‘Painting in Time’: UA Visiting Professor Puts Art in Motion

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Janeann Dill, a visiting faculty member in The University of Alabama New College, describes animation as “painting in time.” Animation, she explained, is the art of a single frame that will move in sequence in time.

When one mentions animation, many think of Saturday morning cartoons or digital imagery in movies. Dill says that is understandable since they are so popular, but experimental animation is an interdisciplinary field that combines creative development, technical engineering and fine art skills.

Last fall as an adjunct instructor for a New College seminar in creativity, she helped procure rare animation equipment, believed to be the only one of its kind in Alabama – a 35 mm Oxberry animation stand, vertical process camera and studio furniture and supplies. The equipment is now in an Experimental Animation Studio in Manly Hall, and she teaches an experimental animation course.

The class meets the first weekend – that’s Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday – of every month for the spring semester. “The course is not like a regular class where we can meet two or three times a week for an hour,” Dill, a third generation teacher, said. “We needed hours that don’t fit in with the normal curriculum. We needed time for a practice-based curriculum.”

Students who study animation can go into a variety of fields using that base knowledge. “You can go into scientific visualization such as with NASA,” Dill said. “You can go into the fine arts where your films are shown in an art gallery, use them in interactive graphics or in humorous cartoons.”

“This is a case of an individual professor making the extra effort,” said Dr. Hank Lazer, assistant vice president for undergraduate programs and services, “changing lives and inspiring people.”

The Experimental Animation Studio will be dedicated Saturday, April 22 to honor the Clement Fowler family, who donated the equipment, and to Dill’s parents, Anne Holden and Elmer Dill, who were UA alumni.

Dill is writing a book on one of her former teachers, Jules Engel, a renowned artist in experimental animation who choreographed the dancing Chinese mushrooms in the original “Fantasia” movie. Her fine art drawings will be on exhibit, at the invitation of synarts.org, April 23-30 with a public closing on April 28 at Ignition Gallery in downtown Northport.

New College is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College of Arts and Sciences have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the “USA Today” Academic All American Team.

Note: To watch a video clip of a sample animation, please click here. (Requires Quicktime)