Anyone who walks into the first-floor gallery space of the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building on the Northwest Missouri State University campus in Maryville won't see any paintings on the wall or sculptures on display. Instead, they'll see a computer, a projector and a short film being played on a screen.

The film is a looping 15-minute reel of projects by Stephen Goldblatt and Jeff Beith, co-owners of Bazillion Pictures 3D animation studio and visual effects house in Kansas City.

Craig Warner, associate professor of the arts, graphic design and interactive digital media at Northwest, says most visitors are fascinated by the quality of the area studio's work.

"Most people, when they look at this, they think it's been done by a Hollywood studio or somewhere on the East Coast," Warner says. "So they're surprised to see this level animation being done in Kansas City."

Since 1993, Bazillion Pictures has excelled in industrial animation. A small sampling of their current and past clients includes Universal Studios, McDonald's, Hallmark, Microsoft, Bayer, John Deere and Snapple. Goldblatt and Beith were even the creators of the Wal-Mart smiley face that rolled back all those low, low prices.

The studio also does 3D animation for medical films. Goldblatt says creating unfamiliar microscopic worlds for medical programs presents a cool challenge.

"It's almost like we're playing 'Star Wars,'" he says. "You know, you're a microbe landing on this large entity and I can just hear 'The Imperial March' in my head the whole time."

But what Goldblatt and Beith enjoy most is character animation. Over the years, Bazillion Pictures has created children's programming such as the "Farkleberry Farm" video series and animation for www.quarked.org, a Web site with games and videos that gives kids a chance to explore the subatomic universe with Mr. Marks and his class of cartoon students.

"(Animation is) one of those mediums that anything you can dream, you can create," Goldblatt says.

The exhibit (film reel) has captured both the digital/graphic art audience and the traditional art audience. Interactive digital media and graphic design students have learned how much time and attention the animators put in their work, and traditional artists have learned that animators have to use several different artistic outlets to get to the finished product. That includes illustration, painting, graphic design and even music composition.

"It's an amalgamation of all the arts rolled into one," Goldblatt says. "DaVinci would be hooked."

The exhibit is open now through Oct. 16. The DeLuce Gallery is open from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, contact Northwest's Department of Art at (660) 562-1326.