MAGIC

Town Hall - March
2021-03-25 14:00 - 15:30 UTC | Discord @ MAGIC_MDC
Students currently enrolled in the MAGIC program, or a MAGIC faculty or staff member will have the chance to voice their opinions, concerns or suggestions with the goal of improving our academic program.
Topics to be discussed will cover the remote learning experience, when we will be fully back on campus, challenges with online learning, etc.
This special session will be moderated by Mauricio Ferrazza, Chairperson at MAGIC. We hope to see you then.

Career & Internship Day at MAGIC
2021-04-16 10:00 - 14:00 | FL
You are invited to join the 2021 Career Day at MAGIC. The event will be set up virtually and you will have the opportunity to interview for job and internship opportunities.

The Career Day event will be hosted on Airmeet, join us: https://www.airmeet.com/e/8f621f10-9629-11eb-bfbb-3361cd1b2fd8

2021 MAGIC Premiere Night on YouTube
2021-04-28 18:00 - 20:00 | YouTube

Summer New Student Orientation
2021-05-07 13:00 - 15:00 | Online Event

Town Hall - October
2021-10-13 12:00 - 14:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
Students currently enrolled in the MAGIC program, or a MAGIC faculty or staff member will have the chance to voice their opinions, concerns or suggestions with the goal of improving our academic program.
Topics to be discussed will cover the remote learning experience, when we will be fully back on campus, challenges with online learning, etc.
This special session will be moderated by Mauricio Ferrazza, Chairperson at MAGIC. We hope to see you then.

For more information please contact Nicole Garay at (305) 237-3560

Story Workshop
2021-10-19 13:00 - 14:30 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Halloween Pizza Party
2021-10-29 16:00 - 21:00 | Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex @ MDC, 315 NE 2nd Ave - Building 8, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
Join us for MAGIC’s Halloween Pizza Party. Students will get to interact with other students and faculty. There will be a Halloween Costume & Art Contest and a Halloween/Horror screening.

Costume Contest & Halloween Art Work Contest with Special Prizes
ART WORK CONTEST
Submission date for Art Work: Monday Oct 29th, 2021
Art Work Criteria:

Halloween Themed Art Work (PG 13)
Still Image
HD: 1920 X 1080
Resolution: 72-300 dpi

Selection of winner: The Art Work winner will be selected by a vote from the MAGIC Staff on the 30th and announced at the end of event.
COSTUME CONTEST

Costume contest sign up (sign in sheet) upon arrival at event

Selection of winner: The Costume winner will be selected by the MAGIC Halloween committee and announced at the end of event.
***
Prizes (for both contest): 3D printed Character & Magic Shirts

Art of Tech Industry Series
2021-11-18 13:00 - 14:00 | Discord @ MAGIC_MDC
MAGIC’s Art of Tech series empowers, elevates and inspires innovation within the growing digital technologies industry. The speaker series brings together a wide spectrum of executive level professionals in the areas of Computer Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, Virtual and Augmented Reality.
Speaker’s Bio:

Samir Patel is a Senior CG Animator that has been working in the animation industry for the past 24 years. His experience spans the video game, commercial and film industries. Samir grew up in New Jersey surrounded by the lush Pine Barrens and a television that pumped out Transformers, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and Saturday morning cartoons. As a kid, Samir split his time between being outdoors riding his bike or playing street hockey and indoors watching cartoons, movies and finishing classic video games such as Contra, Zelda and Pitfall.
In the late 90s, Samir began his animation career as an intern for Elan Communications, a design company for the trade show industry. He then quickly worked his way in to the video game industry at MagicArts Studio and then at Midway Games, where he was an animator on Freaky Flyers and Crank the Weasel. Honing his skills, he graduated to Blur Studios where he went on to work on Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas and a variety of video game cinematics. Three years later, he moved on to Rhythm and Hues where he worked on several films, including Academy Award winning: The Golden Compass, Happy Feet and Life of Pi. His experience led him to ILM to work on Cowboys and Aliens. He then detoured through Method Studios, working on Marvel hits: Antman and Captain America Civil War. Currently, Samir is a Senior Animator at MPC Studios in L.A. concentrating on advertising. After more than two decades in the animation industry, Samir looks forward to what other adventures his journey will take him on. He hopes that he will have the opportunity to tell his own stories or, to even someday, teach. But in the meantime, he enjoys his peaceful, happy life with his wife, Maggie, in Los Angeles, California.
Samir Patel IMDB page.
How to attend this event:
You can attend Samir Patel’s lecture on MAGIC’s Discord/Art of Tech Channel – discord.gg/NPpaj2gBZU and on MAGIC’s Twitch Channel – https://www.twitch.tv/magic_mdc

