{"id":25455,"date":"2018-02-12T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=25455"},"modified":"2018-02-12T02:00:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T08:00:33","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-professor-contributes-to-bbc-animated-special-the-highway-rat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2018\/02\/12\/austin-peay-state-university-professor-contributes-to-bbc-animated-special-the-highway-rat\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University professor contributes to BBC animated special, \u201cThe Highway Rat\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-324279\" title=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" width=\"250\" height=\"64\"\/><strong>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> &#8211; On Christmas day, when four million Britons saw a talking rat on the telly, they also glimpsed the creative work of an Austin Peay State University professor.<\/p>\n<p>That evening, BBC One broadcast the animated special \u201cThe Highway Rat,\u201d based on a popular British children\u2019s book, and Scott Raymond, APSU assistant professor of animation and former DreamWorks animator, contributed about 20 seconds to the movie.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_412517\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/The-Highway-Rat.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-412517\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-412517\" title=\"BBC One animated special \u201cThe Highway Rat\u201d.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/The-Highway-Rat-480x270.jpg\" alt=\"BBC One animated special \u201cThe Highway Rat\u201d.\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-412517\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BBC One animated special \u201cThe Highway Rat\u201d.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cToward the end of the film, in the final sequence, there are three shots I did with the Highway Rat and a couple of other characters,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cI animated the characters\u2014make them move, give them expressions, look around. I\u2019m one cog in this whole process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Telegraph gave the film four stars, saying it was \u201cDelightfully told by Magic Light Pictures.\u201d That company partnered with Triggerfish Animation, a South African animation studio that recently earned a Best Animated Short Film Oscar nomination, to produce the film staring famed British actors David Tennant and Rob Brydon. Triggerfish contacted Raymond last summer to help them finish the 30-minute film.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happens with most freelance work I get is, deadlines are approaching and the studio needs some overflow work,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cIt\u2019s real short term. We call it \u2018911 work.\u2019 For me, it was only about three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The project came at a time when Raymond was preparing for the fall semester and moving into a new office and animation studio in the recently finished Art + Design Building. During this busy period, he spent about eight hours a day figuring out how the characters would move and react to certain situations. Then he animated those performances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my Animation One class, I tell my students that as an animator, you\u2019re a director, an actor, a screenwriter and a cinematographer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Raymond came to APSU in 2015 to help build the Department of Art + Design\u2019s animation program. He was a good fit, considering he\u2019s worked on animated features, such as \u201cTrolls\u201d and \u201cKung Fu Panda 3.\u201d Since arriving at Austin Peay, he has also animated on a spot for Nickelodeon\u2019s Kids\u2019 Choice Awards and a ride at the PortAventura Theme Park.<\/p>\n<p>At Austin Peay, the animation program continues to grow, with the University offering its new visual effects and digital 3D classes next fall. The Department of Art + Design is working to eventually offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in animation.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on animation at APSU, contact Raymond at <a href=\"mailto:raymonds@apsu.edu\">raymonds@apsu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clarksville, TN &#8211; On Christmas day, when four million Britons saw a talking rat on the telly, they also glimpsed the creative work of an Austin Peay State University professor. That evening, BBC One broadcast the animated special \u201cThe Highway Rat,\u201d based on a popular British children\u2019s book, and Scott Raymond, APSU assistant professor of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,30835,30841,262,31556,825,28265,27864],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6Cz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25456,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455\/revisions\/25456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}