Operation: Blast-Off launches learning, creating at CIA’s IML

Image: The young protagonist of Operation: Blast-Off sits on set in a spaceship produced by CIA Industrial Design and Animation students and faculty. Photo by Dmytro Hunchak ’26. 

A young girl peers through a telescope with her mother by her side, when suddenly, the world transforms and our heroine is transported to outer space. She bravely pilots a futuristic spaceship through an asteroid field and around other planets, soaring through a faraway galaxy. Slowly, her intergalactic journey comes to an end as her spaceship returns her safely to her mother’s side on Earth. 

This didn’t actually happen in outer space, of course—nor did it happen in Hollywood, as one might expect. Instead, this cosmic adventure unfolded in Cleveland and was powered by the immersive technology at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s new Interactive Media Lab (IML). 

It was all part of a sci-fi short, Operation: Blast-Off, a months-long collaboration between CIA’s Industrial Design, Animation, Game Design and Creative Writing programs. It was filmed in the IML’s XR Studio, where an expansive 36-foot-wide LED wall and inlaid LED floor provided an other-worldly backdrop for the adventure. Tech and tools like those are new to CIA. Operation: Blast-Off was significant in how it helped students, alumni and faculty learn how to use them together. 

Launching a collaboration 

Operation: Blast-Off started as Project XR, a faculty-led initiative in 2024 to discover the cross-collaborative ways the IML could be used for CIA’s curriculum. Industrial Design professor Dan Cuffaro ’91 was instrumental, serving on the IML Advisory Board, authoring the IML’s business plan and creating a 3D rendering of the lab to visualize the space before construction was complete. 

Originally scheduled to film in the XR Studio over the 2024–25 academic year, Project XR was postponed as participants weighed the challenges of time and logistics against the scope of the project. 

During that time, Cuffaro and Animation assistant professor Jeff Simonetta participated in virtual production training. Their goal: ensure they were well-versed in the IML’s cutting-edge technology before instructing students. However, training alone wasn’t enough. A deep comprehension of virtual production, they believed, required hands-on experience. 

“We realized that the only way we were going to learn this is by doing it,” Cuffaro says. “And so, we said, ‘Let’s do a one-semester version of Project XR,’ and that’s how Operation: Blast-Off was born.” 

Telling the story 

To take on a project of this scale in half the time, Simonetta proposed integrating it into Animation’s Community Projects course, where students animate and provide art and production services for individual clients and organizations in a professional studio setting. The course emphasizes students’ development in problem solving, meeting client demands, communication skills, organization, effective time management and more. 

“Since this class is usually with clients, I essentially became the client and brought the class this concept of a virtual production project,” Cuffaro says. “There were seven Animation students and then I recruited two Industrial Design students who were very interested in film, animation, production and design.” 

This new approach allowed Animation students to gain an intimate understanding of the expansive ways they can amplify stories. 

“In Animation, we don’t view ourselves like we’re animators—we’re more storytellers,” Simonetta explains. “Animation is just a medium within filmmaking. So, [the XR Studio] is just an extended tool of being able to tell new stories a different way. In this one, we have a giant LED wall that could bring real actors and performers into a virtual space and record it all on camera.” 

Students crafted and proposed stories to showcase the XR Studio’s full potential. Following a vote, Animation major and Creative Writing minor Jess Reichwein’s immersive tale told through a child’s imagination—that child being her 6-year-old daughter—was selected. 

“Every time I write something, I always have my children in mind,” Reichwein says. “I’m a non-traditional student; I’m 31. I have two kids and they love space. So, I thought, how cool would it be if I could bring something that’s in my life to life for everyone else.” 

Working together 

Operation: Blast-Off blended the real with the imaginary. While Simonetta and the Animation students created the imaginary cosmos, Cuffaro and the Industrial Design students built a life-size version of the spaceship. 

They began by sketching modular concepts for a child-friendly spaceship, focusing on scale, movement and camera angles. A full-size foamcore mock-up helped test layout and interaction while computer-aided design models were created and used to produce a precise final product from fiberboard. 

As the project progressed, Animation students actively joined the build process, contributing to assembly, painting, sanding and detailing. Together, the team designed control panels with laser-cut, 3D-printed and ordered parts, added lighting systems and created modular components that could be rearranged and filmed at different angles. 

“They wanted to get their hands dirty,” Simonetta says. “[Animation students] have been sitting in front of the computer for all of their other classes. It was a highlight of the project to see people going out of their comfort zones and learning different fields that they might never have thought of when they first came to CIA.” 

“[Operation: Blast-Off] touched so many parts of the institution and was really an all-hands-on-deck situation,” says Cuffaro, noting CIA’s Digital Output Center, Fabrication Studios and Reinberger Gallery also contributed. “The staff’s support made it a really amazing experience.” 

Looking ahead 

Using what he learned during Operation: Blast-Off, Simonetta is already factoring virtual production into Animation’s two-semester Narrative Production course. He sees a bright future and is excited about how the IML will expand what CIA offers to students. Case in point: The College recently launched a Virtual + Augmented Reality minor that provides students with a strong foundation in designing immersive experiences and understanding interactive media. 

Cuffaro is also excited about what the IML means for lesson planning and student outcomes. 

“If we had talked about designing for film 20 or 30 years ago, people would have been like ‘What? Are you crazy? Why? That only happens in Hollywood,’” Cuffaro says. “Now it can happen anywhere, and that allows us to teach these tremendous opportunities through our coursework.”