So long for the summer...

So the art staff have left for the summer - and we have to sadly say a very fond farewell to Cathy Mathias - the fine art teacher of 15 years as she moves down to Brighton to be neater her family. We wish her the very best of luck for the future and she leaves behind an outstanding legacy of wonderful art work. We welcome at the same time , Sarah Wilkinson to the Art dept from Oldham Hulme and know that she will continue to develop the fine art work to take it even further.
Staff are making the most of their hols with visits to Japan , Canada , Cornwall , Anglesey and California. Staff are back on August 20th to begin enrolling the #class2016 !see you then! 

A taste of things to come ...

Visitors to the Graphics department had a taste of the type of work they will be trying in September by taking part in a workshop based around abstract typography. Using photoshop skills, Year 10 & Year 11 students took a basic font style & manipulated it with colour, reflection tools & invert tools to create a pattern / branding for "Size?" shoe retailer. They then applied the design to shoe boxes with some great results. Well done all - here are a few examples produced on the day. 

Digital testers wanted by the BBC !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/b2b7ac65-ed44-4b34-9c79-d86b62be84e7?ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=inxmail_newsletter&ns_campaign=pan_bbc_020715&ns_linkname=2content_object_right&ns_fee=0

Probably the best workshop in the world ?

 So yesterday our students were privileged to work with MIF2015, Studio Distract, Into Film, Manchester Art Gallery & Ed Atkins. It was an amazing workshop with the students being introduced firstly to the Festival www.MIF.co.uk . MIF is a biennial festival premiering works in the city for 2 weeks - none of the work has ever been seen before & is ground breaking stuff. Have a look on the link to see more.

The students then got to work on the software Maya & Mudbox creating 3D avatars inspired by the work of Ed Atkins & a piece of their own personal text.

The afternoon saw the students trying out the Performance Capture suits (think Andy Serkis as Gollum & you have the same technology) & being given a tour of the studio by Steve from Studio Distract. He talked to the students about the technology but also about career paths & work in the media. A 10 minute highlight was also the chat from Ed Atkins - the internationally famous artist & film maker - who also talked about the MIF project & his illustrations.

3D Avatar workshop

Students are creating the most amazing 3d avatars this morning with Maya  and Mud box software - this morning has seen them work with Studio Distract to learn the basics of the program whilst creating a basic avatar to add their voice to. This afternoon will see them add text and performance capture to the head.

Ed Atkins workshop

So we're on our way to a workshop with Ed Atkins today -working with Studio Distract and Manchester International Festival 2015 at Manchester Gallery.  More later ....!