Drawing students is program’s aim

GLENDALE — The animation program at Glendale Community College is getting reanimated with new staff and new classrooms.

The college hired veteran 3-D animator Jim Ovelmen to teach the expanding program, which start Feb. 21, said college spokeswoman Wendy Grove on Wednesday.

Ovelmen has done digital animation for such projects as “Rugrats in Paris: The Movie,” where he modeled and animated the Reptar character, a popular green dinosaur toy in the movie. Another one of Ovelmen’s claims to fame is modeling and animating the Satan character in “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.”

“I made him sing and dance around,” he said.

In addition to Ovelmen, the college’s animation program will have new facilities, though not until the fall semester begins. It will be moving to the Digital Media Center in the currently-under-construction Bhupesh Parikh Health Sciences and Technology building by September, Grove said. Longtime Glendale resident Bhupesh Parikh donated $1 million for the building in August 2005.

Currently, the program offers classes in the college’s San Gabriel building.

John Fox, 26, who is in his second year of the program, is currently working on animating Cheetara, a character he has been working on since last year. Cheetara is from the 1980s cartoon show “Thundercats.” “I just like ‘Thundercats,’” Fox said. “I really like the whole old-school, ‘80s thing.”

To create the character, Fox drew it into a computer program. Then he modeled the drawing to make it into a full 3-D image. He is trying to program the 3-D image so that it can move around.

“It’s like bringing it to life,” he said.

The whole process is similar to making a puppet and adding a wire frame to it so it moves organically, Ovelmen said.

The new instructor would teach animation techniques, but also share advice and tips garnered from his experience in the animation industry, Ovelmen said.

He has taught classes at community-college and university settings before, he said.

One of the lessons he’s learned, he said, is that not all of his students can handle the meticulous nature of 3-D animation.

“[3-D animation] is hard and it takes time,” he said. “It’s intense and it’s not for everyone. It takes focus and a scientific mind.”

The craft goes largely unthanked, as many adults do not appreciate 3-D animation in film and TV, Ovelmen said. But many children, with their media- and video-game-savvy minds, appreciate the basics of what goes into the whole process, he said.

The college hopes the changes in the program attract more students, said Roger Dickes, digital animation instructor and gallery director.

“People can gain access to instruction from very high-level professionals at a low price,” he said.