SpongeBob Squarepants director comes to Virginia Tech - WSLS 10 NBC in Roanoke/Lynchburg Va
Member Center:
For many Virginia Tech students, SpongeBob Squarepants is a reminder of their childhood.
"Most of these kids have grown up with SpongeBob Squarepants so they were excited from that perspective," said Ruth Waalkes, Executive Director, Center for the Arts.
"Everybody here has favorite episodes," said Matt Yourshaw, a junior at Virginia Tech.
The episodes started out as ideas on a piece of paper. Lynchburg native tuck tucker works for Nickelodeon in Los Angeles, and used to work on SpongeBob before its recent hiatus. he spent the day in blacksburg working with a 3-D animation class, sharing his story.
"It's a way to get more than just one person's point of view on a story, and already just working with the kids, they've come up with some ideas, I've done this seven times, I've never seen most of the ideas I've seen here today," said Tucker.
Students had the opportunity during class to draw story boards. The winner will be chosen tonight and they'll have the opportunity to finish off an already aired SpongeBob episode.
It was a brief chance for students to feel a part of the show made famous by a local guy who made it big.
"It's very very important to show that anybody from the local region can study science technology art and design and use those skills to go on and do something fantastic," said Ben Knapp with the Institute of Creative Art and Design.
Like Tucker, who is currently working on the show fairly odd-parents...but family may bring him back to the Commonwealth soon.
"Virginia's something that's hard to get out of your system. I don't care where you've been," said Tucker.
Whether it is in the classroom like these students or like Tucker in Hollywood.
 | 
WSLS 10, P.O. Box 10
Telephone: 540.981.9110 
|
