Read the article at usa.autodesk.com.

Based in Chicago, the Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy offers intensive, two-year programs to the next generation of digital arts and entertainment professionals. Since opening its doors in 2007, the former Flashpoint Academy of Media Arts and Sciences has helped students become highly skilled digital artists through one of four degrees: game and interactive media, film and broadcast, recording arts, and animation and visual effects. In 2010, the college partnered with Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Enterprises, and became the Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy.

Tribeca Flashpoint programs seek to simulate real-world scenarios in the converging digital entertainment industries. To that end, all instructors remain employed in the entertainment industries, bringing their professional experience as well as their artistic and technological skills to the classroom. Both students and faculty also benefit from the Autodesk® Education Suite for Entertainment Creation, which includes six products for creating stunning computer graphics: Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Maya®, Autodesk® MotionBuilder®, Autodesk® Mudbox™, Autodesk® SketchBook® Pro, and Autodesk® Softimage® software.

The Challenge

After 15 years of traveling between New York and Los Angeles, Perry Harovas was looking for something different. During his successful career as a digital artist, Harovas had done some teaching of his craft at various schools, even co-authoring Mastering Maya, the first book about the increasingly popular software, in 2000. For all his interest in teaching, however, Harovas had always come away from the classroom somewhat underwhelmed.

“I always enjoyed teaching, but found typical courses held little relevance in the real world,” he says. “I came across this posting looking for faculty at a new school in Chicago that planned to specialize in digital media. Right from the start, the goal of the place was to be current and relevant.”

Becoming the founding Chair of the Visual Effects and Animation Department in 2007, Harovas knew it would be a challenging road. Keeping the curriculum current and relevant would require all faculty to maintain active jobs in addition to their teaching loads, a challenge Harovas and his colleagues are willing to shoulder.

“Most of us have been in this business long enough that we’re used to being sleep deprived,” he explains. “We’ve all decided that the lack of sleep between jobs is worth it to give our students a more complete and realistic experience of what it’s like to work in this industry. It’s been invigorating to feel we’re helping our students become more practical, problem-solving professionals.”

Imparting that propensity for problem solving is top priority for Harovas and his fellow Tribeca Flashpoint instructors: “A lot of schools give their students a smattering of skills, but they don’t get an overall picture of what it’s actually like to work in this business,” says Harovas. “By the end of their second year, our students are in a position to ask the right questions and to pick the right tools for whatever jobs come their way.”

The Solution

According to Harovas, being able to pick and use the right tools for a job is one of the most valuable skills a digital artist can acquire. Harovas says the Autodesk Education Suite for Entertainment Creation is an ideal package to teach students a wide range of software skills.

“I was part of the alpha and beta cycles for Maya when it first came out,” he says. “I amassed a lot of experience on Maya and on Softimage, but I’d learned over the years that knowing a multitude of software packages was the best way to go. The Education Suite is fantastic. We teach our students to be creative problem solvers, to be able to figure out what is the best tool for each job. With six different software packages, the Autodesk Education Suite for Entertainment Creation helps us do just that. It gives our students production experience with a diverse software portfolio.”

With 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, SketchBook Pro, and Softimage, Tribeca Flashpoint students spend their first year of study learning modeling, rigging, character animation, texturing, and compositing. As students enter their second and final year, their newly acquired skills and preferences lead them to decide on a final project. Each student is assigned to a focused study with a person who becomes a mentor, not just an instructor. The final project usually takes about nine months to complete, and starts with a 5 minute pitch the first week of classes of their second year.

The Results

After three years in operation, the Tribeca Flashpoint curriculum continues to evolve to better meet the needs and talents of the school’s dedicated students.

“We look for students who have a deep passion for this work,” says Harovas. “We have older students and younger students, but they are all committed to becoming great digital artists in a pragmatic and professional way.”

One recent example is Rick Livingston, creator of “This Way Up,” a short film combining live action, animation, and the visual effects capabilities of the Autodesk Education Suite for Entertainment Creation.

“It’s a fantastic short film that resulted from just the sort of collaboration and problem solving that we try to impart here,” says Harovas. “The people Rick chose to work with brought a wealth of animation and effects skills in both Maya and Softimage, as well as working with Film Department students and Recording Arts students. By picking the best people for the job, Rick was able to get all these talents on to a single project, and the result is a moving, affecting short film that was expertly put together.”

On Friday, October 1, Tribeca Flashpoint congratulated our first class of Digievangelist program graduates.