Story Workshop - 2
2021-11-30 13:00 - 15:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Town Hall - December
2021-12-01 12:00 - 14:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Miami Cancer Institute - Melanoma Prevention Event
2022-03-16 12:00 - 13:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Esports Team Try-outs - VALORANT
2022-08-12 11:00 - 16:00 | Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Esports Team Try-outs – SUPER SMASH BROS
2022-08-26 11:00 - 16:00 | Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Esports Team Try-outs – ROCKET LEAGUE
2022-08-26 11:00 - 16:00 | Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Digital Portfolio - Workshop
2022-09-09 11:00 - 13:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
About this workshop
This workshop will explore ways to use digital portfolios to showcase an individual’s identity. We will discuss how portfolios can serve as more than just a showcase of already-completed work by focusing on a formative approach to digital portfolio building that teaches multimedia composition, reflective decision-making and self-presentation skills, while encouraging students to approach learning and skill development as personalized and contextualized processes.
The workshop will be facilitated by Mr. Jose Soto and Ms. Shona Rose

Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop - Workshop
2022-09-23 11:00 - 14:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
About this workshop
Photoshop is an indispensable tool for every artist. But as important as it is, it is equally as difficult to navigate. Mr. Jose Soto, will guide students through important tasks for artists to improve the quality of source photos for your paintings and documentation of your photos including: adjusting saturation and contrast, blurring backgrounds to create depth, removing unsightly items, and understanding how layers work in Photoshop.
This workshop will be facilitated by Mr. Jose Soto.

Mixed Reality Toolkit 3 (MRTK3) Workshop by Microsoft
2022-10-17 10:00 - 11:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
Denise Mendez from Microsoft will be visiting MAGIC on Monday, October 17th at 10:00 am to conduct a workshop on how to use the Mixed Reality Toolkit 3 (MRTK3) on the HoloLens 2. It’s a Microsoft-driven open-source project to accelerate cross-platform mixed reality development in Unity. This new version is built on top of Unity’s XR Management system and XR Interaction Toolkit. MRTK3 runs on OpenXR, meaning that the toolkit supports a range of extended reality (XR) devices.

Student Portfolio Review with Nickelodeon & First Contact Entertainment Games
2022-10-28 13:00 - 17:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
What is a portfolio review

Having a portfolio review means getting a professional’s opinion on your work. You get your chance to have talented industry professionals look at your portfolios or projects and give invaluable feedback on where you might improve, and advice on what to look at next. Featuring industry professionals across a variety of different roles, the one-to-one portfolio reviews will last approximately 15 minutes, giving you an opportunity to speak with artists, programmers, recruiters and more to discuss your career path and future aspirations. Nickelodeon and First Contact Entertainment will join us as our guests for portfolio review on Friday, October 28th at MAGIC.

Our industry guests
Bill Buckley / Character Director – Oversees all Animation, Character Art and Weapon Art Development at First Contact Entertainment
Bill Buckley has been working as a developer in the video game industry since 2005. His roles have included Senior Animator, Story Artist, Writer, Digital Cinematographer, Concept Artist and currently, Animation Director with First Contact Entertainment. He has worked on popular titles for companies such as THQ, Disney Interactive, Limbic, SCEA, Activision (Neversoft and Infinity Ward) and StarBreeze. His resume includes major titles such as Tony Hawk Proving Ground, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw, NBA 2007, Disney’s Club Penguin, eight Guitar Hero titles, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, John Wick The Impossible Task in VR, ROM Extraction, Firewall Zero Hour and most currently SOLARIS OFFWORLD COMBAT. Bill is also a lecturer, mentor and teacher of animation and game development both domestic and abroad.

Conrad Montgomery / Vice President, Current Animation, Nickelodeon
Due to last minute engagements in Los Angeles, CA; Mr. Montgomery will be unable to attend portfolio review on Friday, Oct. 28th at MAGIC. He will participate as an industry guest juror at the Miami Halloween Hackathon on Saturday, Oct. 29th as scheduled.
Experienced senior executive with a wide creative network and a demonstrated history of success working in the entertainment industry. Strong creative professional skilled in animation development and production for series, various content formats across new media platforms, complemented by a background founded in live-action television and feature film. Conrad sets the tone for all creative content and is responsible for production content for current series at Nickelodeon. He serves as liaison between teams spanning the country and oversees entire productions, from idea to delivery, pushing through digital, linear television, social media, and public relations. Conrad was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and always wanted to be behind the scenes of the entertainment industry. He received a BA in Cinema and Television Arts and Business Administration from CSU, Northridge, and began his career as a freelance associate segment producer for Good Morning America. He became Creative Executive with Lions Gate Films on “Monster’s Ball.” His work has won both Oscar and Emmy awards. His success can be attributed to passion, drive, education, faith, and goal-setting. Conrad volunteers with the City Light Church in Los Angeles and is a supporter of Women in Animation.

