Massive Software makes its first foray into the higher education market, offering special pricing and a curriculum to colleges, universities and vfx training schools, including SCAD (pictured above). Courtesy of SCAD.

On the heels of its new Windows version, Massive Software is making its first foray into the higher education market, offering special pricing and an educational curriculum to colleges, universities and vfx training schools. "We've had a tremendous response and requests from students for years who wanted to get their hands on Massive," says Diane Holland, the company's CEO. "It's a new way of animating and they want to get on the curve of what's new and forward-thinking."

Holland notes that the Windows version of Massive, the award-winning artificial intelligence-driven, autonomous-agent 3D animation system, has allowed the company to move into educational institutions, as well as smaller production environments and post houses. "We thought it was better to support it with vfx institutions initially rather than a free version as a PLE [personal learning edition]. They have the staff and infrastructure to really commit to it," Holland continues, adding, "Our overall goal in education is to get Massive in the hands of as many students as possible."

As one indicator of student demand, Gnomon School of Visual Effects' first class in Massive, being offered this spring, is full. "It's always the question with new classes: 'Hey, is it going to do well?'," says Darrin Krumweide, director of education. "This one filled up pretty fast."

Gnomon's student body is comprised of both students enrolled in the full two-year program (about half of the total) and people in the industry who take individual courses; Krumweide speculates that industryites will account for the bulk of the first Massive class. He notes that, at Gnomon's twice-per-month industry events, a lot of artists have been asking about classes dedicated to this package.

From Training Classes to Independent Study
In addition to Gnomon, schools using Massive include the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Ringling College of Art & Design, USC School of Cinematic Arts, Drexel University and Coastal Carolina University in the U.S.; Bournemouth University, Architectural Assn. and University of Teesside in the U.K.; ETH Zurich, University of Giessen-Friedberg and the Institute of Animation at the Filmakademie, all in Europe; Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, Tokyo Polytechnic University and Waseda University in Japan; Kasetsart University in Thailand; Media Design School in New Zealand; and RMIT University in Australia.

These schools are integrating Massive into their curriculum in different ways, depending on the nature of the school and how far along they are in the process of implementing it.

Diane Holland's overall goal in education for Massive is to get the software into the hands of as many students as possible.

At Ringling, faculty members are currently working to build a smooth integration into the production pipline, according to Jim McCampbell, department head, computer animation. "Once that is worked out, Massive will be used in the senior classes to add potential to the student films," he says, noting that it will be available to 90 students in August, although not all will need to use it. "We believe that Massive will allow us to make films that were previously rejected due to feasibility issues."

USC is among the schools using Massive mainly for independent projects at this point. "We have about four students who are learning Massive so that they can incorporate complex animations in their research or their animation projects," says Richard Weinberg, research associate professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Division of Animation and Digital Arts. "The projects range from crowd scenes to swarms of sea creatures to traffic simulations. It's an excellent opportunity for students to gain experience creating animations of great complexity to tell their stories visually."

SCAD, which brought in Massive in the fall, will offer a dedicated class next year, according to Peter Weishar, dean of the School of Film, Digital Media and Performing Arts. Vfx students are currently using it for :20 to :30 portfolio projects that might rely on five or six software packages in addition to Massive. Students from all six departments in the division will have access to it and each department will use it differently.

Masters and senior undergrad students at Bournemouth University can use Massive for their own projects as well. This is the second year it has been available, and two or three students are working with it now, reports Jonathan Macey, senior lecturer and program leader of the Masters of Science (MSc) in computer animation. Uses include crowd scenes and aircraft simulations. "The access is a great thing for our students," Macey offers. "We've only scratched the surface."

Before installing Massive, most schools had other software packages available for crowd scenes, some off-the-shelf and some developed by students over the years. But, in general, they weren't as flexible or powerful as Massive. "We experimented with very limited success using the usual suspects -- instancing, particle replacement, heavy compositing in Shake -- but, of course, those methods don't compare at all with the potential in Massive," McCampbell admits.

"It's an incredible software," adds Weishar. "It's been very inspirational to [the students]. It changes the way they see the limits of CG. Instead of one to two characters, they're thinking of large vistas and whole hordes of people."