The Digievangelist course, a 16-week program offered as a part of Chicago Career Tech, was designed to train students on key tools and technologies in the field of digital marketing, including business management tools such as Microsoft Office, Google Docs and web marketing tools; social bookmarking and social sharing tools; new media marketing tools; and the basics of search engine optimization.

Students learned how to find consumer bases through social media, develop brands in the digital world, understand the digital consumer, and track the effectiveness of digital marketing.

The Digital Garage was full of young professional ladies today as Tribeca Flashpoint kicked off another year of great Women in Media.

Women in Media connects women in all fields of media arts to create opportunities for future collaborative projects and act as a support group to motivate more women to enter the field. This club aims to build stronger networks by emphasizing the critical importance of grooming ourselves to take on leadership and mentorship roles and prepares its members to serve as exemplary models of skilled media professionals and as women.

Time Management seminars and a special recognition for our Digievangelist graduates this week at Tribeca Flashpoint.

The school year is officially underway, and today students from all disciplines got to learn about campus activities at Tribeca Flashpoint’s Clubs & Organizations Fair.

• Film Society

The Tribeca Flashpoint Academy Film Society allows students from all disciplines to come together and explore a wide variety of films, meeting new people in the process. The Film Society organizes feature film screenings and sponsors a number of IMAX outings throughout the year.

• Women in Media

Women in Media connects women in all fields of media arts to create opportunities for future collaborative projects and act as a support group to motivate more women to enter the field.

• GSA (Gay Straight Alliance)

• Old People’s Club

Whether you are aging like fine wine or like milk, you are welcome to walker it on over to the The Old Peoples’ Club. The goal of The Old Peoples’ Club is to raise the comfort level of those who are above the average college age (21 and up), whether they’re in their first year of college or are going back to school.

• AES (Audio Engineering Society)The Audio Engineering Society – now in its sixth decade – is the only professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology. Its membership of leading engineers, scientists, academics and other authorities has grown dramatically throughout the world, boosting the stature of the society and that of its members. The AES serves its members, the audio industry and the public by stimulating and facilitating advances in the field of audio. It encourages and disseminates new developments through annual technical meetings and exhibitions of professional equipment, and through its many publications including Convention Papers, Conference Proceedings, Tutorials, online publications and The Journal of the Audio Engineering Society.

• Tabletop Gaming Club

The Table Top Gaming Club provides a place and community for non-electronic indoor games. The club is open to miniature games, card games, pen-and-paper games and whatever else players want to bring to the table (no pun intended).

• Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance connects game developers with game testers who will help improve the user experience across the full range of game genres.

• Scratch Paper

Scratch Paper is Tribeca Flashpoint’s online student magazine. Here, students showcase their work, ranging from various kinds of writing to visual art. Browse Scratch Paper here.

• Student Government

Student Government represents the student voice and aims to build a liaison between students, faculty staff, and administration to ensure the welfare of our community. Through strong leadership, Student Government strives to provide all students with opportunities to grow academically, artistically, professionally and personally.

On Wednesday, September 22, 2010, Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy welcomed actor and director Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen, Saving Private Ryan, Nice Guy Johnny) for an intimate interview and Q&A with students, led by Film & Broadcast chair, Peter Hawley.

This week at Tribeca Flashpoint, we welcome Craig Hatkoff (co-founder, Tribeca Enterprises), host a meeting of the AAUGA Chicago Chapter, and attend the 2010 Independent Film Gala honoring Tribeca Enterprises.

JumpStarts are always about learning. Today’s was not just about learning, but also about giving back.

Scott Case, President & CEO of Malaria no more, presented over 100 Tribeca Flashpoint students with a unique JumpStart this morning: instead of the usual speaker presentation and Q&A, he presented a challenge: Come up with an innovative, fresh way to persuade the public to join the fight to end malaria by 2015.

Nine student groups were each presented with a different audience – from tweens to African parents to the United States Congress – and a specific message targeting how that group can help. Groups were given 30 minutes to brainstorm and storyboard one or more concepts for how they would spread the message.

With only 30 minutes, our Flashpoint students’ creativity really shined – the concepts ranged from a Facebook game where users could “Swat the mosquitoes” to virtually save their Facebook friends from malaria to powerful PSA’s using chalk drawings of children to show that small donations could save a child – but our Congress can save thousands more.

Case told the group that in just 30 minutes they had developed more new concepts and ideas than Malaria No More had been able to develop in the last year, and that all of the ideas would be taken back to the home office for further development.

While touring Chicago to promote their new film Jack Goes Boating, Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman and co-star John Ortiz sat down with Tribeca Flashpoint’s production team. Watch the interview here!