The DePaul Animation Program - Chicago

OPEN TO ALL CURRENT, POTENTIAL, and ALUMNI DePAUL STUDENTS

The DePaul Animation Program and the School of Cinematic Arts Visiting Artist Series present

A Live Zoom Visit with Independent Animator
Amanda Bonaiuto

hosted by Animation MFA Co-Chair Amy Lockhart

May 29, 5 PM Central Time

Amanda Bonaiuto (b. 1990) is a freelance animation director, artist, and educator currently splitting her time between Los Angeles and New York. She is best known for her short films and commissioned pieces which have screened at film festivals and galleries worldwide. She received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2012 and an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts in 2018. She is currently a visiting professor at Pratt Institute and makes films and commissions in her studio.

Watch Amanda’s incredible award-winning short film Hedge https://vimeo.com/271910394

RSVP required, and you will receive the Zoom link the day of the event, Friday, May 29th.
https://tinyurl.com/yc9fesd5

Watch DePaul Animation students' group stop-motion Christmas film!

A group of more than 30 animators, led by DePaul Animation professors Meghann Artes and Devin Bell, worked for months on this magical film, now playing in a window display in downtown Chicago at State and Jackson.

Chicago station WLS recently produced a news story about the film:

"DePaul animation students' stop-motion Christmas film to play in Loop campus window through holiday season"

By Zach Ben-Amots
Friday, November 8, 2019
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A group of animation students at DePaul University have unveiled a stop-motion short film that will run as a window display for the school's Loop campus on State Street throughout the holiday season.

"It's been Christmas for us for the last year," said Meghann Artes, animation professor at DePaul.

"I hate Christmas now," added Devin Bell, animation professor at DePaul.

"No, but it feels like we have all these packages under the tree and they've been there for a year. And we finally get to open them," Artes said.

More than 30 students worked on the film, from storyboarding to fabrication, animation, camera work and color correction.

"Everything you see in the film was made by student," said Artes.

Stop-motion animation involves what Artes described as "frame-by frame object animation, moving everything, little increments here and there."

The project came together through DePaul's Idea Realization Lab, a resource available to the entire DePaul Community.

"We're one of DePaul's maker spaces here in the Loop campus," said Thomas Newsome, lab manager. "A whole bunch of cool stuff happens here, ranging from building custom wheelchairs for students during Halloween to creating cool Christmas sets during the holiday season and everything."

The lab provides machines, tools and materials at no cost, as well as offering workshops to teach people how to use the equipment. The lab's goal is to educate people in areas they may not be exposed to in their everyday life.

"You give them something like this and this is where they soar, right?" Artes said. "And so it showcases the amount of talent we have here at DePaul."

"It's so time-consuming and painstaking, but it's actually worth it," Bell said. "When you see animation, on a screen, that you made, to this day I'll just giggle. I'll be like, "Hahaha, it's alive.' And that magic, you can't get it any other way."

https://abc7chicago.com/community-events/depaul-students-stop-motion-christmas-film-to-play-on-state-st-through-holiday-season/5684892/

Merry Christmas From DePaul Lavish Christmas window displays along State Street have been a tradition in downtown Chicago since the late 1800s. This holiday season, animators from DePau...