The $1.75 million Cloyd Family Animation Center has opened at the Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), featuring a stop-motion lab, virtual reality drawing stations, and a digital drawing lab with touch-screen Cintiq displays. The new center is located in CCAD’s Design Studios at the corner of Cleveland Avenue and East Broad Street.
The Cloyd Family Animation Center received private and state funding, including a generous $300,000 gift and additional $100,000 matching gift from CCAD Board of Trustees member Gil Cloyd. Cloyd is the founder and CEO of Ohio Film Group, a video production company that has pipelined a number of student interns and alumni through its doors.
“The Animation program at Columbus College of Art & Design is so impressive,” Cloyd said. “CCAD students learn how to create fantastic animated work using industry-standard software. And CCAD grads go on to work at companies from Disney and Pixar to Cartoon Network and Sony Pictures, and now our studio.”
“What it means for our students is the opportunity to see the value of 2-D, 3-D and experimental animation, and then all tied under the roof of collaboration and community,” said Charlotte Belland, chair of CCAD’s animation program. “The facility represents the chance for people to come to the school, be able to interact with different types of animation mediums, the faculty, be connected to [the] industry, and be able to make those special films that they’ve always wanted to make.”
Coinciding with the animation center, the R. Blane & Claudia Walter Gallery has officially opened. The gallery will feature alternating exhibitions of animated and illustrated work. The gallery’s first exhibition, “The History of Animation at CCAD,” will run Sept. 25 through Nov. 2 and will feature work and artifacts by renowned CCAD alumni.
For more information on Columbus College of Art & Design’s animation center, visit ccad.edu/academics/animation.
