Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design
News
DIGM Students Receive an award
02-28-2006
Dan Mall and Jon Aldinger have won an award for Web standards compliance for their work on a heavy metal magazine site decibelmagazine.com. The site is also up for a People's Choice Award for the South by Southwest Festival. Voting takes place online at SXSW and visitors to the site can vote once a day until March 3rd. Visit the site and cast your vote
Class of 2005 debut Senior Projects on iMac G5's and Mac's OS X Tiger
05-19-2005
On May 19th, in partial fulfillment of degree requirements, 39 Digital Media seniors hosted the Class of 2005 Digital Media Senior Show. This year’s class is the largest graduating class in the Digital Media Program’s 7 year history. Seniors worked in teams for 16 weeks to produce 8 projects featuring 3D modeling, animation, 3D gaming, web design, and other forms of interactive media.
This year, Apple Computers donated 8 G5 iMacs loaded with the new Mac OS X Tiger to run and display the 8 projects. Tiger ran flawlessly, and guests were a buzz with the new OS and elegance of the iMac G5’s. Mac OS X Tiger.
As visitors interacted with the exhibits, munching on juicy tropical fruit and sipping Jamaican fruit drinks, seniors chatted with family and friends and gave advice to members of the junior class on strategies for successfully completing a senior project. Later that evening, each of the 8 senior groups gave a 15 minute presentation demonstrating their works and explaining the production process.
Following the presentations the seniors gathered to pose for a class picture.
2 DIGM students assist on EnTCo's Award winning WILD EARTH an interactive photo safari simulator ride
12-31-2004
Entertainment Technology Corporation (EnTCo), has received two awards, Best New Product and Best Exhibit, at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Convention recently held in Orlando, Florida. The IAAPA Convention is the world's largest convention of its kind for Amusement Parks, Family Entertainment Centers, Zoos/Aquariums, and Museums with roughly 1,200 exhibitors this year.
The Best New Product Award was granted to EnTCo for Wild Earth(TM), the interactive Photo Safari simulator ride. All entries were judged on the benefit of the product to the prospective buyer, the originality or uniqueness of the product, and the quality of the product's design and construction. In Wild Earth(TM), guests discover the thrill and excitement of an African Photo Safari experience and marvel at the array of wildlife and rich landscapes of the Serengeti. The riders are in full control, navigating the vehicle through the stunning landscapes of Africa on a quest for that "perfect picture." Wild Earth(TM) features unparalleled graphics quality, non- violent educational content, groundbreaking interactivity and a tremendous revenue generator for operators.
Rob Lloyd, Creative Director of EnTCo, said, "A lot of talented people in the EnTCo team worked very hard to create the Wild Earth(TM) attraction and it's gratifying to have that effort recognized by an organization of IAAPA's stature. We enjoy creating experiences like Wild Earth(TM) and it pays off when the energy EnTCo puts into development transfers to the excitement of the guests who 'volunteer' to take a ride on the wild side."
Digital media students Serge Aluker and Eric M. Levy both helped on this project. Serge says, “I worked on core game development and some ideas for the installation design. I also worked on navigability (terrains and paths and such) - for the final version. They used my terrain map almost directly.” Eric also stated, “I did marketing support type stuff for Wild Earth and the 3d models of the Wild Earth machine. I also created some advertising information and a video about it.”
EnTCo also won the Best Exhibit Award. There were only four such awards granted this year, out of roughly 1,200 exhibitors. The booths were judged on originality, uniqueness, promotion of product, quality of design, and professional appearance of staff.
For more information about Wild Earth(TM) please go to http://www.therideworks.com.
Dr. Paul Diefenbach Joins the Digital Media faculty
12-03-2004
This fall Dr. Paul Diefenbach joined the Digital Media faculty as the new gaming professor. Paul's background includes a Ph.D. and M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania , and a B.S. degree in Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Paul is the founder of OpenWorlds Inc. and was instrumental in the creation of web 3D graphics standards with clients like Sharp Electronics, Mitsubishi, Sony, and NASA. Paul comes from a family of teachers and says that he began teaching to make a difference. He feels that academics play a huge part in the gaming industry and he wants to be able to bridge the gap that exists between the gaming world and the 3D world. He hopes to help students create realistic gaming characters with a high level of sophistication. Paul is excited to teach at Drexel because he believes the gaming classes will be the perfect link to bring together storyboards, animation, modeling, lighting, and effects all in one class. Currently, Paul’s pioneering thesis work at Penn has played an influential role in the development of gaming engines for Playstation, XBox, and Gamecube, and serves as the technical basis for many of today's advanced graphics card features. He is also working on creating Avatars (sophisticated characters that can interact with the user) that maybe incorporated in the Whitall House, a 3D interactive media project in development by the Digital Media Program.