{"id":12217,"date":"2022-11-07T14:50:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/?p=12217"},"modified":"2022-11-08T01:43:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T06:43:46","slug":"students-combine-animation-voice-acting-concepts-in-innovative-new-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/2022\/11\/07\/students-combine-animation-voice-acting-concepts-in-innovative-new-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Students combine animation, voice acting concepts in innovative new course"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"993\" height=\"559\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MHrAP5yrgCQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<p>Students on University of Detroit Mercy&#8217;s McNichols Campus are bringing digital characters to life through acting and animation techniques as part of a new course this fall.<\/p>\n<p>In Computer Animation and Voice Acting, students in the University\u2019s Communications Studies and Theatre programs work together to create animated films using Adobe Character Animator. They\u2019re tasked with handling a variety of steps in developing a short film, from scriptwriting to directing to producing to editing.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also no specialization in the course, allowing students to experience both disciplines no matter their background.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re required to do both computer animation and voice acting, so that they learn from each other,\u201d Associate Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.udmercy.edu\/about\/people\/university\/clae\/performing-arts\/full-time-faculty\/andrew-papa\">Andrew Papa<\/a> said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just us lecturing at them about the importance of these skills, it\u2019s them actually learning from each other in these group projects. They become more integral, collaborative and well-rounded in their work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Papa is co-teaching the course with Associate Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.udmercy.edu\/about\/people\/university\/clae\/comm-studies\/faculty\/jason-roche.php\">Jason Roche<\/a>, building off a similar acting and film course that they taught together in 2017. Roche began experimenting with Character Animator during the COVID-19 pandemic and used it to liven up his virtual lectures. It didn\u2019t take long for him to see value in bringing the software to students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just fell in love with playing around with the software,\u201d Roche said. \u201cIt made my online lectures stand out and I thought, \u2018I\u2019ve got to incorporate this as a course. It\u2019s so easy to use and it\u2019s going to unleash an entirely new set of creative tools for our students.\u2019 Being able to act with it, it seemed like a natural fit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Character Animator captures students\u2019 facial expressions, movements and voices in real time through a computer\u2019s webcam and microphone. Students can use a wide variety of characters within the software, including spooky ghosts and goblins, Santa\u2019s elves and humans of all ages.<\/p>\n<p>A grant from Detroit Mercy\u2019s Center for Excellence in Teaching &amp; Learning helped fund the development of the course and purchase of additional characters from ElectroPuppet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBody tracking changed my view of animation,\u201d said Jahleel Hunley, a freshman studying Theatre at Detroit Mercy. \u201cI\u2019m starting to love it more, because there\u2019s more things you can do with it, more freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The opportunity to try voice acting made the course stand out to Communications Studies senior Lorenzo Izzi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t done anything like that or have worked with the Theatre students,\u201d Izzi said. \u201cYou kind of get both parts of it, the editing and voice work. That was pretty intriguing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Students work on several projects in the course, headlined by a final short film that will be played during a showcase at the end of the fall semester. Because the projects being produced are original, students can include their work in digital portfolios when starting their careers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have these individual skills on your resume, you can say to prospective employers, \u2018I\u2019ve also done some work with Character Animator.\u2019 Not every theatre person is going to have Character Animator on their resume, but our students will,\u201d Papa said. \u201cIt elevates the skill sets that make them more appealing to prospective employers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the time they\u2019re done, they\u2019re going to benefit by having this in their portfolio,\u201d Roche added. \u201cThey\u2019re writing, directing, producing and starring in their own stuff that they\u2019re going to animate themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After just a\u00a0few weeks in the course, Izzi believes the experience will benefit him as he pursues a future in production or marketing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s one more thing you can put on your resume, and I think that helps a lot in a competitive field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Papa is grateful for the ability to collaborate with another program for a course within Detroit Mercy\u2019s College of Liberal Arts &amp; Education. Both professors hope Computer Animation and Voice Acting will be offered again in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d say to a certain degree, a lot of colleges and universities don\u2019t have the ability to offer things like this,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re kind of doing something that a lot of universities feel they can\u2019t, whereas this is an institution that says \u2018please, do that.\u2019 Our world is becoming more collaborative and interdisciplinary, and our students need to be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students on University of Detroit Mercy&#8217;s McNichols Campus are bringing digital characters to life through acting and animation techniques as part of a new course &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,4404],"tags":[2939,5760,94,2309,5757,5759,5680,5758,38],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbwnTV-3b3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12217"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12221,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12217\/revisions\/12221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}