UNews - Sheridan College

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ played key role in alumni couple's story

trevor.kenney — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:08:27 +0000

Some would call it luck, others fortune, but when her father, Dr. Keith Roscoe, accepted a position with the Faculty of Education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in 1996, an entirely new world of possibilities opened up for Catherine Roscoe Barr (BSc '02) and her future husband, Aaron Barr (BFA '02).

Aaron, now a technical artist for Pixar Canada, and Catherine, a freelance writer, first met in Grade 7 in Grande Prairie but their friendship was cut short when Aaron's family moved to Lethbridge. With her father's new position at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, Catherine was able to rekindle a friendship with Aaron in her final year of high school. After graduation, she enrolled at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in the pre-vet program then quickly switched to pre-med studies.

"I realized I really didn't like physics so I switched to neuroscience. It was awesome," explains Catherine. "I had three favourite professors: Drs. Gail Michener, Peter Dibble and Glen Prusky. They communicated the material, which was often very complicated, in such a way that was fascinating and easy to understand."

Aaron and Catherine Roscoe Barr have parlayed their U of L educations into exciting, satisfying careers.

While Catherine concentrated on the sciences, Aaron enrolled in fine arts. He loved to draw and had a great interest in computer graphics and animation, but he was unsure about the reality of an artist making a living in the world of computer graphics, so he entered the U of L with plans to pursue a career in architecture. When the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ created the multimedia program in Aaron's second year, however, he quickly applied.

"There were college programs offering similar type programs but I really wanted the more universal experience I got at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ," says Aaron, who was among the first to graduate from the program.

During one of his classes, Aaron had the opportunity to interview John Kahrs, a senior animator for Pixar, regarding Kahrs' work on the animated film Monsters Inc.

"I loved what he was doing and how passionate he was. I decided then that I wanted to abandon architecture and pursue my interest in film. I thought it was just a shot in the dark but he said go for it, you'll get there," remembers Aaron, who recently ran into John at Pixar. "I told him how I had met him at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and how he had inspired me. At Pixar, I build characters, sets, props, paint texture onto them, and add surface qualities and hair, anything involving the look of the character or object."

Catherine too had a life-changing moment while she was a student at the U of L. As a teenager she was always quite active but with her studies taking up so much time, her activity level dropped and she found herself eating a lot of unhealthy cafeteria food. One of her roommates in residence encouraged her to get a personal trainer.

"It changed the course of my life," she says. "I had wanted to become a doctor but I found that fitness was a proactive way to help people. I started taking fitness classes and got my fitness instructor certificate. The year after I graduated I got my personal trainer certification."

In July 2000, the couple was engaged, and in August 2002, just a few months after graduating, they married. A move to Toronto followed, where Catherine started her own business working as a personal trainer and teaching fitness classes at Sheridan College. Aaron earned a diploma in digital character animation at the college, and then began working for C.O.R.E. Feature Animation. Several career moves later, Aaron was given the opportunity to work on the movie, Legends of the Guardians, in Australia in 2009. It was a move that would affect Catherine's career as well.

"About three days after we moved to Australia, I was walking in downtown Sydney. I walked by this beautiful building, with all these beautiful people. I didn't know what it was but I knew I had to be a part of it. I went home and Googled the address. It was ACP Magazines, an enormous magazine publisher," says Catherine, who subsequently spent the next five months there as an intern.

She has since developed a successful career writing about her passions: fitness, health, food and travel. In May 2011, Aaron landed his dream job with Pixar Canada.

"Working for Pixar has been a long-time goal; they always put quality first and are determined to create original, compelling stories," says Aaron. "I said to Aaron the other day that if I won the lotto I would keep doing exactly what I am doing," says Catherine. "I feel so blessed."

