Joseph Spano is 23-year-old student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He won first place in the Adobe and Art Institute Live Action Footage Competition.

“I was completely floored when I found out the news,” he says. “I was actually less than halfway through the program when I made the piece. This was a tremendous accomplishment for me.” more

A 26-year-old student from Denver, Arthur Bullock, Jr., will graduate from The Art Institute of Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts and Animation in December .

“I enjoy creating many forms of traditional and contemporary art, but I especially have a passion for 3D animation and visual effects,” he says.

Mike Stern is originally from New York and currently resides in Los Angeles. He is working as a staff animator at DreamWorks Animation and has contributed to their last two releases, Bee Movie and Kung Fu Panda. Stern is currently in production on Monsters vs. Aliens, which is due to release in the Spring of 2009.

Read more about Mike’s work

Carolyn Vale is a 24-year-old animator from St. Louis. She has always had a passion for animation, and she loves to observe life around her.

“When I saw Toy Story for the first time, I was inspired and knew what I wanted to do,” she says. “But my life didn’t start out that way. After high school I worked in graphic design and enrolled in a local community college to continue my education. While there I was introduced to Ringling School of Art and Design and their amazing student work. I was enrolled at Ringling in Fall 2005 to finally start my career in Computer Animation. During the Summer 2007, I was awarded the IPAX scholarship, to become an intern for Sony Pictures Imageworks. It was such an amazing experience to meet so many talented industry professionals, experience a real working environment, and just learning so much in just a short amount of time.” more

As promised in an earlier blog entry, here is a portion of my recent conversation on the Siggraph show floor with Shawn Kelly, one of the founders of the online character animation school known as Animation Mentor (www.animationmentor.com). Shawn, an ILM animator, explains the program, its goals, students, and great potential, so I hope you enjoy the conversation. To listen, click here

–Michael Goldman