While most of us got the recommended 8-hours of sleep between February 19 and 20th, a group of animation and game design students worked through the night – from 9 AM on Saturday to 9 AM Sunday to be exact – for Villamation.
“Twenty-six students total, from freshmen to seniors, participated in this year’s Villamation 24-hour animation competition,” said Valery Amborski, animation instructor at Villa Maria College. “Seniors drew inspiration from a jar, one image and two fortune cookies. Starry-eyed and caffeinated, they were off to create unique, animated short films from scratch.”
“Villamation 2022 was my last Villamation (very sad) and it definitely had the most “real world” experience,” said Rachel Falsone, a senior animation student at Villa Maria. “We got together and brainstormed ideas and worked on the storyboards together, so we were all on the same page. Timmy, a junior, created an excel spreadsheet so we knew what was and wasn’t done. I got free models online and made the 3D environment and reused some furniture I modeled last semester in the advanced modeling class. I got the free models so I wouldn’t spend so much time modeling and I could help my team. Everyone is good with something. We had specific jobs for specific people. Storyboarding, character design, rough animation, clean up, 3D, editing, each person on our team fit into at least one of those categories. I feel things moved smoothly for us since we had a plan and assigned jobs. We ran into the occasional bump, and we were stressed, it got scary when the deadline was coming up, but we pulled through!”
The final films were screened for the College community on March 1. Upon completion of the screening, Professor Amborski announced the winner of this year’s Best in Show. Each member of the winning team was awarded a trophy that was 3-D printed right here on campus.
The resulting films can be seen below!
Charles: Charles – Villamation 2022
Created by Molly Lonigan, ’22, Anthony Tran, ‘22, Michael Scrivens, ‘22, Savannah Hicks, ‘24, Gregory Podsiadlo, ‘23, Peyton Schwab, ‘25, and Alexis Colson, ‘23.
Bound: Bound – Villamation 2022
Created by Rachel Falsone, ‘22, Alexis Berry, ‘22, Mika Ervin, ‘23, Timothy Clavier, ‘22, Tim Reinard, ‘24, Johnathan Barber, ‘22, and Zenith Carbin, ‘24.
Clean Up (on Aisle 13): Clean Up (on Aisle 13) – Villamation 2022
Created by Sierra Annunziata, ‘22, Xzavyer Barker, ‘23, Haley Wylupski, ‘24, Caitlin Cork, ‘24, Shalayah Smith, ‘23, Natasha Alston, ‘24.
Ghost Dog: Ghost Dog – Villamation 2022
Created by Aurora Milla, ‘23, Brianna Scutt, ‘23, Julia Ramos, ‘24, Jacob Walek, ‘25, Salem Saloman, ‘25, and Joseph Covich, ‘22.
Created by Aurora Milla, ‘23, Brianna Scutt, ‘23, Julia Ramos, ‘24, Jacob Walek, ‘25, Salem Saloman, ‘25, and Joseph Covich, ‘22.
Best in Show, as determined by the College’s animation professors, was awarded to Bound.
“I’m really grateful for our team,” said Falsone. “There were three other great films, and I was genuinely surprised we won. The stress was worth it. Alex, Tim, Jonathan, Zenith, Timothy, and Mika are incredibly talented people, and I can’t express how grateful I am to have worked with them. I’m happy I participated in Villamation my freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year. Each one a different experience and this past one is an experience I will never forget.”
To learn more about studying animation at Villa Maria College, visit https://www.villa.edu/academics/animation.
To learn more about studying game design at Villa Maria College, visit https://www.villa.edu/academics/game-design.
