Computer Art Club carves top prize at animation festival

Members of the BGSU Computer Art Club (CAC) attended the Ottawa International Animation Festival to learn about what's going on in the animation industry and walked away as champion pumpkin carvers.

Seventeen CAC members, along with their faculty advisor, Bonnie Mitchell, professor of digital arts, earned the top prize in the festival's pumpkin carving contest, sponsored by the Cartoon Network. This highly competitive and fun competition attracts a wide range of creative participants including: international artists working at animation companies, students and faculty from around the world and independent animators.

On the trip to Ottawa, Canada, the students brainstormed ideas and sketched thumbnail images of possible pumpkin designs. The group agreed that CAC President Jack Spencer's suggestion to create a pumpkin ghost ship was the best approach. At the event, Joshua Drouillard, Erin Reen and Rachel Sykes carved the pumpkin, while others provided creative input. Working as a team they carved a base, sails, barnacles and other small details for the ship. The attention to detail and hard work paid off. 

“Though our team won cool grab bag items, including a Ben Ten mask, a copy of The Answer signed by Rebecca Sugar, and a variety of different pins, the greatest reward was taking home the first place title and showing the world that BGSU has super creative students,” said Megan Miazgowicz.

Other BGSU students who attended the festival included: Matthew England, Rachel Immel, Joseph Jadach, Alexander Turner, Jessica West, Marisa Kreinbihl, Jay Butcher, Carly Gardull, Amanda Glass, Meryl Becker, Cassandra Steiner and Tabitha Marquis.

An interesting fact—the second and third place winners were teams organized by BGSU alumnus Jeff Simonetta, an adjunct faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Art.