Mike Primo may be known by students as only a computer science or engineering teacher. However, he is much more multifaceted and has skills in all sorts of different areas. Mike is that he is actually an artist. He got his bachelor of fine arts at Savannah College of Art and Design and has an extensive background in animation, specifically video game animation. 

Last fall, Mike thought Robotics, an elective he had to give up this year in order to teach a new art elective called Animation and Digital Storytelling. 

While Mike enjoyed teaching Robotics, he describes the course swap as a “good trade” and feels his comfort level with animation is much higher than it is with teaching robotics as he’s worked as an animation for 20 years, specializing in movies, films, and TV ads. Though Animation and Digital Storytelling takes more time to teach than Robotics, Mike has “loved every second of it.”

Mike wants all his students to feel welcome, even if they don’t think of themselves as the best artist. He doesn’t focus on how clean or simple the drawings are but rather on the animation itself. “Anyone can draw a circle but it is more challenging to animate a bouncing ball.” 

Feedback is a core part of the class and students are expected to receive it openly. Students should have the willingness to improve their animation based on the notes given in class, even if they don’t see the problem themselves. The projects go through multiple stages of drawing, editing based on feedback, and then drawing again until the animation looks smooth. 

Regarding the future of Animation and Digital Storytelling, Mike has a lot of ideas on how to expand the course, including buying more iPads to entertain the needs of a larger class or including collaborative projects where students can work together. Mike says that both of these ideas “may not be possible”, but would be a great direction for the course to develop.