Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Pixar Animator Visits Cogswell on October 19

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Michal Makarewicz, Directing Animator at Pixar Studios and Instructor at Animation Collaborative, will provide an hour-long animation demo at Cogswell. Whether you are new to animation or more experienced, Michal offers tips and techniques for developing your animation project. The presentation is in partnership with Animation Collaborative – an organization that offers workshops throughout the year on various animation industry specialties.

Date: October 19, 2012

Time: 7:00PM to 9:00PM

Place: Cogswell College, Dragon’s Den

Pizza and sodas provided

RSVP required to jalexander@cogswell.edu or rreisdorf@cogswell.edu as seating is limited.

Michal joined Pixar Animation Studios in early 2003, where has been an animator on The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up (Supervising Animator on the Up DVD short: Dug’s Special Mission), Toy Story 3, and a Directing Animator on Cars 2. In 2008, he was awarded an Annie for “Outstanding Charcter Animation in a Feature Production” by the International Animated Film Society for his work on Ratatouille. In addition to his work at Pixar, Michal has been teaching animation since 2005. He has contributed lectures as well as taught classes at the online school, Animation Mentor, and instructed classes at California College of the Arts and the Academy of Art University.

Cogswell’s Rock Band Will Perform at Oct. 27 Open House!

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Cogswell’s Rock Band now has a name – Dragonhearts! The group will make its debut performance at our upcoming Open House on Saturday, October 27 at Cogswell College in Sunnyvale, CA. The Open House is from 10AM to 1:00PM and the band will play at noon in the Dragon’s Den.

In addition to the Rock Band performance, you can tour Cogswell, take part in breakout sessions with faculty and watch award-winning short animations produced by Cogswell’s Project X class.

Learn more about Cogswell’s Open House event as published in MarketWatch.com.

RSVP to the Open House

Worlds Apart Coming to a Screen Near You!

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Worlds Apart is screening at the Palo Alto Film Festival this Friday!

If you haven’t had the chance yet to watch the second film to come out of Cogswell’s Project X class on the big screen, then opportunity awaits. Worlds Apart has been chosen by the following Film Festivals as an Official Selection.

Big Bear Lake Film Festival, Big Bear Lake, California

Dates: September 13-16, 2012

Winner – Best Animation

Screening Details

Palo Alto Film Festival, Palo Alto, California

Dates: September 27-30, 2012

Screening Information: September 28, at 6:30

Palo Alto Square Theater #2

Landlocked Film Festival, Iowa City, Iowa

Dates: October 25-28, 2012

Screening Information: Yet to be announced

Washington West Film Festival, Washington DC

Dates: November 1-4, 2012

Screening Information: Yet to be announced

River’s Edge International Film Festival, Paducah, Kentucky

Dates: November 1-4, 2012

Screening Information: Yet to be announced

Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, England

Dates: November 8-11, 2012

Screening Information: Yet to be announced

Red Rock Film Festival, Zion National Park, Utah

Dates: November 8-17, 2012

Screening Information: November 16 at 4:45

Canyon Auditorium, Springdale

If you are near any of these locations, we hope you will show your support for the hard work and effort our students, under the direction of faculty member Michael Zachary Huber, put in to the production!

What Happened at the Maker Faire???

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

Even though I was not one of the lucky attendees of the Maker Faire this year I was still able to get a wonderful play by play of the events that occurred in the span of the weekend. What I found out was certainly words of praise from the children young and old that attended the faire. Everyone who stopped by the Cogswell booth and interacted with the group that composes the new class, Genre Electronica, loved what they saw… or heard, rather. Our group of talented students had a few different setups and were recording sounds from anyone passing by who would be willing to lend their voice. After they recorded some samples from people, they would begin to compose dance music. There was even a couple of young professionals that were begging our students to upload to YouTube the rap that they laid down as part of the demonstration. Overall, this was a spectacular event for Cogswell, Genre Electronica and everyone involved. Congrats to you guys!

-Zombie

Genre Electronica at the Maker Faire

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

Genre Electronica at the Maker Faire

I just wanted to throw this out to remind anyone that has forgotten or to let anyone know that hasn’t heard yet. The Maker Faire is in San Mateo this weekend, May 19th and 20th! The Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. Cogswell’s very own Genre Electronica will have a spot at the faire and will be creating Electronic Dance Music with the sounds that they record at the faire (soooo cool). So, if you have time this weekend, grab a ticket and head out to pay our Cogswell students and all the other Makers a visit. I can promise that it will be worth your time! Have fun!

