Last weekend, 22 of Villa Maria’s Animation students pulled an all-nighter for Villamation, the College’s annual, 24-hour animation competition.
“Students were divided into teams and they randomly chose two images from a hat to use as inspiration for their story,” said Valery Amborski, instructor of animation at Villa Maria. “Each team was assigned one of our Animation labs as their ‘home base,’ where they brainstormed story ideas, sketched character and environment design, flushed out story boards and compiled an animatic all before lunchtime. In 24-hours our teams created high quality, short, animated films that they should all be very proud of.”
The student teams for Villamation 2021 were:
Team 1: Alyssa Esch, ’21, Sierra Annunziata, ’22, Cheyenne Meeder, ’22, Alyssa Phillips, ’21, Jonathan Barber, ’24
Team 2: Amanda Dala, ’21, Aurora Mills, ’22, Alexis Berry, ’22, Blake Sieber, ’21, Anthony Tran, ’21
Team 3: Timothy Clavier, ’22, Molly Lonigan, ’22, Mel Leonard, ’21, Rebecca Albright, ’22, Joseph Covich, ’22, Michael Scrivens, ’21
Team 4: Shalayah Smith, ’22, Rachel Falsone, ’22, Jamika Ervin, ’22, Brianna Scutt, ’22, Cameryn Gollakner, ’22, Brandon Zoblisien, ’21
The resulting videos were shared with the College community during a virtual screening. After the shorts were shown, one team was awarded the Best in Show award. Each member of the winning team was given a trophy, that was made with the Animation Department’s 3D printer.
Team 3 earned the “Best in Show” designation. Timothy, Molly, Mel, Rebecca, Joseph, and Michael worked together to create a video called “Larkspur,” an open-ended tale featuring a young woman on the run from a lion.
“Villamation is a great way for students to hone their skills in animation, regardless of their specific talents within this field, and practice teamwork,” said Amborski. “Especially for our Freshman and Sophomore students, it’s a crash course in making an animated short film from start to finish. It was great to be able to offer our students an in-person activity during this time.”
The entire screening, which includes each of the short films that were created during Villamation 2021, can be viewed here:
To learn more about Villa Maria College’s Animation program, visit www.villa.edu/academics/academic-programs/animation.
