The Chuck Jones Experience is a nearly 10,000 square-foot destination. At its entrance is a 1,000 square-foot glass-enclosed classroom where creative art projects are encouraged and guided by actual teachers. This is a guided tour into this exhibition with the first stop will be in a 1930′s-style movie theater. There, you’ll meet the actual legend Chuck Jones, via a short film. After that, you’ll walk down a virtual street surrounded by many of Jones’ most memorable characters and a timeline of his extraordinary life, ending up in a re-creation of Jones’ studio where he worked and discovered some of his most famous characters, such as Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Tom and Jerry and many more.

From there you’ll experience the Looney Tunes characters in 3-D and learn more about how characters are developed while viewing some of the original drawings made by Jones’. Next, you will move onto “Animation Alley” where a multimedia wall displays animation pieces from the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and other animation studio collections. You’ll end the tour with a visit to the Acme Workshop where you can try your hand at creating sound effects and voiceovers for a Chuck Jones cartoons.

Hours of Operation:
10:00am-10:00pm daily (including holidays, last admission sold at 9:00pm)

Admission Prices
Adults: $19.95
Children (5-17): $14.95 (children 4 and under free)
Seniors (65 and older): $14.95
Military (with ID): $14.95
Students (with ID): $14.95

Nevada Resident Prices (ID required)
Adults: $14.95
Children (5 – 17): $9.95 (4 and under free)

*Annual memberships available

The results for our first semester competition are in!! Everyone who enters our competitions gains from the experience.  Students receive peer recognition and the feedback of the a professional mentor, and classrooms profit by using the competitions to engage students in discussions and collaboration, strengthening the classroom community.  ACME thanks everyone who entered the last competition, and we hope you will all continue to engage in the next one. Read here for details on our Tolerance competition.

And the Winner is: 

Student’s Name:  Sharon Chao

Animation Level: 1 (Beginner)

Teacher’s Name:  Kent Baker

School Name:  Capistrano  Valley High School

 Reasons class selected this artwork:  We felt that Sharon’s park scene was the strongest entry for the quality of the story and animation skills. The situation is one you can imagine happening and the staging and movements work well to heighten the comic effect.

Judges’ Comments:  The bouncing guy is pretty great. I really liked the way he turned in space, though I would have done a little more to describe the beginning of his fall. On the other hand, I could not really tell what was happening with the figure on the bench; it was a bit too hard to see.

Runner-up:

Student’s Name: Fayth Davis

Animation Level: 1 (Beginner)

Teacher’s Name: Brad Schofield

School Name: Campbell County High School

 Reasons class selected this artwork:  The class thought this animation captured the spirit of the competition with the boy bouncing the basketball and shooting it. The young man first dribbles the ball, then shoots it and bounces it off the backboard. Finally, the ball

Utah Valley University offers a Bachelor of Science Degree in Digital Media, with an emphasis in Gaming & Animation. Associate Professor of Digital Media  Rodayne Esmay of UVU currently has two classes participating on ACME.  Recent graduates have gone to work at Pixar, Nickelodeon, Sony Imageworks, and local gaming companies.

“We had five UVU students advance from Level 1 to Level 2 on ACME Animation in a matter of weeks,” Ray Seay, Program Specialist, recalls. “The quality of artwork met our rigorous criteria in professional review and the quality of their comments to other students was exceptional.  Their transition and work inspired our online community.”

Rodayne Esmay and his students are no strangers to inspiring those around them. States Rodayne, “the program at UVU gives students the opportunity work in a studio environment as a team, to design and build digital games and animated shorts.” Knowing that today’s middle and high school students could be his college-level students in the future, Rodayne works with the local “feeder” schools to help define and build their arts programs. He hopes to have three local high schools on ACME next year so that by the time those future students come to him, they are oriented to 21st century and creative skills.

“My students have also started a student club on campus called DAGA (The Digital Animation & Gaming Association),” Rodayne states. “As a service project, they hosted a class of middle schoolers, to bring them on-campus and broaden their understanding about the college experience and Digital Media. We spent two hours in the animation lab alone, and everyone got to try their hand at making something move.”

The challenge? The Utah State Office of Education does not yet recognize a classic animation class as an Art course, which means these types of classes have to be taught as electives. “Getting approval to teach animation to fill an Art credit is important because it will make it much more attractive to administrators, teachers and students,” Rodayne explains.

Fortunately for the many schools and classes in the area, Rodayne Esmay is an expert at designing and developing such curricula. ACME is assisting him with various arts standards and he will be drafting a plan for the Utah State Educational Arts Directors.
In 2007, Utah Valley University was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as an Engaged Learning institution.  With Rodayne Esmay at the helm, we are sure more kudos and awards will be forthcoming. You can check out some of their work here.

Karen Barreto
Jocelyn Romero
Kimberley Zecena

The ACME Network is dedicated to advancing our community’s 21st century, digital and creative skills. We joined CETF and Get Connected!, in sponsoring a broadband signup drive. Student and educator ambassadors reached into homes and communities to mobilize a broadband sign up and awareness campaign. No purchase was necessary; students gathered and submitted broadband welcome letters and certificates to win.

