, including his father, Donner, and even a less than jolly Santa! Luckily, Rudolph befriends other misfits where they all learn to embrace their differences. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer shows that being different is exactly what makes you special.

Feel free to share your favorite Christmas specials. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hosted by DC Animation Group. Come and celebrate the holidays with other fellow DC animators in the area to gear up for the next year. 2012 will be an awesome year for animation in DC!

This will be a great way to network and meet other animators in the DC area. This event is free and is open to anyone who enjoys animation, graphic design, technology, happy hours and networking. So please be sure to invite your friends and colleagues for one awesome DC Animation Group Holiday Party Event!

Meeting Details:
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Science Club
1136 19th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20036 [map]
RSVP: Please RSVP for this event. There is a limit of 100 “Yes” RSVPs.

About DC Animation Group:
Meet fellow Professional Motion Graphic Artists, Animators, Visual FX Artists, Film, or Graphic Designers in the DC Area! Come to a Digital Animation Meetup to discuss favorite 2D and 3D Animation/Graphics Software, share animation techniques, and Network with other animators in the area. Get input on your portfolio, make contacts and mingle with new friends! http://www.meetup.com/DC-Animation-Group

Don’t miss this special Animator’s Roundtable at GV Expo. It’s FREE and open to the public. This is the chance for DC’s best Animators, Motion Designers, and VFX Artists to meet their Producer counterparts.

Producers and Animators don’t always understand each others areas of expertise. Creating an animation or graphics heavy video can often be daunting, so the Animator’s Roundtable has activated its universal translator to help Producers and Animators speak the same language and communicate better! Our expert panel, a mix of Producers and Animators, will share their knowledge and a few tips on planning for and using animation effectively. They’ll help you figure out how to solve your creative challenges with the magic of graphics.

Special Guest Panelists:

Chris Dominici, Potomac Motion
Richard Harrington, RHED Pixel
Pradeep Mistry, PCM Animation
Ann Ramsey, US Dept. of Health and Human Services

This is a FREE event starting right after the close of the exhibit hall floor. Come join us for some networking and a great discussion, so if you’re a Producer, an Animator, or just intrigued, this event is for YOU!

Meeting Details:
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
5:30pm - 8:00pm
GV Expo
Washington, DC Convention Center
Room 152B

RAFFLE! Special prizes! Free and discounted coupons for training classes courtesy of Future Media Concepts!

About Animator’s Roundtable:
The Animator’s Roundtable is a special users group within the Washington, DC chapter of Women in Film & Video. We’re a growing group of professionals, independents, students and animation enthusiasts. The roundtable meets monthly to discuss the tools, techniques and the business of animation. It is open to the public and we invite anyone to join.

Animator’s Roundtable holds monthly meetings to talk about animation, motion graphics, gaming and new graphic techniques in the Washington, DC area. We encourage both professionals and novices to attend. We also promote screenings and additional activities in the DC area. 

For more info:
facebook.com/animatorsroundtable
twitter.com/animatorsrndtbl

I appeared on the August 11, 2011 edition of The Marc Steiner Show. The Marc Steiner Show broadcasts on Baltimore radio station WEAA 88.9 FM, Mon-Thurs from 5-7pm.I was on the show to discuss the new half-Black, half-Hispanic Spider-Man, Miles Morales:

Peter Parker, the legendary comic book alter ego of Spider-Man, is dead. At least, he’s dead in one of the Marvel Comics universes. And in that universe, his powers now rest in a young man named Miles Morales, who happens to be half African American and half Hispanic.
Today we take a look at the new comic book hero, and the history of racial politics and comic books.

Also joining the discussion were Arturo R. García, Managing Editor at Racialicious, and Dr. Lester Spence, Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, author of Stare in the Darkness and self described “comic book guy.”

Click the button to listen to a podcast of the segment.  Download link

You can also download a copy of the podcast.

DC_SIGGRAPH invites you to a presentation by Rob Cloutier on using 3D Studio Max and compositing with Combustion for an upcoming documentary.

Rob Cloutier has been an animator/compositor for 18 years, working with 3D Studio Max since its first DOS version. He has had a wide range of experience in the games industry, having worked on over 20 computer games such as Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, Pirates!, Railroads! and MicroProse games such as Gunship!, European Air War and many others.

