Michael DeSanto
Award-winning, independent filmmaker Michael DeSanto describes his recent Bad Atom Studios short film, “A Heartfelt Change,” as a feel-good story you would watch on Disney+.
“It’s where a guy is messing up in his relationship with his girlfriend and is forced to make a change in himself and his life because he gets turned into a puppet,” the 2021 Owens Community College graduate said. “It’s geared toward families and kids. It’s a sincere, heartwarming story.”
The Toledo resident considers himself a storyteller, ever since graduating from Rossford High School and moving to California in the early 2000s to pursue an animation career.
While DeSanto, 40, now focuses on film and graphic design, he did take an animation class when Owens launched its new Animation Major last year and remarked that it reminded him of his youth.
“I am a storyteller, whether it’s an animation or short film or a feature film or something I’ve written,” he said. “One of the benefits of doing animation is just like with my films, you have the same foundation. You storyboard a shot. You have a camera, whether virtual or real. You need to know where you’re going to move things. You need to know what the characters are going to say. Animation is where I got my start and it still applies.”
The Animation Major is part of the expanded technical arts program at Owens that features Visual Communication Technology (formerly Commercial Art) and Commercial Photography in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts. The curriculum includes common courses in the first semester and then branches into specific courses related to the program for the balance of the degree.
“For Animation, we engage students in Digital Media, Character Animation and 2D Animation so that they are trained in multiple techniques used by industry professionals to produce animation for a variety of media,” said Jeremy Meier, Owens Fine and Performing Arts department chair. “Students will understand fundamental principles of illustration, typography and graphic design as well as the application of animation principles as they relate to the digital media industry.
“As motion graphics continues to expand in the world of marketing, animators will be a key component in media design,” he added.
A self-taught artist with a number of independent film awards to this credit, DeSanto said he enrolled at Owens so that he could learn current design technology and tools to further his career. Excelling quickly, he graduated with honors in two years and earned two Associate Degrees and another two career certificates in Commercial Art.
He said the Owens faculty ensured a positive learning environment, plus helped him make connections that have benefited his career.
“I had eight weeks of the traditional college experience and then Covid did its thing,” he said, referring to beginning his college career in January 2020 before the March 2020 shutdown. “The professors I had did such a good job of adapting to a hybrid system. They worked really hard so that we had the same quality of instruction that we did in the classroom.”
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Published March 2022