Category Archives: Info

It’s the summer, but don’t lose your skills

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laptop_safe_hotThe days are warm and long, the beach and pool beckons you regularly, and friends and family are scheduling road trips – in other words, it’s the summer! Whether you are taking just a class or two or are lucky enough to have the whole summer free, summer brain drain can apply just as much in college as it did when you were in high school.

So instead of finding out that your mad Photoshop skills have degraded and that After Effects has once again become an enigma, try to keep your skills up during this time off!

Here are just a few ideas of ways you can practice (while still enjoying your time off):

Design (or update) your portfolio

You’re going to need a portfolio for the program and to get your work out to potential employers so why not get a jump-start figuring out what it’s going to look like and what kind of content you want to eventually include? If you’ve already made a portfolio, have you created any new work in the past school year that you’d like to include or swap out?

Watch some tutorial videos

This is pretty well known among the FSCJ digital media students but there are a ton of great (and free!) tutorials online that cover pretty much every piece of software we have in the labs. Was there a point your professor didn’t get to cover in as much detail or something that was especially tricky for you? There are probably some great tutorials out there for you to refresh and expand your understanding of that technique.

Give yourself an assignment

What?! This one sounds suspiciously like work, huh? But unlike assignments that you get in a class, you can design this assignment yourself!
Have you ever heard of Project 365? Well who says they have to start on January 1st? (You could start on July 1st and create your own “project 184”!) Or maybe there’s a video or animation idea you’ve had but haven’t have the time to work on it? Have you wanted to learn more about Cinemagraphs? WordPress? Pinterest? Behance? Give yourself an assignment to learn or do any of these things and you’ll find that the practice will give you a huge head start in the fall.

Whatever you choose to do, remember the important thing is to just not stagnate. Keep up with your skills, review and discover new techniques, or finally take a step towards creating that cool project that you envisioned during the school year but you knew you were just too busy at the time to attempt. August is just around the corner – be prepared!

Featured student: Justin Ache

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Justin_AcheWhat is your name:

Justin Ache

Where are you from originally?:

I’m from all over. Born in Wisconsin, grew up in South Florida, and I have been in Jacksonville since 1997.

Why are you pursuing a degree in Digital Media:

I’ve been doing graphic design in one shape or form for the past 10 years, either contracted with companies or in jobs. I figured if I wanted to further my career (or mentor others) and manage creative progress on a larger scale, I needed to get a degree. Took me long enough to decide that, but better late than never.

Who inspires you the most and why?

The Internet inspires me. The good and the bad. I came from a traditional art background, but without spending my life in galleries, you can never learn enough about the craft. With digital media, styles and techniques change all the time. The ability to find out what is going on in real time trumps any particular individual.

What do you do off campus?

Ride my motorcycle, take photos, cook and bake, or shopping/drinking/eating local.

What work are you most proud of?

My first real client, the (now defunct) Jacksonville Barracudas. They let me design all of their print media for a season. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I tried real hard and lucked out, and I always remember that fondly. I’ve gotten a lot better over the years, so the struggle to be good isn’t as hard anymore; I miss really trying.

What are some interesting facts about you:

I ride a motorcycle. I like to cook and bake. I am one of the laziest people you will meet.

What is your favorite Book / Movie / Series / Video Game / Comic?

Batman. To all of the above.

What are your future goals and aspirations?

To better my career and become a better artist yada yada insert cliché resume goal here. No, I really want to be awesome at what I do, be it art, photography, daydreaming, etc. Ultimately, I would want to be the art director at a small to medium sized non-profit, and maybe teach digital media and graphic design on the side.

One thing you wish you could share with others…

Do what you want. Stay weird. But don’t shut yourself in, go out and meet people and figure out what makes them tick. The only way to objectively look at you is by comparing yourself to others.

You can find samples of Justin’s work on his portfolio:

www.justinache.com

 

Our featured students are nominated by their classmates. Have someone you’d like to nominate? Please contact Professor Liz Murphy Thomas at Liz.Thomas@fscj.edu

 

Featured student: Julie Bradley

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julie_bradleyWhat is your name:

Julie Bradley

Where are you from originally?:

I was born in Clearwater Florida, but I was raised in Jacksonville for as long as I can remember. I have had interest in the arts since I was a child and my strongest skill is traditional drawing. I am now pursuing this degree to advance my skills in digital media.

