The Red Stick International Animation Festival this week will give students the opportunity to learn and interact with internationally respected artists, animators, filmmakers and computer scientists.The fifth annual festival — hosted by the University’s Center for Computation and Technology — will offer workshops and lectures on the latest developments in digital arts and technology.The festival began Wednesday and will run through Saturday at the Shaw Center for the Arts, Manship Theatre, LSU Museum of Art, Louisiana Art and Science Museum Planetarium and the Old State Capitol.Stacey Simmons, festival director, and David Beck, Center for Computation and Technology director, created the event to engage the community and get them involved in art and science.”LSU has a lot of performance computing power,” said Kristen Sunde, Center for Computation and Technology manager. “[Simmons and Beck] wanted to create something that would get the community to understand why technology is important, and the festival is a good way to do it.”Sunde said nearly 5,000 people attended the festival last year — making it the largest animation festival in the U.S.Nearly 2,500 people pre-registered for the festival this year — up more than 1,000 from last year’s pre-registration.”If this trend continues, we could have between 5,000 and 6,000 people total come through for the week,” Sunde said. “Every year, it’s attracted more and more speakers, and we get people from the big studios like Disney, Sony Pictures and Pixar.”A Red Pass, which includes access to all festival screenings, Cartoon-a-palooza and the Princess Ball, is available free to students.Participants will be able to enter the Pitch! Contest and have their animated content judged, while receiving tips and making connections with studios and producers.Al Bohl, art director at Sci-Port in Shreveport, presented his idea in the Pitch! Contest last year, where it won second place. Bohl made a development deal with 9 Story Entertainment to produce and distribute his original animated TV series.”I feel that if anyone is interested in animation, Red Stick International Animation Festival is imperative to launching their career,” Bohl said.  “The expert teachers, friendly professionals and eager attendees make each Red Stick festival unique and profitable.”—-Contact Leslie Presnall at [email protected]