-Zombie

Beverly Hills and Newport Beach Film Fests

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Worlds Apart Crew at Newport BeachNewport Beach Film Festival (from left to right): Evan Clover, Josh Hodges, Jeron Moore

Worlds Apart Crew at Beverly HillsBeverly Hills Film Festival Awards Gala (from left to right): Josh Hodges, Evan Clover, Ivy Clover, Jeron Moore

Recently a few of our alumni attended two film festivals in southern California; The Beverly Hills Film Festival and the Newport Beach Film Festival. Both festivals were very exciting, the gang started their weekend off with attending the screening the animated shorts portion of the Beverly Hills Film Festival and we happy with the way Worlds Apart was received by everyone. After that, they took off to the Newport Beach Film Festival to attend the Shorts for Shorties portion of the festival. The animation they saw there was astonishing in quality and said it will be tough competition.  They were invited to the front of the theater to answer questions from the audience and then hopped out to the red carpet for pictures. Finally their weekend concluded with the Beverly Hills Film Festival Awards Gala. They got all gussied up with their suits and skirts and arrived to rub elbows with other film makers and celebrities. The awards ceremony was very classy and there we tons of laughs. Worlds Apart did not walk away with an award but there was high praise among  attendees for the films high production value and story. The Project X crew was all in all very pleased with the festivals and the weekend they had.

We will let you know as soon as we hear back from Newport Beach if Worlds Apart won an award. Stay tuned!

-Zombie

Cogswell’s 125th Anniversary

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Cogswell Celebrating 125 Years

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to the 125th Anniversary of Cogswell College. The night was very relaxing and fun. A pretty large group came out to help the school celebrate, many of which were alumni or friends of the school. It was very nice to hear some of the wonderful memories and stories they had to offer from back in the day.

The night started off with our esteemed Chancellor, Chuck House, greeting everyone with his friendly smile and captivating words. Chuck then introduced Dr. Tim Duncan, head of the Digital Audio Technology department, who gave a presentation on some student work for Worlds Apart. Then we got to watch Worlds Apart in its entirety, it was my 3rd time seeing it, so that was a treat. After, Michael Huber and the students of the current Project X gave a presentation on their production process which was really informative and I found quite interesting. After that, Debby Hindus, the Entrepreneurship Program Director took the stage and gave us an update on what is being developed and coming to surface in the near future, all really good news. Afterword, everyone stuck around to talk and to take tours of the school. It was really great getting to be a part of the whole event and was a very momentous occasion.

-Zombie

GLOBAL GAME JAM 2012!!!

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Global Game Jam @ Cogswell College

Hey hey now!

I have cool news for anyone and everyone who would like to be involved in game design!

Cogswell College is going to be hosting the 2012 Global Game Jam!!! <— (notice I put 3 “!” to emphasize how exciting this is)

It will start at 6:00PM on Jan 27th and go all the way to 3:00PM on Jan 29th, that’s right a whole weekend of designing games you crazy people!

If you want more info about the schedule and prices, go to the link below.

http://www.cogswellalumni.com/ggj2012/

SEE YOU THERE!!!!

-Zombie

Kevin Richardson To Give Gamificaiton Summit Talk at Cogswell College

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Cogswell Alumnus, Kevin Richardson (2003), was a featured speaker at the Gamification Summit in September in New York City. On October 5, the Big Apple comes to Cogswell College as Kevin brings his wealth of knowledge and creative spirit to campus.

Join us to learn more about how gameplay is changing the face of business throughout the world.

Date: October 5, 2011

Time: 7:00 to 9:00 PM

Place: Dragon’s Den

Cogswell College

Pizza and Sodas provided!

Gamification Summit NYC is the must-attend event that shows you how to use the power of games to create breakthrough engagement with your customers and employees. Companies like Gilt Groupe, Google, Microsoft, NBC/Universal, MTV, Recyclebank and Aetna have leveraged gamification to transform their businesses. In a growing trend game designers turn their talents from creating fun games to creating fun web sites and other cool experiences for major brands.

Kevin Richardson is a Senior Producer at MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids & Family Games Group. Prior to MTVN, Kevin was the Executive Producer over the ClueFinders series and numerous Reader Rabbit games while at The Learning Company/Mattel Interactive, and spearheaded outbound licensing for books, music, and television on a variety of brands. Before that, Kevin ran the German wing of the European Studio Grouping PALOMA, developing and localizing animated content for the German television market. He has produced over 30 “E” rated games, contributed to five feature films, and overseen animation production at home and abroad

Our Future-Cogswell’s 2011 Commencement Speech

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

It’s a spectacular moment when you know that your college rocks after finding out that a White House worker will be speaking at the present graduating class graduation. It’s even more so when said worker is very informative about the industry that most of the graduating students are going into and a witty sense of humor to boot! (more…)