What motivates you to mentor on ACME?
The powerful thing about ACME’s mentoring is being part of its collaborative learning environment. Everyone benefits from the constructive comments and critiques posted on the site…. professionals and students alike. Even as a professional artist, there’s always more to learn; I’m appreciative to both ACME and its students for allowing me to be part of such a wonderful opportunity.
What’s the one drawing thing you use?
A Wacom Cintiq. That’s not to say that I don’t draw using traditional media, but for a fast turnaround I find that working digitally allows me to make corrections easily both during the work process and during post production as well. These days, digital artwork is in a class all its own…. it’s almost a medium unto itself. Developing a work process that is geared towards making yourself a successful part of a production team is definitely something worth investing time and effort in. The program that I draw in is Photoshop, primarily because of the power of the program. It is vast and offers the user many tools that are specific to the project in question. From an animation standpoint I still largely work in Flash…. ToonBoom is something I’m extremely interested in, but just haven’t had the time or funding to begin working with just yet.
With regards to the process of drawing itself, I find that gesture tends to be a large part of what I focus on. Shape in design and shape relationship throughout a design is also a primary aim. The big, medium, and small triad is a large focus throughout the design process and tends to lend itself well to making a drawing much stronger when applied appropriately.
When drawing with traditional media I enjoy drawing with Bic #2 mechanical pencils…. any paper will do

What do you listen to when you are working?
That’s a good question. It tends to fluctuate depending on the project at hand. I try to listen to something that helps inspire work on the project. A while back, I was asked to develop the look of a surf kid’s project, so I listened to pretty much every Jack Johnson album I could find. If I’m drawing just for fun, or for a project that doesn’t require as much creative concentration, I like to listen to audio books. My two favorite series are The Chronicles of Narnia and of course Harry Potter–read by Jim Dale and Stephen Fry. The portrayal of the characters in those audio books can be extremely inspiring, at least for me.

What’s your favorite thing to animate?
Hmmm. . . I love character, and particularly expression….. I think the relationship between the two, when handled appropriately and in the proper context, can really help bring home a believable and convincing performance in any given scene. So I suppose if I had to choose something it would be character…. not a character, but the character’s character. When you animate or draw a guy, it’s important to remember that he’s an individual with a particular way of doing things. When you can get that across in a drawing or a scene it makes the character’s character believable. It makes him more than just a guy, it makes him THAT GUY…. as opposed to the one standing next to him. It makes him specific, iconic, and memorable.

Where did you go to school?
I went to school at two different places pretty much simultaneously. I went to The University of Montevallo to get my art education and I went to Jeff State Community College and enrolled in ACME to receive my animation training and education. For me, both experiences were extremely beneficial, but in very different ways.

At UM, the art program was geared 100% to artistic technique . . . learning how to draw with all different media, learning to paint, to cast metal, to sculpt, and to express yourself visually through different artistic tools and approaches. We learned a lot about art history, different high points in historical artistic periods and ultimately how those individuals influenced artists today. Towards the end of that nearly five-year experience, we chose an area to concentrate in. Knowing that I wanted to go into animation, I chose drawing as my concentration with figure being the primary focus. It was great, because I had a professor who worked specifically with me to help me learn how to draw better, how to construct form and really get gesture into my poses. His name is Ken Proctor and I will always be indebted to him for the time and effort that he invested in me during that time.

At Jeff State the experience was much more collaborative. The small band of students that we had were encouraged to give honest and earnest feedback, to pull from each other and share ideas to help make the best work that we possibly could. I’ll never forget the first year that I was there . . . we had to come up with storyboards for a 30 second film. I got up in front of the class and pitched what I thought was a funny idea, expecting to hear praise for how wonderful it was, but at pitch’s end what I got was dead silence. I mean you could’ve heard a pin drop in there. I was devastated, didn’t know what to do. Some of my feedback was blunt: “Well, that’s not funny”. And then the ACME pro said, “you know what you should do…. you should have the guy do this here instead.” And then someone else chimed in with another idea that plus-ed what I had and made it better. That experience set the precedent for the rest of my time in ACME’s program and we all grew together because of it.
Two different experiences, both extremely beneficial.

Who was or is your mentor?
I’ve had some really great ones over the years…. my biggest mentor is an artist named Steve Lambe. He and I worked closely during my time at Nickelodeon and he was my supervisor there. He taught me a lot about how to break apart the style of a production, color theory, character posing and expression, among a lot of other things. To this day he is still one of my nearest and dearest friends… and he is a constantly improving artist and professional. Seeing his work get better and better on each project inspires me to desire the same result in my projects, so in that way I suppose he’s still mentoring me even now. There have been many others, but Steve is the main one…. thanks buddy!