GET THE FACTS

· Catherine writes for publications such as the Vancouver Sun, The Province, BC Home and Garden, Homes and Living, Western Living, Real Weddings, TV Week and BCLiving.ca

· Catherine's writings and adventures can be found at: thelifedeliciousblog.com

· Catherine recently returned from Jamaica where she ran the Reggae Marathon 10K

· Aaron's career path has seen him work for C.O.R.E. Feature Animation, Rainmaker Animation, Animal Logic, Image Engine Design Inc. and Pixar

· Aaron's major projects include: Partysaurus Rex, Legend of the Guardians, The Thing, The Wild, The Ant Bully and Escape from Planet Earth

This story first appeared in the January 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

New media degree has Mass Effect on Kinley

trevor.kenney — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:51:58 +0000

Brad Kinley's (BFA '04) career path came down to a couple key decisions – one that was well researched and another that was off the cuff. Now, the U of L alumnus is one of the key cogs behind the mass appeal of Mass Effect 2, one of the most popular and highly rated games ever made for the Xbox platform.

"I had an interest in games forever. It started with an Atari 2600 when I was a kid, and from then on I was hooked," he says. "I've always been a gamer so to be able to develop games now as a character animator is amazing."

Kinley, 27, works for the Canadian-based company BioWare, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest developers and distributors of video games. His path to BioWare began in the U of L's new media program.

Calgary born, Kinley visited the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ before applying. He spoke with professors, sat in on a few classes and was impressed. While friends of his opted to pursue certificates or diplomas from schools and colleges, Kinley liked the security promised by a university degree.

"It was a very new program and I guess I was taking a bit of a chance but the U of L is a well recognized institution," he says. "It was much less risky than going with a lot of the other schools at that time that are now closed. I had friends going into one-year programs for highly technical things, but I thought the BFA would always be useful and applicable regardless of what I ended up doing."

That decision was well thought out, while the one that really set his path was more of an after-thought.

"The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ brings in really great guest speakers and John Carr from Pixar came in to talk and I remember telling a friend who'd missed the talk that it was life-changing," says Kinley. "Seeing what he does and his approach to the whole process of character animation kind of crystallized what I wanted to do. It might sound cheesy but that's exactly what I wanted to do."

With a goal in mind, Kinley worked with the new media professors to specialize his interests. He retook an animation class he'd enjoyed and focused his studies on applications that would relate to animation.

"All my other classes I would work to relate it back to animation because that was my key interest," he says. "I received a lot of support once I decided what I wanted to do. James (Graham), (Dr. Will Smith) and all the professors that were here worked really hard to make sure I had access to opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise."

Before long, the work he was doing in class was translating into the real world. He worked one summer at WhiteIron Digital, a leading visual effect and design company for the broadcast community, eventually completing his U of L internship there.

"All the graphics and designs they were working with at the time were all 2D and I came with a 3D background and I knew how to render and composite and animate," Kinley says.

He made his way into BioWare after completing post-graduate work at Sheridan College in Ontario. It brought him back to his native Alberta and gave Kinley the opportunity for which he'd been preparing.

"There are things you learn in ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ that you think are not applicable at all, until you go out working and you realize they are," he says. "It can happen on that first day or even two years later when you say, 'I'm sure glad I took that sculpture class because all of a sudden it's hugely applicable and I now have a basis for moving on and learning more about it'."

Kinley returned to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in January and gave a presentation to another generation of new media students.

"I know how influential my exposure was to somebody actually working in the business," he says. "If I can lend a little knowledge or inspiration to someone else, hopefully it will help them the way it helped me."

GET THE FACTS

• Kinley is currently working on the development of Mass Effect 3.

• Mass Effect 2 was given a 96 per cent approval rating by the website Metacritic, tied for second all-time. Only Grand Theft Auto IV, at 98 per cent, rates higher.

• Kinley admits he rarely gets a chance to play games. "A lot of it is a time thing but I still like to see what other games look like. The unfortunate thing is I get critical with them when I try and play, I'm always looking at what I would change or think I could do better."

• One of Kinley's earliest jobs was with Nintendo, as a game promoter.

UNews - Sheridan College

��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ played key role in alumni couple's story

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New media degree has Mass Effect on Kinley

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��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ played key role in alumni couple's story