Spring — 2006

Bob Hershon

Animation/Academy of Entertainment & Technology

“The guy teaching my digital tracking class is Von Williams. And over at Sony Pictures Imageworks, he’s worked on everything from Polar Express to Spirit.”

“There are more people my age in the AET than any other school around here, period.” says Bob Hershon. “And most of us bring a lot of experience to the classroom. I’ve done editing for the City of Santa Monica and I’ve got a Verizon grant—through a posting in the AET—to teach kids to read with phonetics.” But now—even though Bob has to make that long slog over the hills from Encino—he’s looking to conquer new worlds at the Academy of Entertainment & Technology. Digital worlds, that is.

“I’m actually putting together a reel to get into the game industry. And fortunately, the people who teach at the Academy are amazingly accomplished in the Industry. The guy who’s teaching my Compositing class is working on the new Curious George, the cartoon thing for kids. And in these classes, you’re learning techniques used by people in the Industry, so you’re getting real world instruction in depth, and not just the basics.”

Bob offers the following to explain the astounding complexity of his Academy studies: “Compositing is basically what they did in Lord of the Rings. It’s live action stuff with actors composited with something that’s totally created in the digital world. So for my reel, I’m taking something I created digitally in Maya and ‘marrying’ it with live action. So I’ll end up with 3D elements from Maya, make a game out of it, and hopefully have a convincing ‘audition’ piece.”

Bob adds, “Von Williams has been working on the cutting edge of digital technology since the beginning. I don’t know of any other school that offers his class. And when you’re learning from someone like Von, you’re learning from a master.”

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