WEDNESDAY, MAY 21/2014
Small program expands to
hands-on internship
| Nolan
__________
_ _ _ _ _______________ . H W .
Bradley provides movement'for his motion capture class. Photo reprinted from The Print, volume 47, issue 11.
Students in the DMC
p ro g ra m strike CWE
gold in the Motion
Capture field
by LIZ GOMES
associate photo editor
Ten years ago the Digital
M ultim edia C om m unications
(DMC) program was just a glim
mer in the eyes of Andy Mingo
Together they
c r e a t e d a •screep yreilaag arjÿi y j d e o
production class under the cre
ative writing headings WR-264
and WR-265.
The students were given access
to a couple of GL2 mini DV cam
eras which shot in standard defi
nition and two Mac stations for
editing kept in The Print lab. This
experiment led to the creation of
some of the most wonderfully
terrible student films, but more
im portantly showed Clackamas
^ ^ m m u n T ^^^o n eg ^th at'ffiere
Today the DMC program has
its own Associate of Applied
Science Degree and is a finely
tuned machine. Its many focus
areas are supported by several tal
ented members of the faculty and
a vast supply of the most state-
of-the-art equipment. Students
of the program have gone on to
internships and careers in the
multimedia industry.
The trick o f the program
is that, unless you follow the
degree plan exactly, acquiring
all of the essential credits for a
chosen focus area can be a bit of
a chore. The classes are primarily
offered during the day, and some
courses only offered one term a
year. Perhaps the m ost difficult
credits to obtain are the ones that
require the most self-motivation:
Cooperative Work Experience
(CWE) credits.
Some students of the DMC
program have expressed that
there’s a lack o f opportunities
to get CWE internships, and the
leads passively mentioned during
classes don’t usually go anywhere.
The Clackamas Print cahgTit up
with Andy Mingo during one of
his classes to find out whether
these claims were legitimate and
to talk with him about the recent
wealth of opportunities being
•generated by one of the newest
additions to the DMC curricu
lum, Motion Capture.
The Clackamas Print: In the
past it’s been hard to get CWE
credits, or at least know about
CWE credits.
A ndy Mingo: CWE credits
actually aren’t that difficult to
get. In the DMC program we
have partnerships or know of
companies who would be willing
to take on internships.
TCP: We’ve heard that the
m o t io n cap tu re cla ss is o n e o f th e
o n ly a v e n u e s for in te r n s h ip s for
CWE credits. Why is this specific
class successful?
M ingo: W inter term was
the first term that we offered
DMC-250, the motion capture
class. We brought in Damon
Redmond who is the art direc
to r from SuperGenius to teach
the class. He has some experi
ence with motion capture and
obviously a lot of experience
with SuperGenius, which is a
video game design company in
Oregon City.
W ith SuperGenius and the
resent CWE internship that’s
appening, it was kind of an
extension of the original class.
We had students taking DMC-250
in winter term but they wanted
to continue on and engage in a
professional project.
TCP: What are the interns
doing with SuperGenius?
Mingo: W hat we’re ’doing is
through Damon’s guidance and
SuperGenius, (I’m also giving
some support to tins project)
we’ve come up with a short film
idea that is going to be done
exclusively via m otion capture.
The interns are helping with
the preproduction process, the
directing process, the m otion
capture process and all of that,
and then what we’re looking to
do is to take it into two additional
classes that will be started in the
summer.
One will be a 3D modeling
class, and the other class will
be a Unity class, which is a
game engine program but you
can also nave it drive animated
films. We’re creating a pipeline,
if you will; o f workflow so that
we have the stuff that we take in
the motion capture sessions, and
We*lf take it in and design assets,*
a n d t h e n a c t u a lly d e s ig n o u r film -
The success^,these students
found with their internship may
inspire confidence in their weary
DMC peers to keep looking.
Mingo’s advice is simply to ask.
A lesson to be learned during
the quest for CWE is that, like
real jobs in the industry, these
opportunities don’t usually just
fall into one’s lap, they have to
be pursued.
Welding students could follow Portland’s
example with ‘Art Racks’
tion, “why not do something like
that here?”
According to the City of
Portland website, the “Art Racks”
program operates to serve the
following goals:
“To provide needed parking for
the increasing number of people
who choose bicycling as a, trans
portation option
To enhance Portland’s image as
a people- and bicyde-friendly city;
a community that regards bicycles
by TIM YOUNG
as a permanent and important
associate news editor
part of the city’s transportation
infrastructure
The city of Portland has a
To encourage more people to
program where “innovative choose cycling as a transporta
and aesthetic designs” are tion option
[ incorporated into city bike
To create a symbol for our city’s
racks. Anything from tooth livability that will gain positive
brushes outside o f dental attention locally, regionally and
offices, to whatever you can nationally.”
imagine that would serve as
In the Portland program citi
an effective bike rack can zens are encouraged to participate
be made as a way of adding by using a step by step process
artistic flair to city function.
called “Art Rack Approval and
At Clackamas Community Installation 101,” using bike rack
College, we asked the ques- fabrication companies and fol-
Wi th the help of the
CCC welding pro
gram, some sug
gest that Portland's
artistic bike rack
program could be
launched on campus
lowing the established Oregon
Administrative Rules on the sub
ject.
The welding program recent
ly purchased a virtual welder
where students can work with the
instructor on the machine and get
trained with cost saving on mate
rial and reduced safety concerns.
At Clackamas we have an
impressive and well-equipped
welding program where students
and instructors can make just
about anything, according to John
Phelps, CCC welding instruc
tor.
Phelps said the welding
department is equipped for
projects b u t nobody has
brought the ideas to him or
the welding department.