Animated World

In the classrooms of the health science center, beholds a department most students are not familiar with. Think about the games you play on tablets, phones, laptops and consoles. All animated. Technology is booming, and so is the animation industry. Glendale College has a successful animation program that consists of around nine classes each semester that are instructed by experienced professors.

Some of the professors in this department are Yina Chang, and Roger Dickers.

Chang teaches Art 233 (Character set-up) and Art 235 (character animation), and teaches hands on skill that prepare her students for the animation industry. The Software they use is Maya, an animation program used internationally. The software contains modeling, texture, lighting, simulation and has a generator to process images.

“Maya is one of the best animation packages” she said.

Chang is an animation professor who spent years in the animation industry. She has participated in several big-budget productions throughout her successful career, including “Apollo 13,” (Gene Kranz 1995)“Star Wars,” (George Lucas 2002) “Frozen,”(Chirs buck 2013) and several more. She was the technical director for most of the yoda shots in Star Wars Episode II. This was the first production to introduce, “CGI”, a fighting animated character. Prior to this film, all the yoda scenes did not include fighting, because yodas movement was limited. CGI gives the animated charcters to fight and twist around.

GCC’s animation department has close ties with Woodberry University, and all classes at GCC are counted there for full credit, according to Roger Dickers, a full-time animation instructor at Glendale.

“We have great teachers, great courses, and incredible commitment from our stude...

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...hit Sahakian, an animation major who was recently awarded the Patron’s Club Scholarship for Visual and Performing Arts, said Chang is “a great inspiration due to her knowledge and experience with animation.”

“She prepares you for the animation industry because she worked for them,” Sahakyan said.

In order to make the campus more aware of the animation department, Chang created a YouTube channel called “CG Fantasy.”

The channel features student-based work and demonstrates the type of material taught in Chang’s class.

“I made the channel so our students can get recognized for their work and to attract other students who might be interested in animation,” Chang said.

All in all, the animation department is not as recognized as they should be, because they do amazing work. For examples of some of the students work, go on YouTube and check out their page, CG Fantasy.