This spring and summer has been a wonderful busy time as we traveled worldwide to present student work and make new connections. This year, we visited places we haven't been in a long time (India, Canary Islands, Casablanca) and made return visits to some usual stomping grounds (Brazil, Croatia, France, Vancouver, London). We're excited to share our travels with you and looking forward to what's next!

MFACA faculty and program and curriculum advisor Lotte Marie Allen was invited to attend and present a panel and lectures at the AniMela Festival in Mumbai, India, this March. 

The panel, "Mapping your Creative Practice in Digital Arts and Animation," asked questions such as: how do educators and mentors prepare students for a creative and sustainable practice in an ever-changing animation and media industry? How do we prepare creatives to harness their skills and plan for the long game in creative careers? Panelists included filmmaker and Animela education director, Nina Sabnani, Raj Turakhia, founder of Frameboxx, and Shaaz Ahmed, animator and professor. Lotte moderated the conversation.

Following up on our department outreach efforts and connections from attending other international conferences, Lotte visited multiple schools (IDC @ IIT Bombay, Atlas Skilltech, JKLU Jaipur, IIT Hyderabad, and IIAD New Delhi) to extend awareness of our multidiscplinary program, participate in workshops with students, and network with academic and industry professionals. Several significant opportunities for follow-up collaboration have developed through this visit.

Following department chair Terrence Masson’s Keynote address at the PIXEL Conference in São Paulo in 2018, it was clear that the country had a huge population of incredibly talented and diverse students and artists. Director of operations Rob Campell followed up with an outreach trip in 2023, which primed our next phase of networking with the help of our 1993 alum, film director of Rio and Ice Age, and native Brazilian, Carlos Saldanha. Assistant director of innovation technologies Rochele Gloor, also a native of Brazil, traveled to São Paulo, Rio, and Porto Alegre to visit academic institutions, animation studios, and meet prospective students. In Rio de Janeiro, she had a tour of the beautiful campus of Pontificia Universidade Catolica (PUC Rio) with the Head of Post-Graduation and Professor Luiza Novaes (MFA 1994 Photography, Video and Related Media). After visits to the biodesign, biomaterials, screenprinting, and design culture labs, it ended at NADA (studio for digital arts and animation), led by Claudia Bolshaw. 

In Rio, Rochele also met with coordinators and directors, Victoria Fernadez, Michelle Souza, and Sérgio Luiz Souza Motta at SENAI CETIQT (Technology Center of Chemical and Textile Industry), which is a center for professional and technical education, consulting, and laboratory services to the textile industry in Brazil. They discussed international collaboration between our students and faculty’s 3D animation and AI specialties, and the needs of the fashion industry 4.0 in Brazil, supported by SENAI. While there, Rochele had the amazing opportunity to visit the pioneers of the Brazilian animation industry, Cesar Coelho and Aida Queiroz, also co-founders of Anima Mundi. The duo mentioned past collaboration with our faculty and thesis advisor, Lisa LaBraccio, and Carlos Saldanha. In São Paulo, she met with prospective students pursuing bachelor's degrees at ESPM, a few highly skilled and authentic individuals. She also met with the director of Anymotion Festival, Taina Damaceno, and visited João H. Boldrini, director of Faculdade Melies, the first specialized animation and game design school in Brazil, which is interested in designing pathways for its students to pursue graduate studies at SVA. 

Our chair Terrence Masson was invited as a special guest to this year’s 20th anniversary of Animayo, an Academy Award-qualifying animation festival. In addition to serving on this prestigious international jury, Terrence opened the conference with a Master Class highlighting how his 35 years of production and education leadership drives the mission of our curriculum. 

Terrence also volunteered 8 hours over a two-day period to conduct portfolio reviews with students from all over Spain and Europe, creating invaluable connections with future SVA applicants, and continuing our mission of seeking out the very best and most diverse students possible. 

