New Animation And Gaming Complex Makes Design Skills Accessible To MDC Students
For Nicole Perez, a 22-year-old game development and art major, studying at the new Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex (MAGIC) will allow her to learn what she loves.
“My dreams have come true,” said Perez at the Complex’s Aug. 21 grand opening in the 9,000-square-foot, futuristic-looking facility, decorated in blues and greens, located in building 8 at Wolfson Campus.
Perez wants to work for Nintendo designing games. When she enrolls next year, she will take courses such as narrative storytelling, visual character design, 3D computer animation, storyboarding, character animation, and post-production & editing.
These are the skills that she needs to work in the gaming industry.
MAGIC gives students hands-on experience. Perez is excited that MDC is offering the curriculum because the tuition is affordable.
“Today marks the beginning of an exciting new program that is sure to be a game changer,” José A. Vicente, Wolfson Campus president, told a large crowd of reporters and students at the event.
The new program, was constructed in the time span of one year, and was made specifically for students wanting to go into the growing field of animation and game design. It is the first of its kind, being the only sort of program with the specific technology in a public higher education institution in Florida.
Before the ribbon cutting, the crowd gathered around MAGIC’s screening room to listen to speeches from the campus president and Mauricio Ferrazza, chairperson of MAGIC. There were also guest speakers Leah Hoyer, Director of Narrative Design at Microsoft Studios, Borja Echevarria, Vice President of Univision, and Frank Azor, Executive Director of Alienware and XPS Dell.
Guests were then allowed to tour around the facility and admire the impressive technology featured there.
The Gallery, showcases students’ work in animation and videos.
The Open Lab, a large room with a gigantic screen in the center known as The Brain, is a computer that is connected to every workstation and room in the complex. This area, which has 30 workstations, allows students to use design software programs such as MAYA, 3ds Max, Adobe Creative Suite, Nuke, and C++.
In the Motion Capture and Motion Control Studio, students can record and capture movement for projects. This is exactly like the technology used to make James Cameron’s Avatar. The Motion Capture room requires human actors to wear suits that allows their movements be recorded in order to create digital character models.
On the opposite side of the Motion Capture room, is the Color Correction Suite, where students can look at their work and decide whether they want to lighten the colors or darken them. It’s outfitted with DaVinci Resolve software and state-of-the-art equipment.
Down the hall, there is an Audio Engineering Suite, where sound can be recorded in the recording booth and edited with editing equipment.
The Incubator, which looks similar to a conference room with a long rectangular table in the middle, has a writing board, and a large touch screen. This area is for students to gather and brainstorm on projects, present those projects, and have meetings with their mentors.
There are also two classrooms, one which focuses on game development while the other focuses on animation. Both feature workspaces with two computer screens and a Cintiq HD 2200 Touch, a digital drawing pad. These classrooms also feature a projector screen larger than ones in a regular classroom.
Students seeking an associate in science degree in either animation and game art or game development and design can join the program by seeing their advisor.
Classes began on Aug. 24 with 76 students currently enrolled.