How to attend and prepare

To attend this event, you must be a student currently enrolled in the MAGIC program, just come in-person on Friday, October 28th from 1pm – 5pm and make sure to sign in to get in the queue. This is a first come first serve event. Make sure to bring a link to your work along so it can be reviewed digitally. We will be offering a Digital Portfolio Workshop at MAGIC on September 9th at 11 am, if you’d like to learn how to crate your digital portfolio.

Times for the event may change, please check back to confirm the event, place and times prior to attending. This event is for MAGIC students only.

MAGIC Halloween Hackathon
2022-10-28 18:00 - 2022-10-29 18:00 | Miami Dade College – Chapman Center, Building 3, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, MIAMI, FL, 33132, United States
Game Development, Mixed Reality & Animation Hackathon
Artwork by Shona Rose
Eligibility
Attendees from all backgrounds, genders, and geographies are welcome. There is no age restriction to attend the hackathon. In case you are under 18, your parents/legal guardian should contact the hackathon to request a waiver authorizing you to attend the hackathon and submit their plan for your attendance and transportation to and from the hackathon. Committee members are not eligible to participate in the hackathon. They may, however, assist teams and mentor them during the coding/development phase.

The MAGIC Halloween Hackathon is organized by the MAGIC Club, for more information and to register, visit the MAGIC Club’s Webpage. This event is free and opened to all to attend, register here:

Halloween Pizza Party
2022-10-31 15:00 - 20:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
Join us for MAGIC’s Halloween Pizza Party. Students will get to interact with other students and faculty. There will be a Halloween Costume & Art Contest and a Halloween/Horror screening.
Costume Contest & Halloween Art Work Contest with Special Prizes
ART WORK CONTEST
Submission date for Art Work: Monday Oct 24th, 2022
Art Work Criteria:

Halloween Themed Art Work (PG 13)
Still Image
HD: 1920 X 1080
Resolution: 72-300 dpi

Selection of winner: The Art Work winner will be selected by a vote from the MAGIC Staff on September 31st and announced at the end of event.
COSTUME CONTEST

Costume contest sign up (sign in sheet) upon arrival at event

Selection of winner: The Costume winner will be selected by the MAGIC Halloween committee and announced at the end of event.
***
Prizes (for both contest): 3D printed Character & Magic Shirts

Art of Tech Industry Series
2022-11-02 12:00 - 14:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
MAGIC’s Art of Tech series empowers, elevates and inspires innovation within the growing digital technologies industry. The speaker series brings together a wide spectrum of executive level professionals in the areas of Computer Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, Virtual and Augmented Reality.

“Fall Frenzy” Super Smash Bros. Tournament
2022-11-04 15:00 - 18:00 | Esports Wolfson Campus – Building 1, Room 1157, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, 33132, United States
MDC Esports will be hosting a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Tournament on November 4th at 3:00PM. The tournament is open to all Miami Dade College students. Please register at (https://forms.office.com/r/nBbqh88Ewe) .

Workshop - Intro to 3D Modeling
2023-01-20 11:00 - 13:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Town Hall – February
2023-02-08 12:00 - 14:00 | MAGIC Incubator – Building 8, Room 8119, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
Students currently enrolled in the MAGIC program, or a MAGIC faculty or staff member will have the chance to voice their opinions, concerns or suggestions with the goal of improving our academic program.
This special session will be moderated by Jose Soto and Nicole Garay. We hope to see you then.

