Member Profile: Cheryl Briggs
1. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
Short answer: I’m a Professor since June 2001.
Long Answer: I’m a Full Professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF). I teach Animation, Level Design, and Motion Capture as part of the faculty at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. I started as an Assistant Professor at UCF in Fall of 2009 as founding faculty of the undergraduate Character Animation BFA and served as Area Coordinator from 2014-2022. I was founding faculty of the Animation and Visual Effects MFA program and served as Program Director from 2016-2022. Prior to UCF, I taught as Professor of Animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design from 2001 to 2009 where I was Mocap Engineer for the Animation Department since 2005.
2. What was your first job?
My first “job” was at McDonald’s the day after I turned 16. I worked drive-thru for a year at the busiest McDonald’s in the New Orleans area. I have worked ever since (and before that I was a babysitter and house cleaner). I have a long list of jobs since (concessions and ticket sales at a movie theater was my first “industry” job 😉, but I was also in the Louisiana Army National Guard and activated for Dessert Storm in 1990). My first teaching job was as a High School Art Teacher which led to being recruited by SCAD for graduate school, which led to teaching there.
3. Where did you complete your formal education?
Savannah College of Art and Design, MFA is in Computer Art: 3D Animation track, in 2001.
Georgia Southern University, MEd in Higher Ed Administration, in 2009.
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, BA in Art Education, 1995.
4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?
The professor of my first Photoshop class at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette told us about SIGGRAPH (1994) but I didn’t attend my first SIGGRAPH until 1996 in New Orleans. I have attended 2000, 2001 (SV), 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2023
5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?
There are so many, but I would say in 2019 I was able to attend multiple Production sessions where my former students were on the panels.
6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.
A project that I was part of as Mocap Engineer is NFL Pro Era VR (2022, Status Pro) and NFL Pro Era II VR (2023, Status Pro). We captured over 500 different motions for those projects in Studio 500 @FIEA https://fiea.ucf.edu/studio-500/
7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?
This is such a tough question because I would want to see my Mom (d. 2011) or Maw Maw (d. 1998) again, but I think it would be Jesus Christ because I have so many questions, and I would like the answers.
8. What is something most people don’t know about you?
I’m pretty much an open book, but I would say most people don’t know I was in the military or taught high school in the 90s.
9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?
My high-school drama teacher, Paul Werner. He taught me so many things that I can’t possibly list them all, but some of them are how to be a method actor, use power tools, build things, paint, make advertisements, shade (in drawing class), change a flat tire, work hard, and go after possibilities I never imagined I could achieve.
10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?
Monica Cappiello who is on the Education Committee and one of my former students.
11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?
My proudest moment of my career is when I became a Full Professor in May 2022.