Alumnus Danny Tulledge (’15) won the Emmy© award for Technical Achievement at the 35th Midsouth Regional Emmy© Award ceremony, held virtually on Saturday, February 27. A senior designer for ABC News, Tulledge received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Media and minors in art history and theatre from UNC Charlotte.
Tulledge and colleague Zachary Abrams received the award for their news segment, “Storm Ready 2020: Preparing in a Pandemic,” created for WTVD ABC-11, the ABC-affiliated news station in Durham, N.C. The 3D animated segment takes viewers inside a virtual hurricane. It was created in just seven days using Unreal Engine, a game engine developed by Epic Games.
“We were able to create highly realistic graphics in real-time, composited live on set and captured live to tape, eliminating the need for lengthy post work and enabling greater flexibility and spontaneous changes,” Tulledge wrote in a project description. “Using game engines in a local news environment is cutting edge, enabling us to rapidly create fully 3D worlds, captured in real time.”
As a senior designer, Tulledge conceptualizes and creates graphics packages, animations, promos, logos, show opens, daily news graphics, transitions, and templates for the station. Currently, he is working on a severe weather special, like the award-winning “Storm Ready 2020,” that focuses on tornadoes and thunderstorms.
An advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, Tulledge serves on the executive board of the ABC Owned Television Stations (ABC OTV) Pride Committee.
“This is the first time ABC OTV news stations from all over the U.S. have had their own branch of Disney Pride,” he said.
He also is a member of The Walt Disney Company’s new LGBTQIA+ creative content review committee. “This committee is composed of LGBTQIA+ folk from all over the company. We receive scripts, rough cuts, and spring boards of upcoming projects that have LGBTQIA+ characters and quality-check the content.”