For more information please contact Nicole Garay at (305) 237-3560

Workshop - 3D Modeling
2023-02-10 11:00 - 13:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Workshop - Modeling Complex objects and advanced techniques
2023-02-24 11:00 - 13:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Workshop - User interface common questions and problems
2023-03-10 11:00 - 13:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States

Art of Tech – Speaker’s Series with Ben Kvalo, Games Publishing & Marketing Leader at Netflix
2023-03-15 12:00 - 14:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
MAGIC’s Art of Tech series empowers, elevates and inspires innovation within the growing digital technologies industry. The speaker series brings together a wide spectrum of executive level professionals in the areas of Computer Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, Virtual and Augmented Reality.
Our guest speaker for this edition of “Art of Tech” is Ben Kvalo, Games Publiishing & Marketing Leader at Netflix
Ben Kvalo
Ben Kvalo is a leader in the entertainment & games industry focused on innovation in the industry, creating better culture, and improving experiences. Entertainment is Ben’s career, having worked in games, film, Esports, and radio. After starting his career in radio, he transitioned into gaming as a Project manager, working for 2K for 6 years. There he worked on over 100 AAA and AA titles for every major games platform. After he went over to Blizzard entertainment where he became the product manager for Esports marketing. He was responsible for launching, and scheduling BlizzCon for that year. He also recieved an award that year for Best Esports Festival from Fest X in 2018. After his succes he started a new career at Netflix as their Sr. Campaign Operations Manager for film and marketing for the streaming giant. In the the last 5 years he has moved over from films to globally launch Games at Netflix from its infancy. He worked alongside engineering, creative production, and early management to launch the Netflix Games platform. He is responsible for building and managing publishing workflows, cross-functional communication, marketing strategy & planning, and brand integration. Ben has been credited in over 100 game titles and involved in over 50 films

Workshop - Get Your Resume, LinkedIn and Portfolio Ready
2023-03-24 11:00 - 13:00 | MAGIC Open Lab – Building 8, Room 8108, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
Portfolio resumes showcase samples of your work and achievements alongside standard resume information. Creatives and other professionals use this type of resume to promote themselves during application processes and impress hiring managers. If you are applying for jobs that require this type of resume, learning how to create one can help you provide more details about your professional competence and accomplishments and help increase your chances of getting hired.
If you are applying for a job or moving to a four year institution to persue a BA degree, you should attend this workshop.

MDC MAGIC + FIU Articulation Agreement Information Session
2023-03-30 12:00 - 14:00 | MAGIC Screening Room – Building 8, Room 8106, 315 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132, United States
MDC MAGIC + FIU Articulation Agreement Information Session
Florida International University’s Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media will host an information session fto provide information about the transfer pathway for MDC graduates of the Associate in Science (AS) in Animation and Game Art or the AS in Game Development and Design to pursue a Bachelor of Science (BS) Degree in Digital Communication and Media at FIU. Please make sure to attend this event if you’re interested in transferring to FIU to continue your studies.
Professor Laura Kurtzberg, co-Director of the Lee Caplin Immersive Studio for Altered Reality, Mr. Frank Villa from FIU Admissions and Ms. Rachel Vanderford, our communications strategist, will be joining Susan Jacobson, PhD in the presentation. Agenda:

Welcome and curriculum overview – Dr. Susan Jacobson
Why FIU? Location, facilities, iSTAR, student life – Prof. Laura Kurtzberg
Who Is Lee Caplin? – Rachel Vanderford
Applying to FIU – Frank Villa
Q&A

The Agreement
Miami Dade College (MDC) and Florida International University (FIU) signed an articulation agreement that creates a seamless transfer pathway for MDC graduates of the Associate in Science (AS) in Animation and Game Art or the AS in Game Development and Design to pursue a Bachelor of Science (BS) Degree in Digital Communication and Media at FIU. Both MDC and FIU recognize the significant roles they each play as exemplars evolving successful transfer pathways, which have positively impacted student outcomes.
Students pursuing the AS degree at the Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex would matriculate at MDC for 4 semesters. Upon successful completion of the AS degree at MDC, MDC graduates would seamlessly enroll at FIU to complete the remaining 4 semesters of the BS in Digital Communication and Media. MDC students who transition to FIU under the terms of the Agreement will be required to complete any remaining General Education requirements at FIU or through approved accelerated credit mechanisms. MDC students must meet FIU’s transfer admission criteria for the catalog year when they first enrolled at MDC. MDC students must successfully complete the Foreign Language Graduation Requirement prior to enrolling at FIU. In addition to meeting FIU’s transfer admission criteria, students seeking admission to the Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media, must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.85.
FIU will accept major-specific courses completed at MDC to count toward the BS in Digital Communication and Media. Students are allowed no more than 12 credits of lower-division courses to count toward upper-division requirements, as stipulated by the Accrediting Council in Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media’s accrediting agency.

Both Animation & Game Art and Game Development & Design transfer maps to FIU are available for review by clicking here: MAGIC + FIU TRANSFER MAPS. For more information and further details about this agreement and transferring to FIU, please contact us at (305) 237-3560