Why are you pursuing a degree in Digital Media:

I was in an art history class here at FSCJ, while pursuing my A.A. I was lost and wasn’t sure where to push myself without feeling unsure. My professor liked my work when she saw me drawing in class, so she brought up the idea of the Digital Media Bachelor’s program since it was new at the time and she gave me more information after sparking my interest.

Who inspires you the most and why?

I can’t put my thoughts into just one person, but the people who inspire me are the ones who put countless hours into their own creations. I find inspiration in the people who can work outside of daily jobs and make projects they love come to life. The drive to develop and create their ideas makes me feel like I can do whatever I really want if I just fuel my drive to do so.

What do you do off campus?

Outside of campus I work part time to pay off bills and I work on drawings in my spare time to develop my portfolio work.

What work are you most proud of?

I don’t want to pick any one piece I’ve made, but I find a lot of pride and happiness in how far my skills have come in such a short time. My favorite works are the ones I’ve made in my 3D Animation class, as I enjoyed getting lost in the virtual world of my imagination.

What are some interesting facts about you:

  • I can spark a conversation with most anybody
  • I have interest in multicultural trends
  • I have a wide range of musical interests

What is your favorite Book / Movie / Series / Video Game / Comic?

  • Book series: “Blue is for Nightmares” by Laurie Stolarz
  • Hiyao Miyazaki films/”chick flicks”
  • Games: Kingdom Hearts series, Tomb Raider, Pokemon, Animal Crossing
  • Online games: Dragon Nest, Trickster Online

What are your future goals and aspirations?

My future goal is to work for a 2D or 3D animation studio so I can work in the animation, character design, story scripting, or environment making departments. I have a strong interest in all of those areas and so far I have not made up my mind. I plan to use that future stability to maintain my family and to support a comfortable and creative way of life.

One thing you wish you could share with others…

I wish I could share my inspiration to make more out of life with the people who want more but can’t find the will to change their status. Some people need a push and I would love to help people obtain an inspiration to get what they want.

You can find samples of Julie’s work on her portfolio:

http://veenaviera.com/portfolio/

 

Thanks for reading this newest addition to our blog! We hope to us this to feature some of the great students our program is fostering. These posts will highlight some of what they are doing and what goals they have. The featured student will be picked by their classmates and one of our talented students is responsible for contacting and collecting these stories.

Have a suggestion for a student you’d like to see featured? Please contact Professor Liz Murphy Thomas at Liz.Thomas@fscj.edu

Welcome to the 2013-2014 academic year!

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Welcome all to the 2013-2014 academic year. This is the second year of the Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Digital Media and we look forward to seeing our first graduates this spring walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.
As we move quickly into the academic year we have an exciting projects led by Professor Julia Montgomery and her talent grant students. Julia is working with her introductory 3-D animations and Bachelor degree Artificial Effects and Environments students to develop a 3-D model of St. Augustine Florida. Using the 3-D printer students will print the models and assemble city. We all look forward to great year.
– Troy Johnson Ed. D.

Hybrid Courses:

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Hybrid courses for both A.S. and B.A.S class scheduling. You may be asking what is a hybrid course. A traditional course is typically meeting for 16 weeks. Hybrid courses meet half the time in the classroom and half the time online and are scheduled to meet for 8 weeks. This scheduling practice has produced both increased times frames to schedule a growing demand of classes while maintaining an open lab schedule for students to access the tools needed to complete applied projects. In addition hybrid courses have also allowed for students to streamline their courses completing sequential courses in the same semester.   Hybrid courses allow students to complete more courses at one time they still require the same workload and project requirements so we recommend students schedule courses with caution because hybrid courses are faster paced courses with the same requirements as a traditionally scheduled class. These hybrid courses provide students with the opportunity to increase the brevity in which they complete the required program courses. Students have been very resilient in meeting the demands of these hybrid courses and students will expect to see more of these type of courses in the future.

Project for 2013-2014:

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I would like to take this time to update you on a project that we have started and will be working on over the next year.

Currently in the Project Management course this spring, 2013, the students are producing the preproduction documents needed to develop a 3-D Diorama of historic St. Augustine. Yes, this project does correspond with the 500th anniversary however, that was not planned. We are working on developing ways to involve our students with industry related experience in the classroom and this project has many tie ins in various industries not to mention the cross discipline experience and the opportunity for students to work on the project in all levels of production to management. See the link to see a similar project produced for the city of Jacksonville,

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/architectural_models/sets/72157622132503624/