Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 7, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The private Macromedia University of Applied Sciences for Media (MFM) is filling the chair for media design and computer animation with Eckhard Rocholl as part of a total of eight appointments. As head of the degree programme, he will oversee these disciplines at all German university branches. As the MFM explains, training for the growth market of 3D animation in cinema films and computer games in particular is to benefit from this. “Eckhard Rocholl convinced us through his creative and original way of approaching problem solutions,” MFM Chancellor Joachim Scheurer explains the official appointment: “International experience and contacts with industry will be advantageous for his work at our university.”
After studying “Communication Design and New Media” at the Folkwang School Essen, Rocholl worked for several years for, among others, Westdeutscher Rundfunk and ARD. He helped develop and design the corporate design of ARD and ZDF, for example for the broadcasters’ presentation at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. In 1986 he switched to film design and worked at Bavaria Film, Bavaria Design Center, Rolf Zehetbauer. Rocholl has worked as a freelance media designer since 1990. According to the MFM, his customers include not only companies from the media industry such as ProSiebenSat.1, RTL and Premiere, but also amusement parks and automobile manufacturers such as BMW or Ford. Rocholl wants to use his industry contacts for student projects at the MFM. Between 1996 and 2004 he was a lecturer for “New Media and Media Practice” at the state University of Applied Sciences Munich, and he also held visiting professorships at the universities of Tainan and Yunlin in Taiwan.
The Digital Media Production degree programme, in which the disciplines of media design and computer animation are located, trains specialists for the interface between artistic design, production management and technology. The Macromedia University of Applied Sciences for Media (MFM) is part of Macromedia GmbH. The company operates as a private education and continuing-education provider in the media sector and is represented in Munich, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Osnabrück and Berlin.