Never one to miss an opportunity to showcase our students' work, Terrence arranged two presentations at the American Arts Center of Casablanca - one focusing on the history and mission of SVA MFA Computer Arts and the other presenting curated films from our most recent 2025 class, Zixin Yang, Zheng Guo, Sawyer Rippon, Yadan Tan, Xinyao Yan, and Xiaochen Zheng, along with local Moroccan animated filmmakers.

Department staff and faculty member India Lombardi-Bello was invited to Animafest Zagreb this year to give a presentation about SVA MFA Computer Arts as part of Animafest's AFN Edu programming appealing eastern European students and educators. India invited recent graduate Sawyer Rippon to help present, making this his first trip outside of the US! India and Sawyer's light-hearted and image-centric presentation was received with enthusiasm, demonstrating a more professional approach to being an artist which has been SVA's mission from it's inception as a trade school for cartoonists and illustrators.

After Animafest, India flew over to France for the Annecy International Animation Festival. We were so proud to have two films from our department selected this year! 2024 graduates Michael Dondero and Shengnan Dong's thesis film Nostril was selected for WTF, while visiting scholar from Animationinstitut Sofija Zivkovic's film blargh was selected for the Graduation Competition. Both films feel representative of the multidiscplinary and experimental spirit our department encourages. We were beaming during the WTF screening of Nostril as it was the most engaged and rowdy screening we have ever witnessed! It was a special experience for our alumni and we're excited to see where all the connections made that week lead.

If you missed Animafest and Annecy this year, but want to feel like you were there, check out India's podcast The Animator's Friend where she recorded episodes at the festival picnics, casually interviewing animators at all ages and stages of their career. Hear from guests including Kaboom festival director Aneta Ozerek and producer Suresh Eiryat at Animafest and Tales of Alethrion director Mikkel Mainz and podcaster Pedro Martins at Annecy!

For the third year in a row, the MFA Computer Arts Department has presented student work t at the Computer Arts Society’s premier international Electronic Visualization & the Arts (EVA London) 2025 conference. 

Recent graduates were featured in the Research Work-in-Progress track. Christa Majoras (MFA 2025 Computer Arts) presented her thesis shape of play: an audiovisual playspace in person. Chatrin Samanchuen and Rithvik Poddutur (MFA 2025 Computer Arts) virtually presented their thesis research AI-Integrated Workflows in the Digital Landscape as well as Alumni Raoul Bubber (MFA 2024 Computer Arts) will presenting a full paper and VR demo, Seven-Point Perspective, adapted from his thesis project. Staff member Rochele Gloor returned virtually to EVA London to present her new research on co-embodiment using motion capture systems.

Christa said that it was great to connect with so many artists and researchers at the conference. "I enjoyed seeing demos in action during the Research Workshop pop-up from fellow students." She was also awarded the Peter Cannings Memorial Award for her work, which celebrates and recognizes the best research concepts and most original ideas submitted to EVA London's Research Workshop.

We are thrilled to announce that another five of our students have been accepted as official Student Volunteers at the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2025 in Vancouver, BC! Like our five students last year, students Ronnie Ahlborn, Akshita Yadav, Euijin Lee, Zack Dresher, and Hyeonghoo Cho will enjoy unprecedented networking opportunities with the world's premier computer graphics and interactive technology professionals. 

We are additionally proud that our 2024 alum Justin Dormitzer was hired to join the Computer Animation Festival pre-show research and production team. Justin was uniquely qualified thanks to his brilliant StreamDiffusion and TouchDesigner skills gained from his graduate projects and lab installation in the department. 

Rochele Gloor was also honored to have her research accepted for publication and presentation in the Future of CG Education spotlight. She will present a sandbox approach to teaching AI & Filmmaking with a focus on learning outcomes and ethical concerns at the SIGGRAPH Educators’ Forum, which highlights contributions to the field of computer graphics in academic settings. The research was based on a case study of a class taught by Anthony Giacchino in our department last fall. In addition, faculty member Michael Gold will also be presenting with Labs Hands-on Class and the Appy Hour about his developments in Generative AI pipelines for 3D applications.