What is your favorite animated feature?
Now that’s a tough question. For art direction it’s a tie between 101 Dalmatians and Sleeping Beauty. Both classics and visually wonderful films full of great performances. For its oddness and the craft of production I’m also a really big fan of Coraline. But for story…. it’s hard to beat pretty much anything Pixar. I have a particular fondness for Finding Nemo, Monster’s Inc., and the Toy Story Movies. I also love both The Iron Giant, and The Incredibles.

That’s not answering the question though, is it? Okay. If I have to pick one I guess I’ll go with. . . (Insert drum roll here) . . . The Sword in the Stone.

What animators or cartoons influenced you as a kid?
Any and everything Looney Tunes… I practically spent every Saturday morning watching Bugs Bunny and the gang. And the classic Disney features too. A lot of those were being re-released to theaters when I was younger. I specifically remember seeing both Bambi and Lady and the Tramp with my Grandma, then spending hours at her desk when we got back home trying to draw the characters. Those were wonderful and influential times. When I saw Aladdin, I decided, “That’s what I want to do”. Who wasn’t captivated by the many wonderful performances in the film, particularly Eric Goldberg’s Genie and Glen Keane’s Aladdin? With artists of that caliber creating performances of that magnitude, it’s hard not to be inspired to do that too.

(Pictured: Miah’s “Punky Dunk Books” characters)

COMPETITION CONTENT AND TIMELINES UPDATE

 Second Semester Competition:  Artwork Due by May 4th, 2012

The meaning of tolerance as it is to be used for the theme of this animation competition concerns the definition that addresses how we accept and respect the beliefs, practices, feelings, and/or habits of others, especially when they differ from our own. 

Level 1: Animation, “Tolerance”. Create a 30 second social issue oriented story, message or public service announcement (PSA) on the theme of tolerance. What do you believe about tolerance?

Level 2: Animation, “Tolerance”. Create a 30 second social issue oriented story, message or public service announcement (PSA) on the theme of tolerance. What do you believe about tolerance?

Level 3: Animation, “Tolerance”. Create a 30 second social issue oriented story, message or public service announcement (PSA) on the theme of tolerance. What do you believe about tolerance?

* Due to confusion in the community about “Best in Class” certificate awards being a mark of recognition rather than a “win” achievement, ACME sadly regrets it has had to discontinue the practice of sending out certificates to all “Best in Class” entrants. We encourage all educators to continue the practice of recognizing your “Best in Class” winners with your own school and class certificates. 

2011/2012 COMPETITION GUIDELINES UPDATE

ACME’s animation competition is open to students in registered classes on ACME Animation.

A best in class can be submitted for students working at each level on the web site.

A runner-up artwork may be submitted (for each class) for students at each level as well.

A statement must be included explaining why the class selected each specific artwork.

Submissions must be sent in the following format on a word doc:   
1. Students entry link:
2. Students Name:
3. Period:
4. Grade level:
5. Level of animation your student is in:
6. Teachers Name:
7. School Name:
8. Reasons class selected this artwork:
Please Note:  If you have a Best in Class runner-up, please fill in the above information for them as well.

The deadline is May 4, 2012. Please contact us if you have any questions. info@theacmenetwork.org.

Q.  What is your favorite drawing tool?

A.  Pencil, Paper and Photoshop.

Q.  What do you listen to when you are working?

A.  That will vary depending what I’m doing. 80% of the time I don’t listen to anything. I get so focused that sometimes I feel like I’m inside of the computer. When I want to listen to some music, I do like to listen to anything from Bossa Nova to Heavy Metal. When I’m not working I listen to much more music.

Q.  What’s your favorite thing to animate?

A.  Action scenes, martial arts and funny shots.

Q.  Where did you go to school?

A.  I’ve studied electrical engineering at CEFET-MG (in Brazil). I learned animation and visual effects at the Academy of Entertainment and Technology (Santa Monica College CA). After that, I went on to take classes at Gnomon VFX School and Studio Arts.

Q.  What is your favorite animated feature?

A.  That is a hard question to answer. I have a few favorites that I’d like to list: “Arthur Christmas”, “Ratatouille”, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meat Balls”, “Kung Fu Panda”…

Q.  What animators or cartoons influenced you as a kid?

A.  “Woody Woodpecker”, “Tom and Jerry”, “The Smurfs”, “Dungeons & Dragons”, “ThunderCats”, “The Flintstones”, “The Simpsons” and a lot  others.

Call for New Media Submissions

Application Deadlines (via online submission or postmarked):
February 1, 2012 (most festival submissions)
March 1, 2012 for Digital Dome Submissions

currents 2012, the 3rd annual Santa Fe International New Media Festival will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA – June 22 – July 8, 2012.  The Festival explores the role of technology and the diverse applications of New Media in the arts.

This year submission categories include single channel video, video and sound installation, interactive new media, animation, computer/software modulated sculpture, multimedia performance, experimental and interactive documentary video, Digital Dome projection, art gaming and web art.

Read more here