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ACME's Latest Win!
Educator Spotlight
Jack Wellman, from Walled Lake Western High School, Michigan is a first year teacher on ACME who helped steer two of his students to the winner's circle of ACME's year-end Tolerance PSA (see winners below). ACME asked Jack to share with the community how he helped bring his program up to speed so quickly.
Jack states, "First of all my experience with ACME training [Professional Development] classes last summer was the foundation to my student's success this year. Your ACME web site has also been a very useful tool for my students in learning and reinforcing the principles of animation. Being my first year of teaching the class I was a bit nervous going in but, I found that ACME's curriculum was very helpful in getting my class up and running. I was also very blessed with extremely talented students who were motivated to succeed."
ACME thanks Jack and all our educators for supporting the Fundamental exercises Executive Director Debbie Brooks adds, "Feedback from our studio partners wholeheartedly supports ACME's growing emphasis on fundamental skills at the onset and throughout our educational process." ACME will be adding a new Fundamentals video on storyboarding to our curriculum over the summer.
ACME Announces Tolerance PSA
Competition Award Winners 
ACME's year-end competition challenge was to create a thirty second Public Service Announcement on The Meaning of Tolerance. Students submitted projects exploring how we accept and respect the beliefs, practices, feelings, feelings and/or habits of others, especially when they differ from our own.
Deborah Brooks states, "Congratulations to award winners Adam Focht, and runners up Desmond Bouey and Emma Eakle on the success of their entries. Your peers first recognized your work in our nomination process. ACME salutes your creativity and recognizes your efforts. Congratulations also to educators Jack Wellman and Monica Nash. Thank you all for participating and helping to challenge and inspire our community."
ACME was fortunate to have Frank Gladstone back to judge the competition entries. Frank states, "The quality of the competition entries this year has obviously improved. As Pixar boss, John Lasseter recently said, '(Computer ) tools are not really different than pencils and paper. Tools do not create art.' We are seeing better work because ACME students are learning the basic principles that remain the foundation of good animation, whether the work is done with computers, pencil and paper or even clay. Congratulations!"
And the Winner is:
Student's Name: Adam Focht
Animation Level: 1
Teacher's Name: Jack Wellman
School Name: Walled Lake Western High School
Reasons class selected artwork: Adam Focht created "First Day" which was also a big hit with my students. They thought Adam's backgrounds are truly amazing. It was also a story many students could relate with and they were impressed with the timing of the animation.
Judges' comments: Good use of animation fundamentals to tell a clear, well crafted and engaging story about not fitting in and tolerance for an outsider.
Runner-up:
Student's Name: Desmond Bouey
Animation Level: 1
Teacher's Name: Jack Wellman
School Name: Walled Lake Western High School
Reason class selected artwork: Desmond Bouey created "Hallway Hero" which my students really loved. Our high school is very culturally diverse so my students really took his story line to heart. They also liked the quality and flow of the characters. His only concern is he ran out of time coloring in the backgrounds.
Judges' comments: Very complex and dramatic use of animation and cinematics to tell a very topical and challenging story.
Runner-up:
Student's Name: Emma Eakle
Animation Level: 2
Teacher's Name: Monica Nash
School Name: Sowers Middle School
Reason class selected artwork: We like the interaction between the cat and dog, two characters that don't usually tolerate each other. Her timing and staging looked good. The tail wagging on the dog helped us believe in the emotions. She also had a nice walk cycle. This animation was especially good for our class because she didn't resort to text to tell her story - the ONLY one in the class!
Judges' comments: A simple story well told about usual enemies understanding each other. The animation is more complex than it appears and the use of the camera is economical yet very effective.
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ACME's Professional Development Update
Last year, ACME delivered our summer Professional Development workshop to educators at no charge, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce and The California Emerging Technology Fund. The grant concludes in June. Those interested in receiving paid training via online webinar, should contact us for pricing.
Catch ACME presenting at the SIGGRAPH Educator's Forum on August 6th at 12:00 pm. Stay tuned for details and let us know if you will be attending SIGGRAPH.
Summer Engagement for Students
As we build our alumni and college membership, more students are contacting us with their plans to participate on ACME over the summer. If you have graduating students that wish to stay on ACME with a free alumni account, please ask them to contact us via email or Facebook, so that we can notify them of Webinars and Webex critique sessions to be hosted over the summer.
Benefits of a free alumni membership include: access to high-level students and professional mentors who will help further nurture and develop student artwork, access to instructional videos and tutorials, access to ACME's supportive community, the opportunity for students to keep abilities and skills in front of our professional mentors and ensure their participation in the tradition of industry "pay it forward" apprenticeship.
Back to top Did you hear about ACME's Latest Win?
The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) presented ACME with its international 21ST CENTURY BEST PRACTICES AWARD IN DISTANCE LEARNING on May 1, 2012 for excellence in distance education. The World's most prestigious distance learning awards were presented at the 2012 National Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. USDLA is the nation's leading distance learning organization. The association members operate in and influence 46% of the $913 billion dollar U.S. education and training market.
Click here for more details.
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