48-Hour ATEC Event Creates 6-Second Animations, Lifetime Lessons

University of Texas at Dallas students preparing for a career in games or animation recently spent 48 straight hours working on animation pieces that last only six seconds.

With 150 frames to complete during the allotted time, the students from the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (ATEC) faced a significant challenge.

“To try to model and do all the tasks that they were doing in two days is really hard. A professional animator will only work on 3 to 4 seconds in an entire week, and that person may only be doing the animation portion,” said Sean McComber MFA’14, associate professor in ATEC and area head for animation and games. “The students were trying to do five or six things with only three people.”

ATEC’s 48-Hour Blitz attracted six teams of three students each. At the beginning of the 48-hour period, the teams were presented with a piece of character art to use as a prompt. Each group was given actions that the character needed to do, such as walk, jump, fly or dance. Students also had to include a texture or surface, which could be polka dot, argyle, velvet or denim.

During breaks in the competition, students participated in a scavenger hunt, a trivia game and Pictionary. While space was set aside for occasional sleep, most of the time students huddled in front of their computers working on their animations.

“I really loved getting to know everyone in that room,” said Katie Webb, an arts, technology, and emerging communication senior and one of the blitz participants. “You really got to know the other students and see their work progress. One of my favorite things was walking around and seeing what everyone else was doing.”

Webb, who looks forward to pursuing a career in animation, said that during the event she focused on 3D modeling tasks, for which she had little experience.

“I’ve definitely never considered myself a 3D modeler, but that’s basically what I did for the entire 48 hours. After the first few hours, I actually started enjoying it,” she said.

According to McComber, encouraging students to try new tasks is the main point of the competition.

“The point is to give them an event that is outside of their normal homework and schoolwork. They have to do things they’re not used to doing, putting them out of their comfort zone,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s more about the experience than what they’re actually creating.”

The Princeton Review recently ranked the UT Dallas game design track No. 21 among undergraduate programs and No. 13 among graduate programs. The University’s animation area of study, which recently combined with games, also ranks high — No. 24 in the U.S., according to Animation Career Review.

The 48-Hour Blitz was sponsored by Reel FX Animation, a Dallas-based animation studio that has produced numerous feature-length films, including “Scoob” and “The Book of Life.” Reel FX provided prizes for the winning teams, donated to the ATEC animation and games program, and offered expert coaching to the student participants.

Webb said the event provided a taste of what a real studio environment would be like and inspired her to continue to work toward landing a studio job in the future.

“We figured out our strengths, learned new things and really made something unique,” she said. “I’m super proud of the result, and it was a really cool experience.”