Jason Kennedy

Experience

• 2008–present
  Senior Lecturer Above the Bar of Animated Performance, Auckland University of Technology

Education

• 2021 
  Auckland University of Technology, PhD / Performance in Animation
• 2007 
  University of Cincinnati, MFA / Electronic Art
• 2004 
  Albion College, BA / Fine Art

Publications

• 2026
  Kennedy, J. & Sumanarathna, A. R. Toward an interdisciplinary 3D animation design process for palaeoart: Visualising Quaternary megafauna from Sri Lanka’s Sabaragamuwa Basin, Palaeontologia Electronica, 29(2), 1-39. https://doi.org/10.26879/1616
• 2025
  Performing Animation: Practical Foundations for Better Video Reference, LINK Praxis Global South Design Research Journal, 3(1), 185–221. https://doi.org/10.24135/link-praxis.v3i1.40
• 2025
  Epiphanic resolution: The effects of video compression on the believability of computer-generated characters. , Animation: Practice, Process & Production. 14(1), 45-69. https://doi.org/10.1386/ap3_00060_1
• 2024
  Najafi, H., Kennedy, J., Ramsay, E., Todoroki, M., & Bennett, G. A pedagogical workflow for interconnected learning for animation, visual effects, and game design students., In SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Educator's Forum (SA '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 10 (pp. 1–7). https://doi.org/10.1145/3680533.3697059
• 2024
  Cross-disciplinary communication strategies to support scientifically accurate animation: Reconstructing Pleistocene megafauna in Sri Lanka, In Animating Change: 35th Annual Conference of the Society for Animation Studies (pp. 65–66). Sydney.
• 2022
  Vactor ontologies: Framing acting within a motion capture context, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 18(3), 341–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2021.1974727
• 2021
  Cataloguing vactors by performance style and genre in films from 2010–2013, In C. Ferreira (Ed.), Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Illustration & Animation (CONFIA) (pp. 555–563). Aveiro: Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave. https://confia.ipca.pt/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/confia_2021_proceedings.pdf
• 2021
  Acting and Its Double: A Practice-Led Investigation of the Nature of Acting Within Performance Capture, Doctoral thesis, Auckland University of Technology. https://hdl.handle.net/10292/13943
• 2021
  The animator’s sensorium: The impact of acting and animation experience on creating reference performances, Animation: Practice, Process & Production, 10(1), 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1386/ap3_000028_1
• 2020
  Cataloguing vactors by performance style in films from 2010, In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Illustration & Animation (CONFIA) (pp. 147–158). Barcelos: Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave. https://confia.ipca.pt/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/confia_2020_proceedings.pdf
• 2019
  Critiquing the screen presence of synthespian counterparts, In C. Ferreira (Ed.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Illustration & Animation (CONFIA) (pp. 190–202). Viana do Castelo. https://confia.ipca.pt/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/confia_2019_proceedings.pdf
• 2019
  Acting-centred definitions of vactors, synthespians, and digital doubles, In J. Park, J. Nam, & J. W. Park (Eds.), ISEA 2019: Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Electronic Art (pp. 297–305). Gwangju. http://www.isea-archives.org/docs/2019/ISEA2019_Proceedings.pdf
• 2017
  The protean double: Critiquing the screen presence of synthespian counterparts, In 29th Annual Conference of the Society for Animation Studies: And Yet It Moves! Padova.
• 2017
  Defining and cataloguing synthespian performances in film, In E. Borjan & N. Gilić (Eds.), Hrvatski Filmski Ljetopis, 95, 67–68. Zagreb, Croatia. http://www.hfs.hr/nakladnistvo_hflj_detail.aspx?sif=144
• 2017
  The animator’s (missing) hand: How practice informs seeing in 3D animation, In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Illustration & Animation (CONFIA) (pp. 298–309). Guimarães. https://confia.ipca.pt/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/confia_2017_proceedings.pdf
• 2016
  Automation versus animation: A case for the affective potential of CG animation, In The Cosmos of Animation: 28th Annual Conference of the Society for Animation Studies (p. 98). Singapore.
• 2015
  Gauging meaningful reference performance in animation and motion capture, In Proceedings of the Cumulus Conference Milano 2015 (pp. 941–948). Milan: McGraw-Hill. https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1547460/104873/cumulus-2015-054Experimenting.pdf
• 2015
  Beyond the mirror: Producing emotionally-authentic facial performance for animation reference, In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Illustration & Animation (CONFIA) (pp. 101–114). Braga. https://confia.ipca.pt/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/confia_2015_proceedings.pdf
• 2013
  Character acting: A case for better animation reference, In Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference of the Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (pp. 11–20). Brisbane. https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE37953347

Professional Memberships

• Eco Astronomy, Inc
• Society for Animation Studies
• VFX Research Network