MAGIC is the new 9,000 square feet, state-of-the-art facility designed to mirror a working animation studio like industry-blockbuster, Pixar. The entire facility is wireless and committed to achieving a nearly paperless status.
The Gallery
Visitors enter the MAGIC Studio through The Gallery, a space that features student work in animation and video games. Visitors will have the opportunity to play demo video games created by students.
The Open Lab
A large multi-purpose space dominated by The Brain, a gigantic screen that is connected to every work station and room in the complex. Work can be shared and viewed by others at any time through The Brain. This space features 30 work stations, each with a Cintiq HD 2200 Touch. Students have access to a creative tool set that allows them to draw characters, convert the work to vector art, and work with 3D animation, compositing, modeling, simulation, and rendering. This space also serves as an arena for guest speakers and game competitions. Software includes:
- MAYA
- 3ds Max
- Adobe Creative Suite, with After Effects
- ToonBoom
- C++
The Open Lab includes a printer area that houses several 3D printers, plus a wide format plotter to help students visualize the production color palette, storyboards and characters.
The Classrooms
Each of the two classrooms is equipped with work stations featuring top-of-the line software and connections to The Brain. The second classroom features 36 stations where students can work on 2D and 3D animation. Every room at MAGIC, except for the Open Lab, is soundproof.
The Audio Suite
The pre and post production suite includes an audio engineering booth for recording sound. Among the tasks handled here will be picture and sound editing, dialogue recording, sound mixing, special effects, and various other important steps in the production process.
The Incubator
A sleek and contemporary conference room with tables that can be configured into a classroom or workshop setup. Students will gather in the incubator for development and production meetings.
The Color Correction Suite
The Color Suite is outfitted with DaVinci Resolve software and state-of-the-art equipment that equals industry standards for color correction in animation.
The Motion Capture Studio
This space has three key features:
- Green Screen – create an environment, shoot actors and composite them
- Motion Capture Equipment – used to capture motion for video game design
- Motion Tracking – joins a 3D camera and a regular camera to capture and animate images in 3D