3D animation. graphic design.

Kathryn Durfee is an animation student and graphic designer based in Athens, GA. She recently graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of the Arts in Film Studies.

This Atlanta native has loved film for as long as she can remember and has always known that her future lay somewhere in the film industry. Entering college with the goal of becoming the next Roger Ebert, Kathryn chose a degree in Film Studies, a program which offered extensive history and theory courses taught by Dr. Richard Neupert.

Kathryn became interested in pursuing a career in computer animation during the fall semester of her sophomore year at the university after discovering a class in Maya in the Film Studies program at UGA. The class was taught by Associate Professor Mike Hussey, who helped Kathryn develop a wide skill set in basic modeling, texturing, lighting, and animation. It was in these few classes that Kathryn realized that her dream job was to be a character animator.

During the spring semester of her senior year at UGA, Kathryn was chosen to participate in a prestigious internship at the internationally-reknown Blue Sky Studios. For three months, she worked as a Production Assistant intern and aided the Lighting and Paint departments during production crunch time on the animated feature film, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. At the end of this internship, Kathryn became one of the first interns to be asked back for a second term. Over the summer semester, Kathryn assisted the animation department during their pre-production processes on Blue Sky's upcoming feature film, Rio!, and helped manage a project to update the training and tutorial videos created to guide new hires and temps through the company's animation pipeline.

Kathryn currently resides in Athens, GA, where she is working on a certificate in computer animation through Animation Mentor. Her expected graduation date is Fall 2010.