2010

Sande Scoredos

The Society and computer graphics community lost a great champion this past weekend; Sande Scoredos passed away Saturday morning after a prolonged illness.

Sande, who served as Executive Director of Training and Artist Development At Sony Pictures Imageworks for the past 12-plus years, was a founding member of the VES, coming on-board within the first year of the Society’s existence. Right from the beginning, Sande was an active member of the Education Committee, serving several years as Co-Chair. During her tenure, the Committee produced many valuable events, presentations and hands-on trainings for members. She was also a guiding light in the first years of the Training and Mentoring Program, giving invaluable advice and support. Sande also served on the Board of Directors, where her input on educational matters was pragmatic and insightful.

A graduate of UCLA, Sande has been involved with education in high-end computer graphics for almost as long as there has been 3D cgi. At Wavefront Technologies she developed and taught in their training program, bringing 3D skills to artists the world over. She then went to Rhythm and Hues and crafted their remarkable training department, one of the few remaining in-house training departments.

At Sony Pictures Imageworks, she built a training and development department that boasts fifty courses, including life drawing, sculpting, acting and special lectures, as well as specialized tasked-oriented classes for every aspect of production including animation, effects, color and lighting, compositing, and various production management methods. At the same time, Sande shepherded the development of the Sony IPAX (Imageworks Professional Academic Excellence) program, which works with the leading academic institutions in the world to help them train their instructors and structure their curriculum to teach the skills needed to survive in the crazy world of digital production.

As an educator, Sande has always been a believer in the importance of foundational skills, along with specific technical training; life drawing holds as much weight as a class in effects production in Maya. She has taught at UCLA, USC and MIT.

In the almost three decades that Sande has been involved in computer graphics education she trained, mentored, guided and touched an untold number of individuals who owe much of their success to Sande’s dedication and passion. She will be greatly missed.

Memorial service on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 4:00 pm at the:

Conejo Mountain Memorial Park,
2052 Howard Road
Camarillo, CA 93012
(805) 491 2350

There will be a gathering afterward at Sande's Longtime residence:

The Scoredos Ranch
11451 Glenside Lane
Santa Rosa Valley 93012

Donations in lieu of flowers should be made to:

The Angeles Clinic Foundation
2001 Santa Monica Blvd Suite 560w
Santa Monica, Ca 90404

Steven Hodgson

From HollywoodNews.com Among his recent credits are Charlie St. Cloud, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Uninvited, Vantage Point and the mini-series “Impact.” Hodgson had just begun work on Starz’ “Camelot,” the upcoming series focusing on the King Arthur legend, when he died.

Hodgson was nominated for a Gemini Award – Canada’s highest honors for work in TV – in 2009 for his effects efforts on “Impact,” and in 2004 for “The Collector.” His effects work on “Impact” earned him a Leo Award – celebrating film and TV productions from British Columbia – and “The Collector” netted him a Leo Award nomination.

Born Oct. 6, 1959 in Bellshill, Scotland, Hodgson was based in Vancouver. He is survived by his wife Patricia, children Michael, Lawrence, Madison and Elizabeth, and his brother Craig Hodgson. A funeral for Hodgson will be held July 1 in Cobham, Surrey, in the UK. Hodgson’s memory will also be celebrated at a memorial service in Vancouver later this summer. The family asks that donations in Steve Hodgson’s name be made to the BC Cancer Foundation