Although he often specializes in historical subjects, he has produced animation segments and videos for several other venues including government agencies, documentaries, authors, architectural projects and other organizations. His other accomplishments include publishing his own 3D models disk, writing several articles for trade publications, holding training classes for other animators, and creating marketing videos, game box covers and magazine ads. Please feel free to review his website, www.3dhistory.com.

Meeting Details:
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
7:30pm-9:30pm
US Patent and Trademark Office - Remsen Conference Center
400 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 [map]
(Note - the meeting room might change)
RSVP:  Roberto Ortiz, robertoortiz1@yahoo.com

About DC_SIGGRAPH
DC_SIGGRAPH is the Washington D.C. Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH. ACM SIGGRAPH is dedicated to the generation and dissemination of information on computer graphics and interactive techniques. We are a membership organization that values passion, integrity, excellence, volunteerism, and cross-disciplinary interaction in all of our activities. For more information on ACM SIGGRAPH go to: http://www.siggraph.org or check out our Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/dc-siggraph.

Being a member of the Washington, DC Metro area’s animation community, I’d like to do what I can to support it and to see it thrive. Therefore, I will be posting information about animation related events in the DC/MD/VA area. These events will be listed under the new tag AnimateDC Events.

It’s wonderful that DC area animators are no longer dispersed into isolated groups and are starting to become a closer, stronger network. I think this will lead to a sharing of animation ideas, a greater support of animation projects, and a growth of creative collaborations. This is truly an exciting time for the DC animation community and I’m delighted to be a part of it!

On a cold and eerie Saturday night in October, I watched hordes of zombies in the Silver Spring Zombie Walk descend upon Silver Spring, Maryland. You can participate as one of the undead or be a victim, uh, I mean onlooker of the zombies as they limp, stagger and drool their way through the streets of Downtown Silver Spring. Feast your eyes on a few pictures of the event (pun intended).

Look out for zombies!

Sir, do you know your eyeball is dangling?

Braaaaaiiiiiiins!

This was my 2nd time attending the Silver Spring Zombie Walk and I’m definitely looking forward to the next one. I may even zombiefy myself and participate in the walk next year.

My last blog entry is dated over three years ago. Needless to say, a LOT has happened in that time. Some things good, and some things not so good.

My last entry was made only a few days before my husband passed away. That is definitely a life changing moment. I guess I needed time to adjust and to adapt to this new and very different stage in my life. It has been quite the journey thus far, almost a rediscovery of myself. Seriously, I’m doing things that I never thought I would be doing! It’s funny where life takes you. I’m curious to see what’s next.

And I’m not sure why, but I’ve had this incredible urge to start blogging again. So much so that I sifted through over 9000 spam posts, that’s right over 9000 [insert DragonballZ reference here], to clean up my blog so I can start posting again.

I’m excited to share my experiences in the past three years, and to continue my ramblings about animation and whatever else I find of interest. Welcome back to Animated By Sharvonique!

The DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) is hosting an anime seminar on March 9th, and yours truly will be a co-panelist for the event along with Steve Bennett. The invitation to participate was extended by the DC Anime Club.

This rather flattering description of the seminar was posted on the DCIFF website:

Renowned animation experts, Steve Bennett and Sharvonique Renee Fortune will share their expertise on the Japanese technique known as anime. Panelists will discuss their work, including how they make their living and the impact of Japanese animation on their work. Learn vicariously through their years of experience and specialized knowledge of character animation.

The DCIFF runs from March 6-16, 2008 at the Jack Morton Auditorium of George Washington University. This is the 10th anniversary of the festival and it continues to celebrate independent films and provides an opportunity for independent filmakers from across the globe to showcase their work in the DC area.

Here are the details of the seminar:
Sunday, March 9
4:15pm-5:15pm
Cost $25

George Washington University
Jack Morton Auditorium - media and public affairs building
805 21st Street, NW Washington, DC 20006
(corner of 21st & H Streets)
www.dciff.org

Follow this link to view directions and a schedule of events: http://www.dciff.org/2008.htm

I hope to see you there!