News

WROC-TV highlights the second annual New York State High School Film Fest at RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios, where student filmmakers from across New York showcased their work and competed for awards in categories including drama, comedy, and horror.

Like Indiana Jones, researchers at RIT’s Interaction, Media, and Learning Lab hope to save pieces of history before they disappear so that people can learn from the designs.

As part of a collaborative capstone project, students from new media design and new media interactive development are creating interactive experiences with alternative controllers. Three of the projects will be exhibited at the Game Developers Conference Festival of Gaming next week.

According to Steven Spielberg, all good ideas start out as bad ideas. That’s why a duo from RIT has launched the game studio Bad Ideas Productions.

Annalee Dorozynski, a fifth-year game design and development major, has created a VR recreation of the Music Performance Theater that audience members can use to locate their seat to see the view of the stage from that location.

The new MAGIC Spell grants, earmarked for digital media projects in art, games, interactivity, and creativity, provide RIT researchers in any college with funding up to $5,000 to help in their pursuits to secure additional external grants in their fields.

The Character Mosaic Project is a recently revived initiative that aims to build a library of 3D characters — diverse in their ethnicities and backgrounds — that are open source for animators to seamlessly use as a broader range of subjects in their films. The project is led by Kevin Bauer, graduate director of the film and animation MFA program.

The Finger Lakes Virtual Museum app is a digital storytelling platform that combines historical content with technology to create immersive visitor experiences.

After three decades of teaching, mentoring, and pioneering academic and research programs at RIT, Professor Stephen Jacobs is retiring.

Max Schaefer ’25 (motion picture science) did it all at RIT. He was a mainstay on student and commercial production sets. A live shader for RIT Sports Network hockey broadcasts. A leader in RIT’s Fraternity Life community. Conducted virtual production and motion capture research. And enjoyed an inspiring work experience with Universal Studios Hollywood.

RIT’s School of Film and Animation has a growing reputation in Hollywood and has been recognized by the entertainment industry for its high-achieving alumni who graduate with expertise in cutting-edge technology.

Each fall semester, RIT in LA students attend classes and gain work experience while living on the West Coast. Students come home with experiences that will help pave the way to a career in the entertainment industry.