MetroCaf Review

Jon-Andrew ConiglioStaff WriterJustin Varghese’s animation in NYC metropolitan area college computer animation festival was entitled “I Know What I’m Here For”. The fine arts students who attended the festival knew why they were there, too. They were here to see the one thing that made MetroCAF extraordinary this year — an NYIT student made it into the show. It was something spectacular for NYIT, especially for Fine Arts students, because other art schools tend to dominate the scene. MetroCAF is sponsored by SIGGRAPH’s (Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques) NYC chapter and was held at Fashion Institute of Technology’s Haft Hall this year.Varghese’s piece was a mixture of 2D and 3D animation. The introduction was done in 2D with the female character becoming 3D after being sent through a vortex into another world. After wandering around for a while, she is attacked by an aircraft that destroys everything in its path. She counteracts the aircraft by using her own power to create life. The aircraft kills her, and then she is revived by doves. It climaxes with her destroying the aircraft after recovering. Overall the piece was outstanding for a one person team, and it was visually compelling and comparable to the other “big league” art schools.