The animated short film “The Green Touch” was originally created by these students (left to right): Carson Kirkpatrick, Derrick Roe, Chi Nguyen, Colleen Green, Shaun Keefe, Rachel Huttinger, Ryan Barry, Yu-Ju Shih and Grace Roberts. The film was created for the 2018 Wonderful World exhibition in Guiyang, China.
MTSU’s animation students are racking up the international accolades.
A five-student animation team placed in the top 10 out of a thousand participants in this year’s international 24 Hours Animation Contest.
The ACM SIGGRAPH Student Chapter hosted the college’s six participating teams for the contest, which is now in its 16th year. Teams work from their home school and submit a YouTube link of their films before the deadline, which are judged by industry artists.
Team “First Idea,” which includes students McKenna Antram, Caroline Cromwell, Matt Guardo, Tyler Hilliard and Calli Morgan, created a 30-second film using this year’s theme, which was “empathy.” The contest’s theme changes every year and isn’t announced until the countdown begins. Watch the animation here.
Kevin McNulty, animation associate professor and ACM SIGGRAPH faculty adviser, said the students went toe-to-toe with some of the best animation schools in the world.
“We competed against 49 participating schools, over 1,000 students and nine countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Austria, Thailand, Brazil, Germany and the Czech Republic,” he said.
In other MTSU animation news, “The Green Touch,” created by students Ryan Barry, Colleen Green, Rachel Huttinger, Shaun Keefe, Carson Kirkpatrick, Chi Nguyen, Grace Roberts, Derrick Roe and Yu-Ju Shih for the 2018 Wonderful World exhibition in Guiyang, China, was recently accepted into the International Green Culture Film Festival in Belgrade, Serbia.
More than 1,400 films were submitted and just 54 were chosen.
McNulty said his students felt it was important to make a film about the environment. During the 2018 spring semester, the team met weekly to discuss the idea and map out the story and design.
“The story grew out of their frustration that not everyone cares or is as informed as they should be,” he said. “Our main protagonist, Tera, is not only the embodiment of this frustration, but also their hope and optimism that change is still possible.”
The result was an inspiring four-minute animation entitled “The Green Touch” about a young environmental activist who realizes she has the power to change the hearts and minds of those around her. The film took home Best Charity Award at the 2018 Wonderful World film exhibition and was one of the shorts chosen as the festival’s “best in show.”
Still from the 30-second animation piece on “empathy” from MTSU’s 10th place team “First Idea.”
The Leading Edge 
You must be logged in to post a comment.