The Kansas City Animators and Graphic Artists User Group has been around in one form or another since 1992. It was originally formed by Eric Randall as the Kansas City Area 3D Users Group. Eric owned a business called 3D Software that specialized in Macintosh hardware and graphics software. Eric later was a founder of Digital Lagoon in Olathe.

Separately from Eric, Jim Lammers was becoming very active with Autodesk with respect to their DOS-based 3D Studio software, and they helped him form a separate users group specifically for 3D Studio users of Kansas City. This group started around 1994, and met at Designlab – a digital media company in the downtown Kansas City area that hosted the 3D Studio User Groups.

Around 1995 Eric moved to California to found a web content company. With Eric’s departure, the general 3D group foundered. Jim was also busy at the time, building his new animation company Trinity Animation in Lee’s Summit, so an employee at Trinity named Harley Huggins took over and put together the group for a year or so. Harley’s meetings were at Professional Video Supply, a hardware software spcecialist in Overland Park that provided premesis for meetings. In 1997 Harley joined Blizzard, a game company in Irvine, CA where he is now lead of their cinematics team. Later Blizzard brought in another active member that we all met in the early days of the 3D Studio User Group – John Burnett. John was only 18 when he first started showing up at the Designlab meeetings.

After a year or so of leaving the group inactive, Jim stepped back in early in 1999 with a less formal approach than before, following the approach Harley had used during his tenure. New meetings were more about socializing, and formal presentations would only occur when there was someone wanting to show something. Since then, the group has thrived with the addition of many new members. The group has also expanded its scope from 3D animation to include all digital graphics and video. Trinity employee Maita Swartz helps plan and reserve the meetings.

Currently the group meets primarily at the meeting room of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand in Overland Park. The group continues to be low-maintenance for all: emailed announcements, no dues or fees, no Robert’s Rules of Order” and no burdens on the members. Since the restaurant that hosts the group also serves food, most members come in once a month to chat, meet new people, network, and enjoy a meal. The meetings are usually the first or second Tuesday of each month, around 7pm. Special presentations may occur at other times, dates and places due to limited space and display room at the Bandstand.

Jim’s company Trinity Animation continues to market and sell all forms of graphics and animation software, and is one of a very few companies that sell all the major 3D software packages: Lightwave, 3D Studio Max and Maya. Jim and Trinity also continue to actively create animation, with a client roster that includes McDonalds, Sprint, Sony Pictures (for work on the film Starship Troopers), Autodesk, and Nestle.

Desmond Lee created the official web site for the group in the spring of 2000. We started our interactive presence at Yahoo Groups (then called EGroups) in August of 2000.

With the support of our members and the Kansas City area, KCAGA has become a useful resource for finding animation jobs, sharing work and learning new techniques.